• Carbon letters
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.147-170
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• 2015

In recent decades, there has been an increasing interest in the use of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) in aerospace, renewable energy and other industries, due to its low weight and relatively good mechanical properties compared with traditional metals. However, due to the high cost of petroleum-based precursors and their associated processing costs, CF remains a specialty product and as such has been limited to use in high-end aerospace, sporting goods, automotive, and specialist industrial applications. The high cost of CF is a problem in various applications and the use of CFRP has been impeded by the high cost of CF in various applications. This paper presents an overview of research related to the fabrication of low cost CF using polyethylene (PE) control technology, and identifies areas requiring additional research and development. It critically reviews the results of cross-linked PE control technology studies, and the development of promising control technologies, including acid, peroxide, radiation and silane cross-linking methods.

• Composites Research
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.115-119
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• 2022

The performance of carbon fiber is important for the production of these high-quality polymer composite materials such as CFRP (Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic). For this purpose, it is essential to use an optimized spinning process for improving the mechanical, physical, and structural properties of the precursor fiber, which greatly affects the properties of the carbon fiber, and the use of a suitable precursor polymer. In this study, the content of MAA (Methacrylic Acid), MAA injection time, and concentration of AIBN (2,2'-Azobis(2-methylpropionitrile)) were set as parameters for the polymer synthesis process, and Poly(AN-co-MAA) (poly(acrylonitrile-co-methacrylic acid)) was polymerized by solution polymerization. Poly(AN-co-MAA) with a molecular weight of 305,138 g/mol and an MAA ratio of 4.2% was dissolved in DMF (N,N-dimethylformamide) at a concentration of 16.0 wt%, and then a precursor fiber was prepared through dry-jet-wet spinning. The precursor fiber had a tensile strength of ~1.06 GPa and a tensile modulus of ~22.01 GPa, and no voids and structural defects were observed on the fiber.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.64 no.6
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• pp.783-792
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• 2017

Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) laminates are used widely either for repairing or strengthening of existing structures. When CFRP laminates are used for strengthening of RC continuous T-beams in the Hogging Moment Zone (HMZ); above and around the intermediate supports, it is important to study the expected positions of the laminates across the width of the beam flange. Although, it is traditional to consider CFRP laminates added above the beam web, this is not practical since walls and columns are located in such positions in general. This paper examines the effect of changing the positions of CFRP laminates used for the strengthening of the hogging moment zone across the beam flange of two-span-T-section beams. The Finite Element (FE) Package ANSYS is used to create 3-D theoretical models needed for the study. It can be concluded that changing the position of CFRP strengthening across the beam flange, in the hogging moment zone, is effective upon the overall behavior. The best locations are either above the web or at the flange just beside the web, due to the presence of walls and/or columns.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.999-1022
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• 2016

The use of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) to strengthen steel structures has attracted the attention of researchers greatly. Previous studies demonstrated bonding of CFRP plates to the steel sections has been a successful method to increase the mechanical properties. However, the main limitation to popular use of steel/CFRP strengthening system is the concern on durability of bonding between steel and CFRP in various environmental conditions. The paper evaluates the performance of I-section steel beams strengthened with pultruded CFRP plate on the bottom flange after exposure to diverse conditions including natural tropical climate, wet/dry cycles, plain water, salt water and acidic solution. Four-point bending tests were performed at specific intervals and the mechanical properties were compared to the control beam. Besides, the ductility of the strengthened beams and distribution of shear stress in adhesive layer were investigated thoroughly. The study found the adhesive layer was the critical part and the performance of the system related directly to its behavior. The highest strength degradation was observed for the beams immersed in salt water around 18% after 8 months exposure. Besides, the ductility of all strengthened beams increased after exposure. A theoretical procedure was employed to model the degradation of epoxy adhesive.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.19-34
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• 2007

This paper presents results of a non-linear finite element analysis of axially loaded slender hollow structural section (HSS) columns, strengthened using high modulus carbon-fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) longitudinal sheets. The model was developed and verified against both experimental and other analytical models. Both geometric and material nonlinearities, which are attributed to the column's initial imperfection and plasticity of steel, respectively, are accounted for. Residual stresses have also been modeled. The axial strength in the experimental study was found to be highly dependent on the column's imperfection. Consequently, no specific correlation was established experimentally between strength gain and amount of CFRP. The model predicted the ultimate loads and failure modes quite reasonably and was used to isolate the effects of CFRP strengthening from the columns' imperfections. It was then used in a parametric study to examine columns of different slenderness ratios, imperfections, number of CFRP layers, and level of residual stresses. The study demonstrated the effectiveness of high modulus CFRP in increasing stiffness and strength of slender columns. While the columns' imperfections affect their actual strengths before and after strengthening,the percentage gain in strength is highly dependent on slenderness ratio and CFRP reinforcement ratio, rather than the value of imperfection.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.637-648
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• 2021

