• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.90 no.2
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• pp.127-142
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• 2024

In recent decades, pultruded glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) members including those of box sections have attracted the attention of researchers. Nevertheless, the lack of uniform and consistent material properties, simplified design methods, and practical design codes have so far been the main barrier for field applications. Consequently, this paper highlights the existing knowledge concerning the flexural behavior of pultruded GFRP profiles and their failure modes. In particulate, it reviews the most commonly accepted design expressions and code provisions addressing the flange local buckling of pultruded GFRP box beams as the most likely failure mode. In addition, the material characterization of GFRP sections is described in detail along with the standard test methods to quantify the material characterization of GFRP laminates. It is shown that the critical flange local buckling stresses of pultruded GFRP box beams can be predicted with reliable accuracy using the expressions promulgated by ASCE (1984) (in which the flange plates are considered simply-supported at web-flange junction) and EUR 27666. The expressions stipulated in ASCE (2010) highly overestimates the critical flange local buckling stresses of GFRP box beams resulting in unconservative predictions.

• Composites Research
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.241-248
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• 2021

As the electric vehicle market grows, there is an issue of light weight vehicles to increase battery efficiency. Therefore, it is going to replace the battery module cover that protects the battery module of electric vehicles with high strength/high heat-resistant polymer composite material which has lighter weight from existing aluminum materials. It also aims to respond to the early electric vehicle market where technology changes quickly by combining 3D printing technology that is advantageous for small production of multiple varieties without restrictions on complex shapes. Based on the composite material mechanics, the critical length of glass fibers in short glass fiber (GF)/polycarbonate (PC) composite materials manufactured through extruder was derived as 453.87 ㎛, and the side feeding method was adopted to improve the residual fiber length from 365.87 ㎛ and to increase a dispersibility. Thus, the optimal properties of tensile strength 135 MPa and Young's modulus 7.8 MPa were implemented as GF/PC composite materials containing 30 wt% of GF. In addition, the filament extrusion conditions (temperature, extrusion speed) were optimized to meet the commercial filament specification of 1.75 mm thickness and 0.05 mm standard deviation. Through manufactured filaments, 3D printing process conditions (temperature, printing speed) were optimized by multi-optimization that minimize porosity, maximize tensile strength, and printing speed to increase the productivity. Through this procedure, tensile strength and elastic modulus were improved 11%, 56% respectively. Also, by post-processing, tensile strength and Young's modulus were improved 5%, 18% respectively. Lastly, using the FEA (finite element analysis) technique, the structure of the battery module cover was optimized to meet the mechanical shock test criteria of the electric vehicle battery module cover (ISO-12405), and it is satisfied the battery cover mechanical shock test while achieving 37% lighter weight compared to aluminum battery module cover. Based on this research, it is expected that 3D printing technology of polymer composite materials can be used in various fields in the future.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.44-51
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• 2001

To see the effect of chemical surface modification, the carbon black surfaces were treated with three types of chemicals (KOH, $H_3PO_4$, and benzene). Vulcanization and mechanical properties of a styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) were investigated depending on the chemical treatments. The surface free energy increased considerably with the treatments by both the acid (HCB) and base (KCB), but only a slight increase was observed for benzene treatment(BCB). The BCB showed the highest level of the London dispersive component. The vulcanization reaction was found to be faster in the order of KCB-SBR> BCB-SBR> VCB-SBR(virgin) > HCB-SBR. The difference in minimum and maximum torque of rheocurve, representing the degree of crosslinking, was found to be higher for the BCB-SBR compared to those of VCB-SBR, KCB-SBR, and HCB-SBR. The BCB-SBR and KCB-SBR showed the improved tensile and dynamic mechanical properties. A linear relationship was found to exist between the London dispersive component of surface free energy and mechanical properties.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.75-81
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• 2016

