• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.47-70
• /
• 2012

To enhance cable stiffness, this paper proposed a combined application of carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) and steel materials, resulting in a novel type of hybrid stay cable system especially for the cable-stayed bridges with main span lengths of 1400~2800 m. In this combination, CFRP materials can conserve all their advantages such as light weight and high strength; while steel materials help increase the equivalent stiffness to compensate for the low elastic modulus of CFRP materials. An increase of the equivalent stiffness of the hybrid stay cable system could be further obtained with a reasonable increase of its safety factor. Following this concept, a series of parametric studies for the hybrid stay cable system with the consideration of stiffness and cost were carried out. Three design strategies/criteria, namely, best equivalent stiffness with a given safety factor, highest ratio of equivalent stiffness to material cost with a given safety factor, and best equivalent stiffness under a given cost were proposed from the stiffness and cost viewpoints. Finally, a comprehensive design procedure following the proposed design strategies was suggested. It was shown that the proposed hybrid stay cable system could be a good alternative to the pure CFRP or traditional steel stay cables in the future applications of super long span bridges.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.129-139
• /
• 2018

The composite materials are widely used in aircraft structures. Their relative rigidity/weight gives them an important advantage over the metal structures. The objective of this work is to analyze by the finite element method the mechanical behavior of composite plate type notched with various forms under tensile load. Two basic parameters were taken into consideration. The first, the form of the notch in order to see its effect on the stress and the failure load. The second, we studied the influence of the locale orientation of fiber around the plate's notch. These parameters are studied in order to see their effects on the distribution stress and failure load of the plate. The calculation of the failure load is determined numerically with the numerical code ABAQUS using the XFEM (extended Finite Element Modeling) based on the fracture mechanics. The result shows clearly that it is important to optimize the effect of fiber orientation around the notch.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.115-133
• /
• 2017

To investigate the effectiveness of using fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) sheets in confining heat-damaged columns, 15 circular RC column specimens were tested under axial compression. The effects of heating duration, stiffness and thickness of the FRP wrapping sheets were examined. Two specimen groups, six each, were subjected to elevated temperatures of $500^{\circ}C$ for 2 and 3 h, respectively. Eight of the heat-damaged specimens were wrapped with unidirectional carbon and glass FRP sheets. Test results confirmed that elevated temperatures adversely affect the axial load resistance and stiffness of the columns while increasing their ductility and toughness. Full wrapping with FRP sheets increased the axial load capacity and toughness of the damaged columns. A single layer of the carbon sheets managed to restore the original axial resistance of the columns heated for 2 h yet, two layers were needed to restore the axial resistance of columns heated for 3 h. Glass FRP sheets were found to be less effective; using two layers of glass sheets managed to restore the axial load carrying capacity of columns heated for 2 h only. Confining the heat-damaged columns with FRP circumferential wraps failed in recovering the original axial stiffness of the columns. Test results confirmed that FRP-confining models adopted by international design guidelines should address the increased confinement efficiency in heat-damaged circular RC columns.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.22 no.6
• /
• pp.30-36
• /
• 2018

Researches on strengthening and rehabilitation are important since structural capacity is degraded by deterioration or damage of structural members. An effective strengthening scheme such as an externally bonded Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRP) can improve the structural performance of a concrete structure in a cost-effective way. Therefore, many experimental studies on strengthening methods have been widely carried out. In regards to the shear strengthening of a concrete beam, variables of the experimental studies were the amount of CFRP, the angle of the strip, the width of the strip, and the interaction between the materials. However, there are insufficient researches on bi-directional CFRP layout compared to the previous researches. In this study, a total of ten concrete beams were designed and tested to evaluate the shear strengthening effect using CFRP strips. The effectiveness of strengthening was investigated based on the shear contribution of materials, strain distribution of stirrup, and the maximum shear capacity of specimens.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.43 no.4
• /
• pp.447-456
• /
• 2022

Recent experimental studies showed that deep steel I-shaped profiles classified as high ductility class sections in seismic design international codes exhibit low deformation capacity when subjected to cyclic loading. This paper presents an innovative retrofit solution to increase the rotation capacity of beams using bonded carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) patches validated with advanced finite element analysis. This investigation focuses on the flexural cyclic behaviour of I-shaped hot rolled steel deep section used as beams in moment-resisting frames (MRF) retrofitted with CFRP patches on the web. The main goal of this CFRP reinforcement is to increase the rotation capacity of the member without increasing the overstrength in order to avoid compromising the strong column-weak beam condition in MRF. A finite element model that simulates the cyclic plasticity behavior of the steel and the damage in the adhesive layer is developed. The damage is modelled using the cohesive zone modelling (CZM) technique that is able to capture the crack initiation and propagation. Details on the modelling techniques including the mesh sensitivity near the fracture zone are presented. The effectiveness of the retrofit solution depends strongly on the selection of the appropriate adhesive. Different adhesive types are investigated where the CZM parameters are calibrated from high fidelity fracture mechanics tests that are thoroughly validated in the literature. This includes a rigid adhesive commonly found in the construction industry and two tough adhesives used in the automotive industry. The results revealed that the CFRP patch can increase the rotation capacity of a steel member considerably when using tough adhesives.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.108-113
• /
• 2018

