Composites Part B 126 (2017) 153e161

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Composites Part B
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compositesb

A novel sandwich footbridge - Practical application of laminated

composites in bridge design and in situ measurements of static
response
scielewski, Mikoaj Miskiewicz, ukasz Pyrzowski, Bartosz Sobczyk*,
Jacek Chro
Krzysztof Wilde
 sk,
Gdansk University of Technology, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Department of Mechanics of Materials and Structures, 80-233 Gdan
Narutowicza 11/12, Poland

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A novel sandwich composite footbridge is presented in the paper, as an example of practical application
Received 13 December 2016 of laminated composites in civil engineering. The in situ static load tests of the footbridge before its
Received in revised form acceptation for exploitation are shown and discussed. The results are compared with the corresponding
15 May 2017
ones from a numerical equivalent single layer model of the sandwich structure created within the
Accepted 10 June 2017
Available online 10 June 2017
framework of nite element method. The numerical solutions, are slightly higher than the measured in
situ ones. Hence, it is concluded that the chosen method of structural analysis is efcient enough to
recreate static behavior of the bridge and thus it is accepted for application in civil engineering.
Keywords:
Layered structures
2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Polymer-matrix composites (PMCs)
Finite element analysis (FEA)
Bridge in situ tests

1. Introduction
Laminated composite as pure structural material is relatively
new in civil engineering (see Refs. [1e3]). A rapid growth of its
application is dated up to 1970s (Ref. [4]). As a consequence of its
very good mechanical properties, it began very quickly to be used in
various sectors of engineering (wind turbines, space and automo-
tive industry, etc.). Nevertheless, it is still not commonly utilized in
the traditional civil engineering, e.g. in bridge structures, and the
number of conventional material applications, as steel or concrete,
is much higher. Despite of this, the adoption of composites in this
sector has already occurred. Advantages of this modern material
made it attractive for bridge and, in particular, footbridge designers.
Some selected examples of laminated composite applications, such
as: carbon ber reinforced plastics (CFRP) or glass ber reinforced
plastics (GFRP) structures, are described in Refs. [5e14]. A lot of
research is also carried out in this eld. The descriptions of prob-
lems recently considered for modern composites can be found for
* Corresponding author. Gdansk University of Technology, Faculty of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, Department of Mechanics of Materials and Structures,
 sk, ul. Narutowicza 11/12, Poland.
80-233, Gdan
E-mail address: barsobcz@pg.gda.pl (B. Sobczyk).
instance in Refs. [15e25]. Therefore, the issues raised in this paper
are connected well with the current area of interest of modern
materials designers and users.
We claim that this situation is caused by the lack of condence
of designers and engineers in use of the modern materials and also
by the small number of research works, where the capabilities of
structures made of laminated composites are described. Therefore,
the urge to change this state and encourage designers to choose the
application of laminated composites is the motivation of this
article. In consequence, we present our experiences gained during
the design process of a novel sandwich footbridge, that is made of
an environmentally friendly PET foam core, coming from recycling
process and GFRP outer skins. The structure is durable, dynamically
resistant, incombustible, easy to install at the site and maintain,
resistant to weather conditions and also aesthetically interesting.
The entire girder is produced as a one consistent element in one
production cycle in standard infusion process. This enables to
obtain nal product of high quality each time with a signicant
reduction of its price (see also Ref. [26]).
A part of the process of the in situ tests of the novel bridge
before it is accepted for exploitation, concerning extended static
load tests, is described here. The measured values of static dis-
placements and strains are confronted with the ones resulting from

