• Computers and Concrete
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.163-173
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• 2024

Fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP) have a proven strength enhancement capability when installed into Reinforced Concrete (RC) beams. The brittle failure of traditional FRP strengthening systems has attracted researchers to develop novel materials with improved strength and ductility properties. One such material is that known as polyethylene terephthalate (PET). This study presents a numerical investigation of the flexural behavior of reinforced concrete beams externally strengthened with PET-FRP systems. This material is distinguished by its large rupture strain, leading to an improvement in the ductility of the strengthened structural members compared to conventional FRPs. A three-dimensional (3-D) finite element (FE) model is developed in this study to predict the load-deflection response of a series of experimentally tested beams published in the literature. The numerical model incorporates constitutive material laws and bond-slip behavior between concrete and the strengthening system. Moreover, the validated model was applied in a parametric study to inspect the effect of concrete compressive strength, PET-FRP sheet length, and reinforcing steel bar diameter on the overall performance of concrete beams externally strengthened with PET-FRP.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.215-227
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• 2017

A finite element model (FEM) for predicting early-age behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) bridge deck slabs with fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) bars is presented. In this model, the shrinkage profile of concrete accounted for the effect of surrounding conditions including air flow. The results of the model were verified against the experimental test results, published by the authors. The model was verified for cracking pattern, crack width and spacing, and reinforcement strains in the vicinity of the crack using different types and ratios of longitudinal reinforcement. The FEM was able to predict the experimental results within 6 to 10% error. The verified model was utilized to conduct a parametric study investigating the effect of four key parameters including reinforcement spacing, concrete cover, FRP bar type, and concrete compressive strength on the behavior of FRP-RC bridge deck slabs subjected to restrained shrinkage at early-age. It is concluded that a reinforcement ratio of 0.45% carbon FRP (CFRP) can control the early-age crack width and reinforcement strain in CFRP-RC members subjected to restrained shrinkage. Also, the results indicate that changing the bond-slippage characteristics (sand-coated and ribbed bars) or concrete cover had an insignificant effect on the early-age crack behavior of FRP-RC bridge deck slabs subjected to shrinkage. However, reducing bar spacing and concrete strength resulted in a decrease in crack width and reinforcement strain.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.435-455
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• 2012

In the recent years, rehabilitation of structures, strengthening and increasing the ductility of them under seismic loads have become so vital that many studies has been carried out on the retrofit of steel and concrete members so far. Bridge piers are very important members concerning rehabilitation, in which the plastic hinging zone is very vulnerable. Pier is usually confined by special stirrups predicted in the design procedure; moreover, fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP) jackets are used after construction to confine the pier. FRP wrapping of the piers is one of the most effective ways of increasing moment and ductility capacity of them, which has a growing application due to its relative advantages. In many earthquake-resistant bridges, reinforced concrete columns have a major defect which could be retrofitted in different ways like using FRP. After rehabilitation, it is important to check the strengthening adequacy by dynamic nonlinear analysis and precise modeling of material properties. If the plastic hinge properties are simplified for the strengthened members, as the simplified properties which FEMA 356 proposes for non-strengthened members, static nonlinear analysis could be performed more easily. Current paper involves this matter and it is intended to determine the plastic hinge properties for static nonlinear analysis of the FRP-strengthened circular columns.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.95-110
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• 2011

This paper presents a tri-uniform bond stress model for predicting the lap splice strength of reinforcing bar at the critical bond splitting failure. The proposed bond distribution model consists of three zones, namely, splitting zone, post-splitting zone and yielding zone. In each zone, the bond stress is assumed to be constant. The models for bond strength in each zone are adopted from previous studies. Combining the equilibrium, strain-slip relation and the bond strength model in each zone, the steel stress-slip model can be derived, which can be used in the nonlinear frame analysis of the column. The proposed model is applied to derive explicit equations for predicting the strength of the lap splice strengthened by fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) in both elastic and post-yield ranges. For design purpose, a procedure to calculate the required FRP thickness and the number of FRP sheets is also presented. A parametric investigation was conducted to study the relation between lap splice strength and lap splice length, number and thickness of FRP sheets and the ratio of concrete cover to bar diameter. The study shows that the lap splice strength can be enhanced by increasing one of these parameters: lap splice length, number or thickness of FRP sheets and concrete cover to bar diameter ratio. Verification of the model has been conducted using experimental data available in literature.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.79-90
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• 2023

Existing reinforced concrete (RC) frame buildings have seismic vulnerabilities because of seismically deficient details. In particular, since cumulative damage caused by successive earthquakes causes serious damage, repair/retrofit rehabilitation studies for successive earthquakes are needed. This study investigates the repair effect of fiber-reinforced polymer jacketing system for the seismically-vulnerable building structures under successive earthquakes. The repair modeling method developed and validated from the previous study was implemented to the building models. Additionally, the main parameters of the FRP jacketing system were selected as the number of FRP layers associated with the confinement effects and the installation location. To define the repair effects of the FRP jacketing system with the main parameters, this study conducted nonlinear time-history analyses for the building structural models with the various repairing scenarios. Based on this investigation, the repair effects of the damaged building structures were significantly affected by the damage levels induced from the mainshocks regardless of the retrofit scenarios.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.237-260
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• 2005