Researches on strengthening and rehabilitation methods are being widely conducted due to the deterioration of existing concrete structures. Use of externally bonded Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRP) strips for the rehabilitation is a cost-effective and time-saving method. Generally, the CFRP layout for the shear strengthening was a uni-directional layout. Many researches have focused on the variables of the uni-directional CFRP layout such as the amount of material, angle, and spacing. Pilot tests indicated that the effective confinement of the concrete member can be provided with the bi-directional CFRP layout than the uni-directional layout. Therefore, the test was carried out after the uni- and bi-directional strengthening work using the same amount of CFRP material. CFRP anchors were installed to prevent unexpected premature CFRP delamination failure before reaching CFRP fracture strain. The effectiveness of the CFRP anchor and bi-directional CFRP layout for shear strengthening was verified based on the principal tensile strain contours.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.327-341
• /
• 2017

Openings in slabs are usually required for many different applications such as aeriation ducts and air conditioning. Opening in concrete slabs due to cutouts significantly decrease the member stiffness. There are different techniques to strengthen slabs with opening cutouts. This study presents experimental and numerical investigations on the use of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRP) as strengthening material to strengthen and restore the load carrying capacity of R.C. slabs after having cutout in the hogging moment region. The experimental program consisted of testing five (oneway spanning R.C. flat slabs) with overhang. All slabs were prismatic, rectangular in cross-section and nominally 2000 mm long, 1000 mm width, and 100 mm thickness with a clear span (distance between supports) of 1200 mm and the overhang length is 700 mm. All slabs were loaded up to 30 kN (45% of ultimate load for reference slab, before yielding of the longitudinal reinforcement), then the load was kept constant during cutting concrete and steel bars (producing cut out). After that operation, slabs were loaded till failure. An analytical study using finite element analysis (FEA) is performed using the commercial software ANSYS. The FEA has been validated and calibrated using the experimental results. The FE model was found to be in a good agreement with the experimental results. The investigated key parameters were slab aspect ratio for the opening ratios of [1:1, 2:1], CFRP layers and the laminates widths, positions for cutouts and the CFRP configurations around cutouts.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.52 no.3
• /
• pp.357-376
• /
• 2024

In this paper, weakly bonded ultra-high-strength steel bars (UHSS) were used as longitudinal reinforcement in recycled aggregate concrete shear walls to achieve resilient performance. The study evaluated the repairability and hysteresis performance of shear walls before and after retrofitting. Quasi-static tests were performed on recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) and steel fiber reinforced recycled aggregate concrete (FRAC) shear walls to investigate the reparability of resilient shear walls when loaded to 1% drift ratio. Results showed that shear walls exhibited drift-hardening properties. The maximum residual drift ratio and residual crack width at 1% drift ratio were 0.107% and 0.01mm, respectively, which were within the repairable limits. Subsequently, shear walls were retrofitted with bonded X-shaped CFRP strips and steel plates wrapped at the bottom and retested. Except for a slight reduction in initial stiffness, earthquake-damaged resilient shear walls retrofitted with a composite method still had satisfactory hysteresis performance. A revised damage assessment index D, has been proposed to assess of damage degree. Moreover, finite-element analysis for the shear wall before and after retrofit retrofitting was established in OpenSees and verified with experimental results. The finite element results and test results were in good agreement. Finally, parametric analysis was performed.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.91-105
• /
• 2016

One of the most commonly used techniques to strengthen steel reinforced concrete structures is the application of externally bonded patches in the form of carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) or recently, textile reinforced cements (TRC). These external patches undertake the tensile stress of bending constraining concrete cracking. Development of full-field inspection methodologies for fracture monitoring are important since the reinforcing layers are not transparent, hindering visual observation of the material condition underneath. In the present study acoustic emission (AE) and digital image correlation (DIC) are applied during four-point bending tests of large beams to follow the damage accumulation. AE helps to determine the onset of fracture as well as the different damage mechanisms through the registered shifts in AE rate, location of active sources and change in waveform parameters. The effect of wave propagation distance, which in large components and in-situ can well mask the original information as emitted by the fracture incidents is also discussed. Simultaneously, crucial information is supplied by DIC concerning the moments of stress release of the patches due to debonding, benchmarking the trends monitored by AE. From the point of view of mechanics, conclusions on the reinforcing contribution of the different repair methodologies are also drawn.