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2017.06.009
1359-8368/ 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
154 scielewski et al. / Composites Part B 126 (2017) 153e161
J. Chro
nite element method (FEM) calculations. The Abaqus 6.14 code is
used in all FEM analyzes.
2. Description of the bridge
The footbridge was built in 2015, using infusion technology, as a
research object under FOBRIDGE project (NCBiR grant, number PBS/
B2/6/2013, Gdan  sk University of Technology - Project Leader, Mil-
itary University of Technology, Roma Private Limited Company -
footbridge manufacturer, see also Ref. [27]). During the year 2015
and 2016 the bridge was located at the Gdan  sk University of
Technology Campus, where it was subjected to a series of load test.
In September 2016 it was transported to the Roma company
headquarters, where it is prepared for further assemblage, which
will take place over the Radunia canal, enabling a cycle path
connection between Pruszcz Gdan  ski and Gdan sk.
The pedestrian bridge is a simply supported, low elevation
pseudo arch structure. Its overall view, with basic dimensions, is
shown in Fig. 1.
It is a channel section made of sandwich panels with additional
laminated lips. Channel sections are quite popular in recent appli-
cations of laminated composites, e.g. columns as shown in
Refs. [28,29]. The front perspective view of the bridge, with selected
dimensions, is presented in Fig. 2.
The core of each sandwich panel is made of PET foam, which has
a density of 100 kg/m3 and is 100 mm thick. The outer skins and lips
are made of laminated polymer composites. Stitched and balanced
BAT [0/90] and GBX [45/e45] E-glass fabrics are used as the com-
posite reinforcement. Flame retardant vinylester resin forms the
composite matrix. The laminate's elastic and strength parameters
were identied in the laboratory of Military University of Tech-
nology for a single BAT or GBX lamina (each 0.663 mm thick), given
in the material coordinate system. The samples were prepared
using a new postcured material. The averaged results of identi-
cation are available for example in Ref. [30] and for T 20 C are:
longitudinal elastic modulus E1 23:4GPa, transverse elastic
modulus E2 23:4GPa, in-plane shear modulus G12 3:52GPa,
transverse shear moduli G13 G23 2:3GPa, the major Poisson's
ratio v12 0:153, longitudinal strength in tension Xt 449MPa,
longitudinal strength in compression Xc 336MPa, transverse
strength in tension Yt 449MPa, transverse strength in
compressionYc 336MPa, in-plane shear strength Sl 45:2MPa,
transverse shear strength St 34:7MPa. The elastic properties of
the lamina are temperature dependant. The exemplary E1 T rela-
tion [31] is given in Fig. 3, which is also the same for E2 modulus as
biaxial fabric is used.
Fig. 3 reveals that the E1 and E2 parameters, in the presented
range, are the lowest in T 20 C. This is an important issue and
will be discussed also later.
The basic lamination scheme (only the load bearing layers are
included) used for the sandwich skins is [BAT/GBX/BAT/BAT/GBX/
BAT]. The laminated lips are formed by sandwich outer skins
Fig. 1. Overall view of the footbridge taken at the Gdan
extension and folding. Their structure is strengthened by two
additional layers of BAT fabrics, thus the lip ply stack is [BAT/GBX/
BAT/BAT/GBX/BAT/BAT/BAT/BAT/GBX/BAT/BAT/GBX/BAT]. The
footbridge structure is also complemented by transverse and lon-
gitudinal ribs made of CSM300, required by the production tech-
nology (infusion) and GFRP precast stiffening elements in the
supporting area, to carry reaction forces. Moreover, some additional
external layers, are included into the schemes, to protect from
exploitation (e.g. deck surface deterioration, because of pedestrian
trafc) and environmental (e.g. UV radiation) effects and to
improve the bridge overall look. These are for instance: gelcoat,
topcoat and anti-skidding layer. In view of the above fourteen in-
dependent lamination schemes can be distinguished as it is shown
in Fig. 4 schematically, where a color refers to one independent ply
stack. Total mass of the footbridge superstructure is 3200 kg.
Before the bridge production was launched, some structural
elements with the same sandwich cross section, as applied in the
bridge, were preliminarily assembled. Subsequently it was checked,
if the infusion process enabled sufcient resin ow in these ele-
ments, resulting in a proper formation of laminated skins and
connections at foam-skin interface. In particular, a full scale com-
posite sandwich segment of the bridge, described in details in
Ref. [32], was cut into pieces and inspected visually in the eld of
possible defects in the aforementioned laminated sandwich
structure. Since, no faults were found, it was assumed that the
infusion technology can be applied in the production of the channel
