• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.75 no.3
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• pp.389-399
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• 2020

An infill wall made of high-performance fiber-reinforced cementitious composites (HPFRCC) was utilized in this study to strengthen the reinforced concrete (RC) frame structures that had not been designed for seismic loads. The seismic performance of the RC frame structures strengthened by the HPFRCC infill walls was investigated through the experimental tests, and the test results showed that they have improved strength and deformation capabilities compared to that strengthened by the RC infill wall. A simple numerical modeling method, called the modified longitudinal and diagonal line element model (LDLEM), was introduced to consider the seismic strengthening effect of the infill walls, in which a section aggregator approach was also utilized to reflect the effect of shear in the column members of the RC frames. The proposed model showed accurate estimations on the strength, stiffness, and failure modes of the test specimens strengthened by the infill walls with and without fibers.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.1-18
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• 2010

Bonding of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites has become a popular technique for strengthening concrete structures in recent years. The bond stress between concrete and CFRP is the main factor determining the strength, rigidity, failure mode and behavior of a reinforced concrete member strengthened with CFRP. The accurate evaluation of the strain is required for analytical calculations and design processes. In this study, the strain between concrete and bonded CFRP sheets across the notch is tested. In this paper, indirect axial tension is applied to CFRP bonded test specimen by a four point bending tests. The variables studied in this research are CFRP sheet width, bond length and the concrete compression strength. Furthermore, the effect of a crack- modeled as a notch- on the strain distribution is studied. It is observed that the strain in the CFRP to concrete interface reaches its maximum values near the crack tips. It is also observed that extending the CFRP sheet more than to a certain length does not affect the strength and the strain distribution of the bonding. The stress distribution obtained from experiments are compared to Chen and Teng's (2001) analytical model.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.67 no.1
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• pp.45-52
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• 2018

Several techniques have been developed for shear strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) members by using fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites. However, debonding of FRP retrofits from concrete substrate still deemed as a challenging concern in their application which needs to be scrutinized in details. As a result, this paper reports on the results of an experimental investigation on shear strengthening of RC beams using near surface mounted (NSM) FRP reinforcing bars. The main objective of the experimentation was increasing the efficiency of shear retrofits by precluding/postponing the premature debonding failure. The experimental program was comprised of six shear deficient RC beams. The test parameters include the FRP rebar spacing, inclination angle, and groove shape. Also, an innovative modification was introduced to the conventional NSM technique and its efficiency was evaluated by experimental observation and measurement. The results testified the efficiency of glass FRP (GFRP) rebars in increasing the shear strength of the test specimens retrofitted using conventional NSM technique. However, debonding of FRP bars impeded exploiting all retrofitting advantages and induced a premature shear failure. On the contrary, application of the proposed modified NSM (MNSM) technique was not only capable of preventing the premature debonding of FRP bars, but also could replace the failure mode of specimen from the brittle shear to a ductile flexural failure which is more desirable.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.161-184
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• 2021

Strengthening of reinforced concrete beams with externally bonded fiber reinforced polymer plates/sheets technique has become widespread in the last two decades. Although a great deal of research has been conducted on simply supported RC beams, a few studies have been carried out on continuous beams strengthened with FRP composites. This paper presents a simple uniaxial nonlinear analytical model that is able to accurately estimate the load carrying capacity and the behaviour of damaged RC continuous beams flexural strengthened with externally bonded prestressed composite plates on both of the upper and lower fibers, taking into account the thermal load. The model is based on equilibrium and deformations compatibility requirements in and all parts of the strengthened beam, i.e., the damaged concrete beam, the FRP plate and the adhesive layer. The flexural analysis results and analytical predictions for the prestressed composite strengthened damaged RC continuous beams were compared and showed very good agreement in terms of the debonding load, yield load, and ultimate load. The use of composite materials increased the ultimate load capacity compared with the non strengthened beams. The major objective of the current model is to help engineers' model FRP strengthened RC continuous beams in a simple manner. Finally, this research is helpful for the understanding on mechanical behaviour of the interface and design of the FRP-damaged RC hybrid structures.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.307-313
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• 2022

This paper performs an experimental study on the flexural behavior of preloaded reinforced self-compacted concrete beams strengthened with carbon fiber reinforced polymers CFRP. A group of six preloaded strengthened beams was investigated along with one unstrengthened beam used as a reference beam RB. All beams have the same dimensions and reinforcement details: three beams are strengthened with CFRP laminates against flexural failure and three beams are strengthened with CFRP sheets. For simulating actual conditions, the beams are loaded before strengthening. Then, after strengthening, the beams are tested for flexural strength using 4-point loads where cracked and ultimate load and failure mode, along with load-deflection relation are recorded. To study the different configurations of strengthening, one layer, two layers, and U-wrap formation of laminates and sheets are considered. The results show that strengthing the RC beams using CFRP is an effective method to increase the beam's capacity by 47% up to 153% where deflection is reduced by 5%-80%. So, the beams strengthened with CFRP laminates have higher load capacity and lower ductility in comparison with the beams strengthened with CFRP sheets.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.153-162
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• 2022

