Efficient lightweight design of FRP bridge deck

Abstract

An efficient yet simple response surface-based technique is proposed for the design of lightweight fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP) composite bridge deck panels. To achieve a lightweight FRP bridge deck, the total volume of the structure was optimised under the constraint of deflection limit, stresses, buckling and different failure criteria. Central composite design was employed in conjunction with a constrained multivariable non-linear optimisation algorithm to minimise the weight of the FRP bridge deck. Top/bottom plate thickness, web thickness, overall depth and number of webs were considered as design variables. The results obtained for different bridge deck configurations using the proposed response surface-based optimisation technique were validated with the results of conventional optimisation methods. Sensitivity analysis was also carried out to study the influence of different design variables towards deflection, stress and buckling behaviour of the bridge deck.