section footbridge.
The proposed sandwich composite footbridge, designed and
manufactured within FOBRIDGE project, has the following
advantages:
 application of ecological core is possible, for instance PET foam
core made from recycled old plastic bottles can be used,
 the whole bridge is made as a single element, without any
additional joints or fasteners, that are susceptible to faster
corrosion,
 standardization of the solution is achieved, since the process of
infusion production takes place in a manufacturing facility and
is fully repeatable,
 the production process is quick (a few days), such as the nal
assembly on the construction site (couple of hours),
 the bridge has a small total weight, enabling an easy assembly,
application of economic substructure and easy transport by
means of regular vehicles without any additional transport
permissions,
 production cost is competitive with prices of bridge spans made
of regular materials, assuming industrial scale production and
service life of 50 years,
 maintenance cost is signicantly lower, as compared with
bridges made from traditional materials (e.g. steel, concrete,
wood),
 sk University of Technology campus.
 scielewski et al. / Composites Part B 126 (2017) 153e161
J. Chro
Fig. 2. Front perspective view of the bridge taken at the Gdan
 no repair or replacement works of bridge elements are required
during the service life (excluding acts of vandalism),
 low construction depth (distance between the soft of the
bridge and the top surface of the foot/cycle path) - only 0.14 m,
 excellent dynamic response properties.
3. Load tests
Before the bridge is put into service its structural behavior needs
to be positively veried by loading tests according to the polish
regulations. Therefore, to check the structure behavior two typical
tests, compatible with the polish design codes requirements,
denoted as U1 and U2, were performed in May 2015 in order to get
maximum bending moment in the range between 75% and 100% of
the designed value induced by the characteristic live load. In
addition, in order to check rheological properties of the materials,
the ballast applied in U2 was left on the bridge for 3 months and the
bridge response was monitored. We would like to mention that
during this period of time and also after the ballast was removed,
we did not observe any negative rheological effects, that could have
affected the structure. Nevertheless, the long term performance
Fig. 3. The change of the longitudinal lamina elastic modulus E1 T.
Fig. 4. The lamination schemes used in the footbridge.
155
 sk University of Technology campus.
observations are not discussed here. Finally, the third test (U3) was
launched in September 2015, which aimed to load the bridge up to
its designed limits, corresponding with ultimate limit state. Addi-
tionally, we would like to mention, that also the properties of the
bridge under dynamic loads were measured during the afore-
mentioned series of tests and compared with FEM predictions. An
example of dynamic loading test (run) is shown in Fig. 5. However,
these results will be presented in another paper. The footbridge was
also loaded with live crowd (~8000 kg of total mass applied to the
deck), which is shown in Fig. 6.
The static load in U1, U2 and U3 was applied to the bridge via
concrete slabs in all cases. Each quarter of the deck, numbered from
1 to 4, was loaded in subsequent steps. Such a method was chosen
because of the following reasons. It enabled to check the spatial
behavior of the novel structure under asymmetric loads. It gave the
possibility to check whether the response of the bridge is sym-
metric under certain load steps congurations. It allowed to in-
crease the load in a controlled way with simultaneous monitoring
of in situ measured values at each step, which was essential, since
the bridge was loaded for the rst time.
During the U1 test, the slabs were put on the deck in seven steps
from A to G, as it is shown in Fig. 7. The total mass of the slabs in the
U1 test was equal to 14400 kg.
During the U2 static test, there were 3 steps of load application
(from A to C), with different sequence of loaded deck quarters, as
compared with U1, namely, A(U2:13), B(U2:1324),
C(U2:24). The total mass of concrete slabs, which were put on the
deck, was 15290 kg.
The sequence of load application in U3 test was the same as in
the U2. The deck, during the U3 test, was loaded with slabs having
the total mass of 20565 kg (see Fig. 8).
A total number of 117 independent measurement points were
Fig. 5. An example of dynamic loading test (run).
156 scielewski et al. / Composites Part B 126 (2017) 153e161
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Fig. 6. The bridge loaded with live crowd (~8000 kg of total mass applied to the deck).