Future electronics such as electronic paper and foldable cellphone are required to be flexible and transparent and should have a high performance. In order to fabricate the flexible electronics using flexibility transfer process, techniques for transferring various devices from rigid substrate onto flexible substrate by elastomeric stamp, have been developed. Adhesion between the elastomeric stamp and various devices is crucial for successful transfer process. The adhesion can be controlled by the thickness of the stamp, separation velocity, contact load, and stamp surface treatment. In this study, we fabricated the bump shape stamp consisting of a UV-curable polymer and investigated the effects of curing condition, separation velocity, and contact load on the adhesion characteristics of bumps. The bumps with hemispherical shape were fabricated using a dispensing process, which is one of the ink-jet printing techniques. Curing conditions of the bumps were controlled by the amount of UV irradiation energy. The adhesion characteristics of bumps are evaluated by adhesion test. The results show that the pull-off forces of bumps were increased and decreased as UV irradiation energy increased. For UV irradiation energies of 300 and 500 mJ/cm², the pull-off forces were increased as the separation velocity increased. The pull-off forces also increased with the increase of contact load. In the case of UV irradiation energy above 600 mJ/cm², however, the pull-off forces were not changed. Therefore, we believe that the bump shape stamp can be applied to roll-based transfer process and selective transfer process as an elastomeric stamp.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.207-230
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• 2012

Full-scale shake table seismic experiments and low-amplitude vibration tests on a masonry building are carried out to assess its seismic performance as well as study the effectiveness of a new multifunctional textile material for retrofitting masonry structures against earthquakes. The un-reinforced and the retrofitted with glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) strips masonry building was subjected to a series of earthquake excitations of increasing magnitude in order to progressively induce various small, moderate and severe levels of damage to the masonry walls. The performance of the original and retrofitted building states is evaluated. Changes in the dynamic characteristics (lowest four modal frequencies and damping ratios) of the building are used to assess and quantify the damage states of the masonry walls. For this, the dynamic modal characteristics of the structure states after each earthquake event were estimated by performing low-amplitude impulse hammer and sine-sweep forced vibration tests. Comparisons between the modal results calculated using traditional accelerometers and those using Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors embedded in the reinforcing textile were carried on to investigate the reliability and accuracy of FBG sensors in tracking the dynamic behaviour of the building. The retrofitting actions restored the stiffness characteristics of the reinforced masonry structure to the levels of the original undamaged un-reinforced structure. The results show that despite a similar dynamic behavior identified, corresponding to reduction of the modal frequencies, the un-reinforced masonry building was severely damaged, while the reinforced masonry building was able to withstand, without visual damage, the induced strong seismic excitations. The applied GFRP reinforcement architecture for one storey buildings was experimentally proven reliable for the most severe earthquake accelerations. It was easily placed in a short time and it is a cost effective solution (covering only 20% of the external wall surfaces) when compared to the cost for full wall coverage by GFRPs.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.16 no.4 s.82
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• pp.501-509
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• 2004

The proposed model can predict the compressive behaviors of concrete confined with fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) jacket. To model confining concrete by FRP jackets, the hypoelasticity-based constitutive law of concrete In tri-axial stress states has been presented. The increment of strength of concrete has been determined by the failure surface of concrete in tri-axial states, and its corresponding peak strain is computed by the strain enhancement factor that is proposed in the present study, Therefore, the newly proposed model is a load-dependent confinement model of concrete wrapped by FRP jackets to compare the previous models which are load-independent confinement models. The behavior of FRP jackets has been modeled using the mechanics of orthotropic laminated composite materials in two-dimension. The developed model is implemented into the incremental analysis of compressive tests. The verification study with several different experiments shows that the model is able to adequately capture the behavior of the compression test by including better estimations of the axial responses as well as the lateral response of FRP-confined concrete cylinders.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.65 no.6
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• pp.679-687
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• 2018