This paper presents an experimental as well as a numerical analysis of the in-plane shear behaviour of hollow, $870{\times}840{\times}100mm$ masonry walls, externally strengthened with FRP composites. The experimental approach is devoted to the evaluation of the effectiveness of different composite strengthening configurations and the methodology consists in the diagonal compression of masonry walls. The numerical study assesses the stress and strain state distribution in the unreinforced and strengthened panels using a commercial finite element code. The effect of FRP reinforcement on the masonry behaviour and the capability of modelling to forecast a representative failure mode of the unreinforced and reinforced masonry walls is investigated.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.892-899
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• 2002

Among the methods for enhancement of load-carrying capacity on flexural concrete member, recently, a concept is being investigated which replaces the steel in a conventional reinforced concrete member with a fiber reinforced polymer(FRP) shell. This study focuses on modeling of the structural behavior of concrete surrounded with FRP shells in flexural bending members. A numerical model of fiber cross-sectional analysis is proposed to predict the stress and deformation state of the FRP shell and concrete. The stress-strain relationship of concrete confined by a FRP shell is formulated to be based on the constitutive law of concrete in multi-axial compressive stress state, in assuming that the compression response is dependent on the radial expansion of the concrete. To describe the FRP shell behavior, equivalent orthotropic properties of in-plane behavior from classical lamination theory are used. The present model is validated to compare with the experiments of 4-point bending tests of FRP shell concrete beam, and has well predicted the moment-curvature relationships of the members, axial and hoop strains in the section, and the enhancement of confinement effect in concrete surrounded by FRP shell.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.391-407
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• 2017

Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) bars have been recently used to reinforce concrete members in flexure due to their high tensile strength and especially in corrosive environments to improve the durability of concrete structures. However, FRPs have a low modulus of elasticity and a linear elastic behavior up to rupture, thus reinforced concrete (RC) components with such materials would exhibit a less ductility in comparison with steel reinforcement at the similar members. There were several studies showed the behavior of concrete beams with the hybrid combination of steel and FRP longitudinal reinforcement by adopting the experimental and numerical programs. The current study presents a numerical and analytical investigation based on the data of previous researches. Three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) models of beams by using ANSYS are built and investigated. In addition, this study also discusses on the design methods for hybrid FRP-steel beams in terms of ultimate moment capacity, load-deflection response, crack width, and ductility. The effects of the reinforcement ratio, concrete compressive strength, arrangement of reinforcement, and the length of FRP bars on the mechanical performance of hybrid beams are considered as a parametric study by means of FE method. The results obtained from this study are compared and verified with the experimental and numerical data of the literature. This study provides insight into the mechanical performances of hybrid FRP-steel RC beams, builds the reliable FE models which can be used to predict the structural behavior of hybrid RC beams, offers a rational design method together with an useful database to evaluate the ductility for concrete beams with the combination of FRP and steel reinforcement, and motivates the further development in the future research by applying parametric study.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.623-641
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• 2013

The fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite panel, with the benefits of light weight, high strength, good corrosion resistance, and long-term durability, has been considered as one of the prosperous alternatives for structural retrofits and replacements. Although with these advantages, a further application of FRPs in bridge engineering may be restricted, and that is partly due to some unsatisfied thermal performance observed in recent studies. In this regard, Kansas Department of Transportation (DOT) conducted a field monitoring program on a bridge with glass FRP (GFRP) honeycomb hollow section sandwich panels. The temperatures of the panel surfaces and ambient air were measured from December 2002 to July 2004. In this paper, the temperature distributing behaviors of the panels are firstly demonstrated and discussed based on the field measurements. Then, a numerical modeling procedure of temperature fields is developed and verified. This model is capable of predicting the temperature distributions with the local environmental conditions and material's thermal properties. Finally, a parametric study is employed to examine the sensitivities of several temperature influencing factors, including the hollow section configurations, environmental conditions, and material properties.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.588-593
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• 2007

Fiber reinforced polymer(FRP) composite decks are new to bridge applications and hence not much literature exists on their structural mechanical behavior. As there are many differences between numerical displacements through static analysis of the primary model and experimental displacements through static load tests, system identification (SI)techniques such as Neural Networks (NN) and support vector machines (SVM) utilized in the optimization of the FE model. During the process of identification, displacements were used as input while stiffness as outputs. Through the comparison of numerical displacements after SI and experimental displacements, it can note that NN and SVM would be effective SI methods in modeling an FRP deck. Moreover, two methods such as response surface method and iteration were proposed to optimize the estimated stiffness. Finally, the results were compared through the mean square error (MSE) of the differences between numerical displacements and experimental displacements at 6 points.