Fig. 8. The footbridge loaded during U3:1324.

installed on the structure to monitor its behavior in the static tests.
These include 36 points, where strains were measured (21 strain
gauges - SG, 12 vibrating wire strain gauges - VWSG, 3 ber brag
continuum formulations or their combinations in which, for
grating strain sensors - FBG), 57 points of displacement measure-
instance, the core is treated as 3D continuum, whereas the skins are
ments (9 linear potentiometric displacement sensors, 48 geodetic
modeled using ESL or LW. Appropriate modeling technique is
points), 4 elastomeric bearings strain measure points, 4 support
chosen, depending on the geometry of the analyzed structure and
settlement measure points and 16 locations, where the bridge
level of results precision to be obtained.
temperature was checked. All the measurement points were
It is intended here to recreate global behavior of the footbridge
located in 5 cross sections: at the mid-span, at the quarter-spans
and nd extreme displacements and strains, which were induced
and over the bearings. Additionally deformations of the bridge
during the loading tests. The total thickness of sandwich plate or
vertical walls were laser scanned (similarly as it is described in
laminated lip is small in comparison with the characteristic bridge
Ref. [33]) to control behavior of their stability under increasing
dimensions as: deck width, wall height and length of the bridge
load.
span. Therefore, the ESL approach with rst order shear defor-
It needs to be emphasized that various techniques were used to
mation kinematics (see e.g. Ref. [39]) is used to estimate their
analyze behavior of the superstructure, in order to achieve high
behavior during the loading tests. This requires application of
precision and reliability of obtained results. Therefore, for instance
shear correction factor, which in this work is estimated numeri-
three strain measure techniques were used for points at the mid-
cally, as implemented in Abaqus code. Such an approach can be
span where the highest strain values were expected.
effective in comparison with a priori given value, see for instance
The location of strain and displacement points for the mid-span
Ref. [40]. The foam core of the sandwich is included as a one layer
section is shown in Fig. 9, whereas the gauges and sensors under
in the whole lamination sequence and only shell nite elements
the bridge are shown in Fig. 10.
are used, similarly as it was done in Ref. [41]. This is the simplest
and easiest method to estimate the global bridge response during
4. Numerical modeling the considered static tests. It enables to obtain accurate solution
in a short period of time. What is more, such an approach is
There are many methods available to model behavior of com- available in many commercial codes, thus it is accessible for many
posite sandwich structures. These can be found for example, among engineers and designers. Nevertheless, it needs to be emphasized,
others in Refs. [34e38] and include Equivalent Single Layer The- that during the design of the core of such a bridge, especially in
ories (ESL), Layerwise approaches (LW), three dimensional (3D) the areas of strong local inuences, e.g. support zone, it is

Fig. 7. Loading sequence during the U1 test (from A to F).

 scielewski et al. / Composites Part B 126 (2017) 153e161
J. Chro 157

Fig. 9. Location of strain and displacement points for the mid-span section.

elements. This research was presented in Ref. [27].

Fig. 10. The gauges and sensors under the bridge.
necessary to use more sophisticated techniques in order to pre-
dict its state of stress. This can be done with aid of the nonlinear
3D continuum approach. Such a research was extensively carried
out during the bridge design. We would like also to mention that
we checked whether the ESL model of the bridge gives similar
global response predictions as compared with a model, where the
foam is built of brick nite elements and the skins from shell
The numerical model of the bridge is created in the Abaqus 6.14
FEM environment. The ESL constitutive relation is built assuming
orthotropic plane stress elasticity in GFRP layers and isotropic plane
stress elasticity in the core (see for example Ref. [39]). The lamina
elastic properties were described in chapter 2. They refer to the T
20 C temperature. The temperature during the loading tests of the
bridge was varying in time and space, as a consequence of changing
bridge solar exposure, as it is shown in Fig. 11 for the U1 and U2
tests.
The elastic lamina properties change depending on the actual
temperature, as it was described in chapter 2 and shown in Fig. 3.
Therefore they are adjusted for each step of all loading tests to the
actual conditions. In effect, different GFRP elastic constants are
used in numerical calculations for all the considered load cong-
urations. The properties of the core are established on the basis of
the producer technical data sheet and treated as temperature in-
dependent. They are, assuming that globally the foam is approxi-
mated as an isotropic material (similarly as in Ref. [42] or [32]):
elastic modulusE 70MPa, Poisson's ratio v 0:4. It was conrmed
by our own experimental work, that these constants correspond
well with the initial pseudo linear response of the nonlinear foam
behavior.

