Behavior of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composite Under Vertical Loads (05-1533)**
Ilan Juran, Polytechnic University of New York
Uri Komornik, Polytechnic University of New York

Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composite materials represent an alternative construction material for the piling industry, which can be effectively used to address the degradation problems of conventional pile materials, specifically in water front environments and aggressive soils. The engineering use of FRP piles on a widespread basis requires development and evaluation of reliable testing procedures and design methods in order to evaluate the load-settlement curve of these composite piles and their static capacity. In particular, full scale loading tests on FRP piles need to be conducted in order to evaluate the behavior of these types of piles under vertical loads. The main objective of the study described in this paper was to conduct a full-scale experiment, including dynamic and static load tests on FRP piles, in order to address these engineering needs, and assess the feasibility of using FRP composite piles as vertical load bearing piles. This paper presents the experimental results and their engineering analysis.