Engineering Design of Sustainable FRP Composite Structures and Bridges

Drawing on decades of research and consultancy with the engineering industry, research into FRP composite structures undertaken in Lancaster’s Engineering department has informed civil engineering design guides and their industrial use.

Research led by Dr Geoffrey Turvey has defined best practice for the design of FRP, especially glass fibre-reinforced polymer (GFRP), composite materials, beams, columns and bolted/bonded joints used in civil engineering structures. This research directly and indirectly impacted the development of engineering design guides that are used by international companies to design and construct FRP composite bridges and structures. The research has been integrated into:

• The UK’s Construction Industry Research and Information Association’s (CIRIA) and the European
  Composite Industry Association’s (EuCIA) design guides [C779 (2018) and JCR (2016)] for FRP composite bridges and structures. CIRIA C779 had been downloaded more than 2,350 times by civil engineering design and construction companies, and individuals by July 2020.
• The updated Highways England’s ‘CD 368 – Design of Fibre Reinforced Polymer Bridges and Highway
  Structures (2020)’.
• The everyday practices of design engineers who can exploit FRP’s advantageous properties, over more
  traditional materials such as concrete and steel, i.e. high corrosion resistance, high electrical and thermal insulation, low self-weight and low transportation, construction and maintenance costs, to extend in-service structural life.
• The standards used to design at least twenty FRP bridges over the UK’s new East-West railway by Atkins
  and Network Rail; four FRP footbridges by WSP, four FRP footbridges by Jacobs and a new type of FRP station footbridge “Futura” by COWI.