Fig. 11. The change of the footbridge temperature during the in situ U1 and U2 tests.
158 scielewski et al. / Composites Part B 126 (2017) 153e161
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Fig. 12. Possibilities of laminated lips modeling.

The geometry of the bridge is digitized and a pure shell model is T3y/3 for the U1 test, which are shown correspondingly in Figs.
created. The shell reference surface is established, as usual, in the 14e18.
middle of each cross sectional element thickness. However, the top Vertical displacements in U1/3 and U2/3, longitudinal strains in
part of the bridge section, in the vicinity of laminated lips is T1x/3 and T2x/3 and transverse strains in T3y/3 are presented for
modeled in more details, as it is shown in Fig. 12, to improve ac- the U3 test as well, accordingly in Figs. 19e23. The results from the
curacy of the results. We use the proposal A from Fig. 12 instead of U3 test are presented instead of the U2 comparisons, because in U3
the regular B connection. The missing part of the outer skin, the loading sequence was the same as in U2, but higher loads were
included in the A proposal is located well above the center of applied to the deck.
gravity of the cross section of the bridge. It forms the top ange of The in situ displacements shown in Figs. 14 and 15, Figs. 19 and
the bridge section and therefore may inuence the obtained nu- 20 come from potentiometric displacement sensors and are clas-
merical results. Additionally, in order to recreate proper behavior of sied as accurate.
the aforesaid ange, colored in black in Fig. 12, we couple it kine- The in situ strains, presented in Figs. 16e18 and Figs. 21e23,
matically with the highest node of the footbridge wall. were obtained using different, independent measurement
A regular, ne mesh of linear S4 elements is built assuming that methods, which were described in chapter 3. They are in good
the approximate size of nite element edge is 33 mm. It is shown in correlation and therefore are assessed as precise. The differences
Fig. 13 and comprise of 86667 nodes and 84236 elements. Because between the in situ strains of the same kind are attributed to
of the shape and the size of created nite elements, the discussion slightly distinct location of the sensors and their technical
about the mesh convergence is omitted. measuring properties, including the active gauge length or
All the fourteen lamination schemes, described in chapter 2 measuring grid gauge length. It was reported during the tests that
(refer to Fig. 4), are assigned to the shell model to represent stiff- the temperature changed in time and also in space, i.e. different
ness of the structure, as precisely as it is possible for this kind of
modeling.
The simply supported boundary conditions are assigned
through reference points, which are kinematically coupled with
appropriate areas on the bottom of the bridge deck, corresponding
with the areas of the bridge bearings. The concrete slabs loading
conditions are represented by uniformly distributed loads. They are
created on the bridge deck over an area determined by the distri-
bution area of lower layer slabs. We claim that the slabs are stiff
enough for this assumption to be acceptable. The weight of each
slab was measured before it was put on the footbridge and its real
value is included in the model.
In order to verify the in situ measurements linear static calcu-
lations are performed for all the loading steps.

5. Comparison of in situ and FEM results - discussion Fig. 14. Vertical displacements in U1/3 for the U1 test: in situ vs. numerical values.

Measured values from the selected, representative points and

loading steps in the mid-span are compared here with the nu-
merical ones. These include vertical displacements in U1/3 and U2/
3, longitudinal strains in T1x/3 and T2x/3 and transverse strains in

Fig. 13. Visualization of the numerical model mesh of nite elements. Fig. 15. Vertical displacements in U2/3 for the U1 test: in situ vs. numerical values.
 scielewski et al. / Composites Part B 126 (2017) 153e161
J. Chro 159

Fig. 16. Longitudinal strains in T1x/3 for the U1 test: in situ vs. numerical values.
Fig. 20. Vertical displacements in U2/3 for the U3 test: in situ vs. numerical values.

Fig. 17. Longitudinal strains in T2x/3 for the U1 test: in situ vs. numerical values.
Fig. 21. Longitudinal strains in T1x/3 for the U3 test: in situ vs. numerical values.

Fig. 18. Transverse strains in T3y/3 for the U1 test: in situ vs. numerical values.
Fig. 22. Longitudinal strains in T2x/3 for the U3 test: in situ vs. numerical values.

