The
FRP deck panel with an overall geometry of 2.134m x 0.340m x 0.178m was
cyclically tested under a threepoint loading setup in a cold room. During a
three-month testing period, the temperature of the cold room was changed from
260C to 00C, -200C,
-310C, back up to 270C, then to -380C, and finally to -550C.
In addition to the experimental program, the Classic Beam Theory (CBT) method
and the Finite Element (FE) method were used to predict the panel behavior at
room temperatures. Based on this research, the following conclusions were made:
(1) The low-temperature stiffness was about 3.8% higher than at the high
temperature as long as the low temperature was above a certain degree; (2) When
the temperature was lowered from -200C
to -550C, the low-temperature
stiffness decreased 11.5% comparing with the stiffness at room temperatures.
This degradation in stiffness could not be recovered by raising the panel
temperature; (3) Very cold temperature exposure resulted in matrix hardening,
matrix microcracking and fiber-matrix debonding as demonstrated by the AE
testing data at different temperatures; and (4) At the room temperatures, the
FRP panel showed a little stiffer performance than both the CBT method and the
FE method would predict.