• Computers and Concrete
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.583-593
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• 2017

Applications of fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites for retrofitting, strengthening and repairing concrete structures have been expanded dramatically in the last decade. FRPs have high specific strength and stiffness compared to conventional construction materials, e.g., steel. Ease of preparation and installation, resistance to corrosion, versatile fabrication and adjustable mechanical properties are other advantages of the FRPs. However, there are major concerns about long-term performance, serviceability and durability of FRP applications in concrete structures. Therefore, structural health monitoring (SHM) and damage detection in FRP-retrofitted concrete structures need to be implemented. This paper presents a study on investigating the application of Rayleigh wave for detecting debonding defect in FRP-retrofitted concrete structures. A time-of-flight (ToF) method is proposed to determine the location of a debonding between the FRP and concrete using Rayleigh wave. A series of numerical case studies are carried out to demonstrate the capability of the proposed debonding detection method. In the numerical case studies, a three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) model is developed to simulate the Rayleigh wave propagation and scattering at the debonding in the FRP-retrofitted concrete structure. Absorbing layers are employed in the 3D FE model to reduce computational cost in simulating the practical size of the FRP-retrofitted structure. Different debonding sizes and locations are considered in the case studies. The results show that the proposed ToF method is able to accurately determine the location of the debonding in the FRP-retrofitted concrete structure.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.597-610
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• 2020

Stress-strain models of fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) confined concrete have been widely investigated; however, the existing load which is always supported by structures during the retrofitting phase, namely 'preload', has been neglected. Thus, preload effects should be clarified, providing insightful information for FRP retrofitting of structures with preload conditions. Towards this aim, experiments were performed for 27 cylinder concrete specimens with the diameter 150 mm and the height 300 mm. Three specimens were used to test the compressive strength of concrete to compute the preloads 20%, 30% and 40% of the average strength of these specimens. Other 24 specimens were divided into 2 groups; each group included 4 subgroups. Four subgroups were subjected to the above preloads and no preload, and were then wrapped by 2 FRP layers. Similar designation is applied to group 2, but wrapped by 3 FRP layers. All specimens were tested under axial compression to failure. Explosive failure is found to be the characteristic of specimens wrapped by FRP. Experimental results indicated that the preload decreases 12-13% the elastic and second stiffness of concrete specimens wrapped by 2 FRP layers. The stiffness reduction can be mitigated by the increase of FRP layers. Preload negligibly reduces the ultimate force and unclearly affects the ultimate displacement probably due to complicated cracks developed in concrete. A mechanism of preload effects is presented in the paper. Finally, to take into account preload effects, a modification of the widely used model of un-preload FRP confined concrete is proposed and the modified model demonstrated with a reasonable accuracy.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.75 no.1
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• pp.123-131
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• 2020

The bond performance of glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars and that of steel bars embedded in Alkali Activated Cement (AAC) concrete are analysed and compared using pull-out specimens. The bond failure modes, the average bond strength and the free end bond stress-slip curves are used for comparison. Tepfers' concrete ring model is used to further analyse the splitting failure in ribbed steel bar and GFRP bar specimens. The angle the bond forces make with the bar axis was calculated and used for comparing bond behaviour of ribbed steel bar and GFRP bars in AAC concrete. The results showed that bond failure mode plays a significant role in the comparison of the average bond stress of the specimens at failure. In case of pull-out failure mode, specimens with ribbed steel bars showed a higher bond strength while specimens with GFRP bars showed a higher bond stress in case of splitting failure mode. Comparison of the bond stress-slip curves of ribbed steel bars and GFRP bars depicted that the constant bond stress region at the peak is much smaller in case of GFRP bars than ribbed steel bars indicating a basic bond mechanism difference in GFRP and ribbed steel bars.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.66 no.2
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• pp.229-235
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• 2018

This study investigated the behaviour of the simply supported hollow steel tube (HST) beams, either concrete filled or unfilled when strengthened with carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets. Eight specimens with varied tubes thickness (sections classification 1 and 3) were all tested experimentally under static flexural loading, four out of eight were filled with normal concrete (CFST beams). Particularly, the partial CFRP strengthening scheme was used, which wrapped the bottom-half of the beams cross-section (U-shaped wrapping), in order to use the efficiency of high tensile strength of CFRP sheets at the tension stress only of simply supported beams. In general, the results showed that the CFRP sheets significantly improved the ultimate strength and energy absorption capacities of the CFST beams with very limited improvement on the related HST beams. For example, the load and energy absorption capacities for the CFST beams (tube section class 1) were increased about 20% and 32.6%, respectively, when partially strengthened with two CFRP layers, and these improvements had increased more (62% and 38%) for the same CFST beams using tube class 3. However, these capacities recorded no much improvement on the related unfilled HST beams when the same CFRP strengthening scheme was adopted.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.82 no.3
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• pp.343-354
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• 2022