In composite materials technology, the fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP) have opened up new horizons in infrastructural engineering field for strengthening existing structures and components of structure. The Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets are well suited for RC columns to this application because of their high strength to weight ratio, good fatigue properties and excellent resistance to corrosion. The main focus of present experimental work is to investigate effect of shapes on axial behavior of CFRP wrapped RC columns having same cross-sectional area and slenderness ratio. The CFRP volumetric ratio and percentage of steel are also adopted constant for all the test specimens. A total of 18 RC columns with slenderness ratio four were cast. Nine columns were control and the rest of nine columns were strengthened with one layer of CFRP wrap having 35 mm of corner radius. Columns confined with CFRP wrap were designed using IS: 456:2000 and ACI 440.2R.08 provisions. All the test specimens were loaded for axial compression up to failure and failure pattern for each shaped column was investigated. All the experimental results were compared with analytical values calculated as per the ACI-440.2R-08 code. The test results clearly demonstrated that the axial behavior of CFRP confined RC columns is affected with the change in shapes. The axial deformation is higher in CFRP wrapped RC circular column as compared to square and rectangular columns. Stress-strain behaviour revealed that the yield strength gained from CFRP confinement was significant for circular columns as compare to square and rectangular columns. This behaviour may be credited due to effect of shape on lateral deformation in case of CFRP wrapped circular columns at effective confinement action.

• Composites Research
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.53-64
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• 1999

Microstructural morphology and bending strengths of moulded composites of thermotropic liquid crystalline polymer(LCP) and polyamide 6 (PA6) have been studied as a function of epoxy fraction. Injection-moulding of a composite plaque at a temperature below the melting point of the LCP fibrils generated a multi-layered structure: the surface skin layer with thickness of $65\;-\;120{\mu\textrm{m}}$ exhibiting a transverse orientation; the sub-skin layer with an orientation in the flow direction; the core layer with arc-curved flow patterns. The plaques containing epoxy 4.8vol% exhibited superior bending strength and large fracture strain. With an increase of epoxy fraction equal to and beyond 4.8vol%, geometry of LCP domains was changed from fibrillar shape to lamella-like one, which caused a shear-mode fracture. An analysis of the bending strength of the composite plaques by using a symmetric layered model beam suggested that addition of epoxy component altered not only the microstructural geometry but also the elastic moduli and strengths of the respective layers.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.717-731
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• 2016

In orthopedic surgery and more especially in total arthroplastie of hip, the fixing of the implants generally takes place essentially by means of constituted surgical polymer cement. The damage of this materiel led to the fatal rupture and thus loosening of the prosthesis in total hip, the effect of over loading as the case of tripping of the patient during walking is one of the parameters that led to the damage of this binder. From this phenomenon we supposed that a remain of bone is included in the cement implantation. The object of this work is to study the effect of this bony inclusion in the zones where the outside conditions (loads and geometric shapes) can provoke the fracture of the cement and therefore the aseptic lousing of the prosthesis. In this study it was assumed the presence of two bones -type inclusions in this material, one after we analyzed the effect of interaction between these two inclusions damage of damage to this material. One have modeled the damage in the cement around this bone inclusion and estimate the crack length from the damaged cement zone in the acetabulum using the finite element method, for every position of the implant under the extreme effort undergone by the prosthesis. We noted that the most intense stress position is around the sharp corner of the bone fragment and the higher level of damage leads directly the fracture of the total prosthesis of the hip.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.491-506
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• 2014

Buckling-restrained braces (BRBs) have excellent hysteretic behavior while buckling-restrained braced frames (BRBFs) are susceptible to residual lateral deformations. To address this drawback, a novel self-centering (SC) BRB with Basalt fiber reinforced polymer (BFRP) composite tendons is presented in this work. The configuration and mechanics of proposed BFRP-SC-BRBs are first discussed. Then an 1840-mm-long BFRP-SC-BRB specimen is fabricated and tested to verify its hysteric and self-centering performance. The tested specimen has an expected flag-shaped hysteresis character, showing a distinct self-centering tendency. During the test, the residual deformation of the specimen is only about 0.6 mm. The gap between anchorage plates and welding ends of bracing tubes performs as expected with the maximum opening value 6 mm when brace is in compression. The OpenSEES software is employed to conduct numerical analysis. Experiment results are used to validate the modeling methodology. Then the proposed numerical model is used to evaluate the influence of initial prestress, tendon diameter and core plate thickness on the performance of BFRP-SC-BRBs. Results show that both the increase of initial prestress and tendon diameters can obviously improve the self-centering effect of BFRP-SC-BRBs. With the increase of core plate thickness, the energy dissipation is improved while the residual deformation is generated when the core plate strength exceeds initial prestress force.