A novel sandwich composite footbridge is presented in the paper, as an example of practical application of laminated composites in civil engineering. The in situ static load tests of the footbridge before its acceptation for exploitation are shown and discussed. The results are compared with the corresponding ones from a numerical equivalent single layer model of the sandwich structure created within the framework of finite element...

A modern sandwich composite footbridge made of high-tech materials, being an example of practical application of laminated composites in civil engineering, is presented. The in situ non-destructive testing of the footbridge, aiming to identify modal properties and pedestrian comfort, is described. The measured eigenmodes and eigenfrequencies are compared with numerically estimated values. Finite element analyses of the footbridge...

Within the framework of the nonlinear 6-parameter shell theory with the drilling rotation and asymmetric stress measures, the modifications of Tsai-Wu and Hashin laminate failure initiation criteria are proposed. These improvements enable to perform first ply failure estimations taking into account the non-symmetric stress measures. In order to check the validity of the proposed criteria, finite element analyses are performed with...