An understanding of the mechanism of concrete girders repaired with CFRP plates and its influence on the dynamic parameters is presented in this paper. Dynamic parameters are governed by the relationship with the physical properties of concrete girders and CFRP plates as well as the adhesive layer between them. A brief explanation of the mechanism of the composite action of concrete girders repaired with CFRP is also given in this paper. Experimental work was carried out to validate the theory of the composite action. The results show a decrease in the modal parameters of CFRP repaired girders that were turned over during the repair procedure, which contrasts with the proven static-based results that CFRP plates increase the stiffness of repaired girders. The composite action theory has explained the results based on the tension and compression forces' growth at the adhesive layer between the CFRP plates and girder surface during the repair procedure. Other girders were prepared and repaired without turning over in order to avoid tension and compression forces at the adhesive layer. The experimental results show an increase in the dynamic parameters of CFRP repaired girders that were not turned over during the repair procedure, which aligns with the static-based results. The study concludes that the dynamic parameters are excellent indicators for the assessment of CFRP repaired concrete girders. The study also suggests that researchers should not turn over damaged concrete girders to repair them with CFRP plates if they intend to study the dynamic parameters, in order to avoid the proposed composite action effect on modal parameters.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.91-105
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• 2020

Steel-concrete composite beam with profiled steel sheet has gained its popularity in the last two decades. Due to the ageing of these structures, retrofitting in terms of flexural strength is necessary to ensure that the aged structures can carry the increased traffic load throughout their design life. The steel ribs, which presented in the profiled steel deck, limit the use of shear connectors. This leads to a poor degree of composite action between the concrete slab and steel beam compared to the solid slab situation. As a result, the shear connectors that connects the slab and beam will be subjected to higher shear stress which may also require strengthening to increase the load carrying capacity of an existing composite structure. While most of the available studies focus on the strengthening of longitudinal shear and flexural strength separately, the present work investigates the effect of both flexural and longitudinal shear strengthening of steel-concrete composite beam with composite slab in terms of failure modes, ultimate load carrying capacity, ductility, end-slip, strain profile and interface differential strain. The flexural strengthening was conducted using carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) or steel plate on the soffit of the steel I-beam, while longitudinal shear capacity was enhanced using post-installed high strength bolts. Moreover, a combination of both the longitudinal shear and flexural strengthening techniques was also implemented (hybrid strengthening). It is concluded that hybrid strengthening improved the ultimate load carrying capacity and reduce slip and interface differential strain that lead to improved composite action. However, hybrid strengthening resulted in brittle failure mode that decreased ductility of the beam.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.257-262
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• 2018

Vibrational problems in the domestic Small Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (SHAWT) are due to flap wise vibrations caused by varying wind velocities acting perpendicular to its blade surface. It has been reported that monitoring the structural health of the turbine blades requires special attention as they are key elements of a wind power generation, and account for 15-20% of the total turbine cost. If this vibration problem is taken care, the SHAWT can be made as commercial success. In this work, Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) wires made of Nitinol (Ni-Ti) alloys are embedded into the Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) wind turbine blade in order to reduce the flapwise vibrations. Experimental study of Nitinol (Ni-Ti) wire characteristics has been done and relationship between different parameters like current, displacement, time and temperature has been established. When the wind turbine blades are subjected to varying wind velocity, flapwise vibration occurs which has to be controlled continuously, otherwise the blade will be damaged due to the resonance. Therefore, in order to control these flapwise vibrations actively, a non-linear current controller unit was developed and fabricated, which provides actuation force required for active vibration control in smart blade. Experimental analysis was performed on conventional GFRP and smart blade, depicted a 20% increase in natural frequency and 20% reduction in amplitude of vibration. With addition of active vibration control unit, the smart blade showed 61% reduction in amplitude of vibration.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.171-180
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• 2008

The aim of this paper is to clarify the structural performance of RC beams strengthened with Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer(CFRP) plates using channel-type anchorage system. Twelve RC beams were specifically designed without and with a channel-type anchorage system, which was carefully detailed to enhance the benefits of the strengthening plates. All the twelve beams were identical in terms of their geometry but varied in their internal reinforcement, concrete strength. All the beams were tested under four point bending and extensively instrumented to monitor strains, cracking, load capacity and failure modes. The structural response of all the twelve beams is then critically analyzed in terms of deformability, strength and failure processes. It is shown that with a channel-type anchorage system, a brittle debonding failure of a strengthened beam can be transformed to an almost ductile failure with well-defined enhancement of structural performance in terms of both deformation and strength.

• Composites Research
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.241-246
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• 2017

The brittle nature in most FRP composites is accompanying other forms of energy absorption mechanisms such as fibre-matrix interface debonding and ply delamination. It could play an important role on the energy absorption capability of composite structures. To solve the brittle nature, the adhesion between pines and composites was studied. Thermal treated pines were attached on carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) by epoxy adhesives. To find the optimum condition of thermal treatment for pine, two different thermal treatments at 160 and $200^{\circ}C$ were compared to the neat case. To evaluate mechanical and interfacial properties of pines and pine/CFRP composites, tensile, lap shear and Izod test were carried out. The bonding force of pine grains was measured by tensile test at transverse direction and the elastic wave from fracture of pines was analyzed. The mechanical, interfacial properties and bonding force at $160^{\circ}C$ treated pine were highest due to the reinforced effect of pine. However, excessive thermal treatment resulted in the degradation of hemicellulose and leads to the deterioration in mechanical and interfacial properties.