Prefabricated exterior wall panel is the main non-load-bearing component of assembly building, which affects the comprehensive performance of thermal insulation and durability of the building. It is of great significance to develop new prefabricated exterior wall panel with durable and lightweight characteristics for the development of energy-saving and assembly building. In the prefabricated sandwich insulation hanging wall panel, the selection of material for the outer layer and the arrangement of the connector of the inner and outer wall layers affect the mechanical performance and durability of the wall panels. In this paper, high performance cement-based composites (HPFRC) are used in the outer layer of the new type wall panel. FRP bars are used as the interface connector. Through experiments and analysis, the influence of the arrangement of connectors on the mechanical behaviors of thin-walled composite wall panel and the panel with window openings under two working conditions are investigated. The failure modes and the role of connectors of thin-walled composite wallboard are analyzed. The influence of the thickness of the wall layer and their combination on the strain growth of the control section, the initial crack resistance, the ultimate bearing capacity and the deformation of the wall panels are analyzed. The research work provides a technical reference for the engineering design of the light-weight thin-walled and durable composite sandwich wall panel.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.344-350
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• 2004

This is the study on dry sliding wear behavior of unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced epoxy matrix composite at ambient temperature. The wear rates and friction coefficients against the stainless steel counterpart specularly processed were experimentally determined and the resulting wear mechanisms were microscopically observed. Three principal sliding directions relative to the dominant fiber orientation in the composite wear selected. When sliding took place against smooth and hard counterpart, the highest were resistance and the lowest friction coefficient were observed in the antiparallel direction. When the velocity between the composite and the counterpart went up, the wear rate increased. The fiber destruction and cracking caused fiber bending on the contact surface, which was discovered to be dominant wear mechanism.

• Composites Research
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.15-24
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• 2004

Longitudinal strains (${\varepsilon}_x$) of the core and skin layers in glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) cross-ply composite laminates have been measured using the embedded optical fiber sensor of absolute extrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometer (A-EFPI). Transmission optical microscopy was used to investigate the damage behavior around the A-EFPI sensor. Foil-type strain gauges bonded on both the upper and lower surfaces were used for the measurement of the surface strains. It was shown that values of ${\varepsilon}_x$ in the interior of the skin layer and the core layer measured by embedded A-EFPI sensor were significantly higher than that of the specimen surface measured by strain gauges. The experimental results agreed well with those from finite element analysis on the basis of uniform stress model. Large strains in the core layer led to the occurrence of many transverse cracks which drastically reduced the strain at failure of optical fiber sensor embedded in the core layer.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.1009-1012
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• 2008

The fiber dispersion performance in fiber-reinforced cementitious composites is a crucial factor with respect to achieving desired mechanical performance. However, evaluation of the fiber dispersion performance in the composite PVA-ECC(Polyvinyl alcohol-Engineered Cementitious Composite) is extremely challenging because of the low contrast of PVA fibers with the cement-based matrix. In the present work, an enhanced fiber detection technique is developed and demonstrated. Using a fluorescence technique on the PVA-ECC, PVA fibers are observed as green dots in the cross-section of the composite. After capturing the fluorescence image with a Charged Couple Device(CCD) camera through a microscope. The fibers are more accurately detected by employing a series of process based on a categorization, watershed segmentation, and morphological reconstruction.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.657-668
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• 2001

Fiber reinforced cementitious composites are nowadays widely applied in civil engineering. The postcracking performance of this material depends on the interaction between a steel fiber, which is obliquely across a crack, and its surrounding matrix. While the partly debonded steel fiber is subjected to pulling out from the matrix and simultaneously subjected to transverse force, it may be modelled as a Bernoulli-Euler beam partly supported on an elastic foundation with non-linearly varying modulus. The fiber bridging the crack may be cut into two parts to simplify the problem (Leung and Li 1992). To obtain the transverse displacement at the cut end of the fiber (Fig. 1), it is convenient to directly solve the corresponding differential equation. At the first glance, it is a classical beam on foundation problem. However, the differential equation is not analytically solvable due to the non-linear distribution of the foundation stiffness. Moreover, since the second order deformation effect is included, the boundary conditions become complex and hence conventional numerical tools such as the spline or difference methods may not be sufficient. In this study, moment equilibrium is the basis for formulation of the fundamental differential equation for the beam (Timoshenko 1956). For the cantilever part of the beam, direct integration is performed. For the non-linearly supported part, a transformation is carried out to reduce the higher order differential equation into one order simultaneous equations. The Runge-Kutta technique is employed for the solution within the boundary domain. Finally, multi-dimensional optimization approaches are carefully tested and applied to find the boundary values that are of interest. The numerical solution procedure is demonstrated to be stable and convergent.