Fig. 19. Vertical displacements in U1/3 for the U3 test: in situ vs. numerical values. Fig. 23. Transverse strains in T3y/3 for the U3 test: in situ vs. numerical values.
160 scielewski et al. / Composites Part B 126 (2017) 153e161
J. Chro
parts of the bridge, which experienced varying solar exposure. The
aforementioned issues could also affect the measured strains.
The numerical predictions are close to the in situ values and in
general they show that there exists a safety margin and the bridge
is stiffer than we expected. The differences between the measured
and FEM results can be, in our opinion, devoted to the following
issues. Different temperatures were observed over the bridge (16
locations), however in FEM calculations a mean value was selected
to calculate elastic constants of the lamina, which may change the
estimated bridge response. The temperature dependency of the
elastic constants of the lamina, according to Ref. [31] (refer also to
Fig. 3), was evaluated on the basis of experiments in three different
temperatures. Linear change of the constants was assumed be-
tween the experimentally measured values. This relation for the
applied lamina needs a further research, as we are not completely
sure, considering the results presented in this paper, if it is true.
During the bridge production more resin was used than it was
predicted. Therefore the real thickness of the lamina may be higher
as compared with the theoretically established one. Moreover, the
foam in the vicinity of core-skin interface could absorb resin during
the infusion process. Thus, we claim that an additional load bearing
layer is created. This could be veried by microstructural obser-
vations of the structure, for instance using the C-scan technique or
the computer tomography which is another possible area of sci-
entic investigation in the eld of design of such a bridge. The
measured strain values are averaged over the active gauge length or
measuring grid gauge length, while the numerical ones are calcu-
lated in certain point, representing what is more the approximate
position of the gauge. Finally, the in situ strains are not monitored
in the load-bearing layer reinforcement but in the coating external
layers - topcoat or gelcoat.
In view of the above, we may state that the simple global ESL
model is capable of estimating the bridge response for engineering
applications. However, some areas of further research are shown as
well, which may lead to improve modeling of this type of
structures.
It is also worth to mention, how the actual efforts in the eld of
the bridge modeling changed the FEM results. This will be dis-
cussed for the vertical displacement in U2/3 point for the U1 test
and U1:1234 loading step. The initial displacement for a
model where only load bearing layers were considered is
ini 35:79mm. This value is reduced by:DU lip 0:86mm,
U2=3 2=3
when the lips are modeled in details as it was described in chapter
lay
4, DU2=3 1:70mm when additional layers are considered and
DU2=3
temp
1:62mm when the elastic constants are adjusted to
actual temperature conditions. The relative errors, which deter-
mine how much the results improved are calculated using the
following formula:
DU2=3
i dx.doi.org/10.2749/222137814814069561.
ei ini
,100%; i lip; lay or temp
U2=3
and equal correspondingly: elip 2:4%,elay 4:7% and etemp 4:5%.
Thus, in total, we get our numerical predictions better by 11.6%, as
compared with the model without additional modications.
6. Final remarks
Loading tests and static response numerical calculations of the
novel sandwich composite bridge with GFRP skins and foam core
were described in this paper. It is observed, basing on the in situ
measured displacements and strains and the corresponding pre-
dicted numerical values, that the bridge has a reserve of load
bearing capacity as compared with the FEM estimations. This
means that it is safely designed and thus is accepted for exploita-
tion. This gives an opportunity to benet from its application
characteristics, that in long term period of time are competitive to
the ones resulting from the application of regular materials, like
steel, concrete or wood. In effect the bridge will be mounted over
the Radunia Canal as a part of a foot-cycle path between Pruszcz
Gdan ski and Gdan  sk and used in a regular pedestrians-cyclists
trafc. Nevertheless, the paper indicated that there are areas, in
which the static behavior predictions can be improved in order to
design such a bridge more efciently.
Acknowledgements
The study was supported by the National Centre for Research
and Development, Poland, grant no. PBS1/B2/6/2013. Abaqus cal-
culations were carried out at the Academic Computer Centre in
Gdan sk. B. Sobczyk is supported under Gdansk University of
Technology (Poland), Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engi-
neering, Young Scientist Support Program (2016/2017 edition).
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