Efficacy of different materials and methods of repair in highway bridges

Repairs were carried out on three highway bridges using repair materials of higher elastic modulus than the substrate, Erm>Esub and materials with Erm<Esub. Three methods of repair application were adopted: hand applied patch repair, sprayed repair and flowing repair application. Members of the bridge structures were repaired in the propped and unpropped states. It is shown that repairs using materials with Erm>Esub perform efficiently. Hand applied repairs act as cosmetic repairs with no significant load transfer. Application of repair to propped structures leads to unpredictable stress redistribution in the long-term.