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Company and Product Profile
Kansas Structural Composites, Inc.
(KSCI) was founded by Dr. Jerry D. Plunkett, Ph.D. Metallurgy,
(Materials Sciences) from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. He holds 7 patents and is recognized for
approximately 40 materials innovations in many product
applications. For over 40 years, Dr. Plunkett has engaged in R&D
activities with multi-disciplinary engineering teams to develop
these products. In 1990 he initiated R&D for developing FRP
materials for highway bridges, which resulted in the
establishment of KSCI in 1995.
KSCI built and installed the first
all-composite FRP vehicle-bridge on a public road in 1996 near
Russell, Kansas. KSCI, working with Civil Engineering
Departments in at least thirteen different universities as well
as with engineers from FHWA and selected state DOTs, has built
eight highway bridges to AASHTO HS-25 standards. These bridges
have consisted of both freestanding bridge superstructures and
bridge decks on steel I-beams.
The fabrication technology used by
KSCI provides the versatility and flexibility for prototype
development not otherwise fully attainable with other
fabrication methods. This technology, refined by KSCI, allows
any bridge design parameter to be fully and efficiently met,
i.e. fiber architecture, skew angles, super elevation, deck
thickness, length, width, and load bearing characteristics.
KSCI’s FRP honeycomb bridge decks weigh between 12 and 20 pounds
per square foot. These FRP decks can be produced and installed
at a cost only slightly more than current concrete and steel
decks on an initial cost basis. Because of the fabrication
technology employed, KSCI has been able to build FRP bridges
with a multi-directional load sharing fiber architecture that
results in bridges whose ultimate strength is 5 to 20 times
greater than the design load. Furthermore, test sections taken
from bridge deck panels have been successfully tested for 11
million cycles at twice the design deflection and for 5.5
million cycles at four times the design deflection without
failure.
KSCI has developed an advanced
connection system for attaching FRP honeycomb bridge panels to
steel and concrete support beams without using shear studs,
thereby avoiding the problems associated with them. Two
guardrail systems for attachment directly to the FRP decks,
which have successfully passed static testing, are currently
completing dynamic testing for certification by the FHWA.
Recent tests have proven that KSCI’s bridge panels can be repaired after being damaged with a
resulting strength in excess of the original design, a truly
unique accomplishment. KSCI’s innovative designs have also
resulted in the development and installation of a bridge, one
lane at a time, thereby allowing the remaining lanes to stay in
service with much less disruption to the traveling public.
Not only have KSCI’s basic FRP
honeycomb composite bridges been demonstrated as safe and
useful, but also KSCI continues its innovative R & D program to
produce even more advanced and refined FRP composite bridges. A
special effort is being directed to obtain further cost
reductions. The immediate goal is to fabricate FRP honeycomb
bridge decks, meeting all specifications that are directly
competitive on an initial cost basis with conventional bridge
materials.
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Vehicular Bridge Deck Manufacturers
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