ABSTRACT
The majority of the thousands of timber bridges around Australia are more than 50 years old and strengthening and rehabilitation of deteriorated timber bridges is a strong financial commitment. Therefore it is a timely concern to investigate the rehabilitation process involved. The maintenance cost of timber bridges are affected significantly by a number of deterioration mechanisms, which require a systematic approach for diagnosis and treatment. The techniques used to rehabilitate timber bridges vary depending on the deterioration mechanism and location. This research aims at investigating the techniques used in timber pile rehabilitation. The main deterioration mechanism studied in this research is the splitting. An experimental program was carried out to investigate the strength enhancement due to a FRP wrapping system combined with two types of filler material, Crane Rail Grout (CRG) and Underwater Cementitious Grout (UCG). Hardwood timber of grade F27 with 150 mm diameter and 300 mm high samples were used in the testing program. Three levels of damage were introduced to the total height, samples were wrapped with FRP system and tested for compression. Load and displacement curves were developed based on the experimental results.
