CCM Newsletter - Jannuary 20, 2005

TOP STORY

CCM Teams on Revolutionary Composite Bridge Beam

When John Hillman, Senior Associate with Teng & Associates in Chicago, conceived the idea for a hybrid composite beam, he immediately knew who to call for advice on how to get started. “I had met Jack Gillespie and Dennis Mertz back in 1995, working on a composite bridge structure, and I knew that the two of them represented the ideal combination of expertise,” he says. “Jack directs the world’s largest research organization dedicated to all facets of composite materials, including not only design and analysis but also fabrication and testing, and Dennis is one of the most highly regarded academicians in the bridge community. It was a logical fit.”Hillman’s beam concept incorporated a fiber-reinforced plastic box beam, with compression reinforcement consisting of cement or concrete pumped into a profiled conduit within the beam shell and tension reinforcement consisting of carbon, glass, or steel fibers. Now patented under the title “Plasticon-Optimized Composite Beam System,” the beam is a revolutionary new type of structural member for use in bridge structures.

For further development of the concept, Gillespie and Mertz, who are professors of civil engineering at UD, advised Hillman to seek funding from the IDEA (Ideas Deserving Exploratory Analysis) program. Funded by the Transportation Research Board, the program provides seed money for projects to explore the feasibility of unproven technical concepts, novel applications of proven concepts, or advances that have not yet been tried or tested for application in transportation practice. Hillman teamed with CCM and the UD Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and submitted a successful proposal to the High-Speed Rail (HSR) IDEA program.

The HSR-IDEA project findings confirmed that the hybrid-composite beam can be manufactured with minimum tooling costs and that the girders can be predictably designed to satisfy the strength and serviceability requirements for railroad and highway bridge structures. Cost metrics indicate that the hybrid-composite beam appears to provide a cost-effective alternative to concrete or steel beams while also offering greater corrosion resistance and potentially longer life than beams of conventional materials.

During the second phase of the project, the team turned their attention to fabrication issues. “This is important,” says Hillman, “because getting a product to market requires that it be producible at low cost. With CCM’s expertise in composites manufacturing, we were able to develop a methodology for molding, layup, and infusion.”

The relationship is a true hands-on collaboration, not a long-distance partnership. Hillman periodically spends several days at the University, working with faculty and research staff in the CCM manufacturing lab and the CEE structures lab, located just across the street from CCM. In addition to Mertz and Gillespie, the UD team includes CCM Research Associate Nick Shevchenko, CEE Structures Lab Coordinator Danny Richardson, and CEE Research Technician Gary Wenczel. “The working relationship is great,” Hillman says. “I can’t say enough good things about Nick. He’s a critical resource and has served as my mentor in understanding composites manufacturing. We just roll up our sleeves and do what’s needed for a successful project. So far, there have been no obstacles to prevent us from continuing the project, despite the many setbacks we’ve encountered along the way.”

Shevchenko can speak to the challenges involved in fabricating and testing a beam of this size. “Scale is a real issue,” he says. “Things just don’t always scale up the way we think they will. We had fabricated and tested subscale beams, but it’s a big leap to triple the size—three times the size means 27 times the volume because it’s cubic.” Shevchenko cites concerns related to the cost of the materials as well as potential hazards. “We’re talking about huge quantities of expensive and potentially dangerous resin,” he says. “but we worked with the Occupational Health and Safety Office on campus and were able to maintain very safe standards.”

“The University has been critical to our success,” Hillman concludes. “Very often, independent companies try to get a product to market entirely on their own, including conducting the research. But by working with Delaware, we’ve been able to keep an objective perspective on the research and do it with the best people in the field. The research has validated our approach, and the credibility of the researchers at CCM and CEE will help lead to acceptance of the product.”

The final objective of the current phase of research involves extensive laboratory testing of a prototype beam, followed by fabricating and deploying a 30-foot prototype bridge on the test facility of the Association of American Railroads (AAR) in Pueblo, CO. The ultimate goal of the collaboration is to get the product to market.

Gillespie is confident that will happen. “This collaboration is a great example of how we can work closely with industry to successfully develop and transition new designs, materials, processes, and products,” Gillespie says. “Our next step is to transfer the manufacturing know-how to an industrial partner, where the process can be scaled-up and automated.”

“The construction and rehabilitation of bridge structures in our nation’s infrastructure is a multi-billion dollar industry annually,” Mertz points out. “It’s well documented that in addition to new construction, major capital expenditures are necessary to rehabilitate and reconstruct our aging existing infrastructure. There’s a tremendous need to develop construction materials that can provide extended service lives to bridge structures resulting in reduced maintenance and replacement costs in the future. The hybrid-composite beam offers an elegant solution to this objective.”