Nowadays, one of the practical, fast and easy ways to strengthen steel elements is the use of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP). Most previous research in the CFRP strengthening of steel members has carried out on straight steel members. The main difference between horizontal curved beams and straight beams under vertical load is the presence of torsional moment in the horizontal curved beams. In the other words, the horizontal curved beams are analyzed and designed for simultaneous internal forces included bending moment, torsional moment, and shear force. The horizontal curved steel beams are usually used in buildings, bridges, trusses, and others. This study explored the effect of the CFRP strengthening on the behavior of the horizontal curved square hollow section (SHS) steel beams. Four specimens were analyzed, one non-strengthened curved steel beam as a control column and three horizontal curved steel beams strengthened using CFRP sheets (under concentrated load and uniform distributed load). To analyze the horizontal curved steel beams, three dimensional (3D) modeling and nonlinear static analysis methods using ANSYS software were applied. The results indicated that application of CFRP sheets in some specific locations of the horizontal curved steel beams could increase the ultimate capacity of these beams, significantly. Also, the results indicated when the horizontal curved steel beams were under distributed load, the increase rate in the ultimate capacity was more than in the case when these beams were under concentrated load.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.421-433
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• 2018

Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) cable has good mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. However, the anchorage of CFRP cable is a big issue due to the anisotropic property of CFRP material. In this article, a high-efficient bonding anchorage with novel configuration is developed for CFRP cables. The acoustic emission (AE) technique is employed to evaluate the performance of anchorage in the fatigue test and post-fatigue ultimate bearing capacity test. The obtained AE signals are analyzed by using a combination of unsupervised K-means clustering and supervised K-nearest neighbor classification (K-NN) for quantifying the performance of the anchorage and damage evolutions. An AE feature vector (including both frequency and energy characteristics of AE signal) for clustering analysis is proposed and the under-sampling approaches are employed to regress the influence of the imbalanced classes distribution in AE dataset for improving clustering quality. The results indicate that four classes exist in AE dataset, which correspond to the shear deformation of potting compound, matrix cracking, fiber-matrix debonding and fiber fracture in CFRP bars. The AE intensity released by the deformation of potting compound is very slight during the whole loading process and no obvious premature damage observed in CFRP bars aroused by anchorage effect at relative low stress level, indicating the anchorage configuration in this study is reliable.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.87-97
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to analyse and compare experimentally flexural behavior of RC beams strengthened with CFRP plates by different methods, and finally develop the nonlinear analysis model with the aim of predicting the improving effects of structural capacity and the structural behaviors of RC beams. From this study, the characteristics of bond and flexural behavior of the prestressed CFRP plates were analyzed and examined. In deed, the beams were tested with experimental parameters of strengthening methods and prestressing level, and the developed analysis model was evaluated with the testing results. From this study, it is concluded that the developed analysis model have a good reliability and can be applied to the strengthening design of beams using CFRP plates.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.84 no.3
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• pp.375-391
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• 2022

This paper discussed and analyzed the interfacial stress distribution characteristic of adjacent cracks in Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) plate strengthened concrete slabs. One un-strengthened concrete test beam and four CFRP plate-strengthened concrete test beams were designed to carry out four-point flexural tests. The test data shows that the interfacial shear stress between the interface of CFRP plate and concrete can effectively reduce the crack shrinkage of the tensile concrete and reduces the width of crack. The maximum main crack flexural height in pure bending section of the strengthened specimen is smaller than that of the un-strengthened specimen, the CFRP plate improves the rigidity of specimens without brittle failure. The average ultimate bearing capacity of the CFRP-strengthened specimens was increased by 64.3% compared to that without CFRP-strengthen. This indicites that CFRP enhancement measures can effectively improve the ultimate bearing capacity and delay the occurrence of debonding damage. Based on the derivation of mechanical analysis model, the calculation formula of interfacial shear stress between adjacent cracks is proposed. The distributions characteristics of interfacial shear stress between certain crack widths were given. In the intermediate cracking region of pure bending sections, the length of the interfacial softening near the mid-span cracking position gradually increases as the load increases. The CFRP-concrete interface debonding capacity with the larger adjacent crack spacing is lower than that with the smaller adjacent crack spacing. The theoretical calculation results of interfacial bonding shear stress between adjacent cracks have good agreement with the experimental results. The interfacial debonding failure between adjacent cracks in the intermediate cracking region was mainly caused by the root of the main crack. The larger the spacing between adjacent cracks exists, the easier the interfacial debonding failure occurs.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.167-194
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• 2004

In this paper axial loading tests on low strength concrete members, which were confined with various thickness of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite sheets are described. Totally 46 specimens with circular, square and rectangular cross-sections with unconfined concrete compressive strengths between 6 and 10 MPa were included in the test program. During the tests, a photogrammetrical deformation measurement technique was also used, as well as conventional measurement techniques. The contribution of external confinement with CFRP composite sheets to the compressive behavior of the specimens with low strength concrete is evaluated quantitatively, in terms of strength, longitudinal and lateral deformability and energy dissipation. The effects of width/depth ratios and the corner radius of the specimens with rectangular cross-section on the axial behavior were also examined. It was seen that the effectiveness of the external confinement with CFRP composite sheets is much more pronounced, when the unconfined concrete compressive strength is relatively lower. It was also found that the available analytical expressions proposed for normal or high strength concrete confined by CFRP sheets could not predict the strength and deformability of CFRP confined low strength concrete accurately. New expressions are proposed for the compressive strength and the ultimate axial strain of CFRP confined low strength concrete.