• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.66 no.4
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• pp.439-444
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• 2018

This paper presents a numerical study on the behavior of continuous hollow steel beam strengthened using carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP). Most previous studies on the CFRP strengthening of steel beams have been carried out on the steel beams with simple boundary conditions. No independent study, to the researcher's knowledge, has studied on the CFRP strengthening of square hollow section (SHS) continuous steel beam. However, this study explored the effect of the use of adhesively bonded CFRP flexible sheets on the behavior of the continuous SHS steel beams. Finite Element Method (FEM) has been employed for modeling. Eleven specimens, ten of which were strengthened using CFRP sheets, were analyzed under different coverage length, the number of layers, and the location of CFRP composite. ANSYS software was used to analyze the SHS steel beams. The results showed that the coverage length, the number of layers, and the location of CFRP composite are effective in increasing the ultimate load capacity of the continuous SHS steel beams. Application of CFRP composite also caused the ductility increase some strengthened specimens.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.87-94
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• 2017

Steel structures often require strengthening due to the increasing life loads, or repair caused by corrosion or fatigue cracking. Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRP) is one of the materials used to strengthen steel structures. Most studies on strengthening steel structures have been carried out on steel beams and steel columns under centric compression load. No independent article, to the author's knowledge, has studied the effect of CFRP strengthening on steel columns under eccentric compression load, and it seems that there is a lack of understanding on behavior of CFRP strengthening on steel columns under eccentric compression load. However, this study explored the use of adhesively bonded CFRP flexible sheets on retrofitting square hollow section (SHS) steel columns under the eccentric compression load, using numerical investigations. Finite Element Method (FEM) was employed for modeling. To determine ultimate load of SHS steel columns, eight specimens with two types of section (Type A and B), strengthened using CFRP sheets, were analyzed under different coverage lengths, the number of layers, and the location of CFRP composites. Two specimens were analyzed without strengthening (control) to determine the increasing rate of the ultimate load in strengthened steel columns. ANSYS was used to analyze the SHS steel columns. The results showed that the CFRP composite had no similar effect on the slender and stocky SHS steel columns. The results also showed that the coverage length, the number of layers, and the location of CFRP composites were effective in increasing the ultimate load of the SHS steel columns.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.561-568
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• 2017

Steel frames are widely used in steel structures. Exiting steel structures may be needed to strengthen for various reasons. Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRP) is one of the materials that are used to strengthen steel structures. Most studies on strengthening steel structures have been done on beams and steel columns. No independent study, to the researcher's knowledge, has studied the effect of CFRP strengthening on steel frames. This study explored the use of CFRP composite on retrofitting square hollow section (SHS) steel frames, using numerical investigations. Ten Finite Element (FE) models, which were strengthened with CFRP sheets, were analyzed under different coverage length, number of layers, and location of CFRP composite. One FE model without strengthening was analyzed as a control FE model to determine the increase of the ultimate load in the strengthened steel frames. ANSYS software was used to analyze the SHS steel frames. The results showed that the coverage length and the number of layers of CFRP composite have a significant effect on increasing the ultimate load of the SHS steel frames. The results also showed that the location of CFRP composite had no similar effect on increasing the ultimate load and the amount of mid span deflection of the SHS steel frames.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.289-298
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• 2022

In the present study, structural behavior of steel beams strengthened with CFRP strips and cables was investigated by a series of experiments. For this purpose, two groups of experimental studies were carried out: one for the beam series strengthened only with CFRP strips and the other for the steel beam series strengthened with CFRP strips and prestressed wires. From this test, it is found that the flexural stiffness and strength of the steel beams strengthened with CFRP strips and cables were significantly improved comparing to the un-strengthened one. Three failure modes such as sudden de-bonding, splitting and rupturing of CFRP strips were observed. The ultimate tensile strains of attached CFRP strips on the steel beams were noticed in the range between 8,000με and 11,000με, and this result disclose the perfect composite reaction CFRP strips and steel beams.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.593-601
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• 2017

Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) is one of the materials used to strengthen steel structures. Most studies on strengthening steel structures have been done on steel beams and steel columns. No independent study, to the researcher's knowledge, has studied the effect of CFRP strengthening on steel beam-columns, and it seems that there is a lack of understanding on behavior of CFRP strengthening on steel beam-columns. However, this study explored the use of adhesively bonded CFRP flexible sheets on retrofitting square hollow section (SHS) steel beam-columns, using numerical investigations. Finite Element Method (FEM) was employed for modeling. To determine the ultimate load of SHS steel beam-columns, ten specimens, eight of which were strengthened with the different coverage length and with one and two CFRP layers, with two types of section (Type A and B) were analyzed. ANSYS was used to analyze the SHS steel beam-columns. The results showed that the CFRP composite had no similar effect on the slender and stocky SHS steel beam-columns. The results also showed that the coverage length, the number of layers, and the location of CFRP composites were effective in increasing the ultimate load of the SHS steel beam-columns.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1145-1160
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• 2015

An experimental study was conducted for the effectiveness of steel-CFRP composite (CFRP laminates sandwiched between two steel strips) as stirrups in concrete beam to carry shearing force and comparison was made with conventional steel bar stirrups. A total numbers of 8 concrete beams were tested under four point loads. Each beam measured 1,600 mm long, 160 mm width and 240 mm depth. The beams were composed of same grade of concrete, with same amount of flexural steel but different shear reinforcements. The main variables include, type of stirrups (shape of stirrups and number of CFRP layers used in each stirrup) and number of stirrups used in shear spans. After getting on an excellent closeness between the values of ultimate shear resistance and ultimate tensile load of steel-CFRP stirrups, it could be concluded that the steel-CFRP stirrups represent the effective solution of premature failure of FRP stirrups at the bends.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.1487-1505
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• 2016

This paper presents the results of an experimental study on the behavior of a new type of composite FRP-concrete-steel member subjected to bi-axial eccentric loading. This new type of composite member is in the form of concrete-filled square steel tube slender columns with inner CFRP (carbon fiber-reinforced polymer) circular tube, composed of an inner CFRP tube and an outer steel tube with concrete filled in the two tubes. Tests on twenty-six specimens of high strength concrete-filled square steel tube columns with inner CFRP circular tube columns (HCFST-CFRP) were carried out. The parameters changed in the experiments include the slenderness ratio, eccentric ratio, concrete strength, steel ratio and CFRP ratio. The experimental results showed that the failure mode of HCFST-CFRP was similar to that of HCFST, and the specimens failed by local buckling because of the increase of lateral deflection. The steel tube and the CFRP worked together well before failure under bi-axial eccentric loading. Ductility of HCFST-CFRP was better than that of HCFST. The ultimate bearing capacity of test specimen was calculated with simplified formula, which agreed well with test results, and the simplified formula can be used to calculate the bearing capacity of HCFSTF within the parameters of this test.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.441-465
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• 2015

This paper presents the experimental results of flexural and compression steel members strengthened with carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) sheets. In the flexural test, the five specimens were fabricated and the test parameters were the number of CFRP ply and the ratio of partial-length bonded CFRP sheets of specimen. The CFRP sheet strengthened steel beam had failure mode: CFRP sheet rupture at the mid span of steel beams. A maximum increase of 11.3% was achieved depending on the number of CFRP sheet ply and the length of CFRP sheet. In the compression test, the nine specimens were fabricated and the main parameters were: width-thickness ratio (b/t), the number of CFRP ply, and the length of the specimen. From the tests, for short columns it was observed that two sides would typically buckle outward and the other two sides would buckle inward. Also, for long columns, overall buckling was observed. A maximum increase of 57% was achieved in axial-load capacity when 3 layers of CFRP were used to wrap HSS columns of b/t = 60 transversely.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.1077-1094
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• 2015

This paper presents an experimental study on the effectiveness of simultaneous application of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) and steel jacket in strengthening slender reinforced concrete (RC) column. The columns were 200 mm square cross section with lengths ranging from 1600 to 3000 mm. Ten columns were tested under axial load. The effects of the strengthening technique, slenderness ratio, cross-section area of steel angle and CFRP layer number were examined in terms of axial load-axial strain curve, CFRP strain, steel strip strain and steel angle strain. The experiments indicate that strengthening RC columns with combined CFRP and steel jacket is effective in enhancing the load capacity, ductility and energy dissipation capacity of RC column. Based on the existing models for RC columns strengthened with CFRP and with steel jacket, a design formula considering a slenderness reduction factor is proposed to predict the load capacity of the RC columns strengthened with combined CFRP and steel jacket. The predictions agree well with the experimental results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.727-736
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• 2017

The application of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) in steel structures primarily includes two categories, i.e., the bond-critical application and the contact-critical application. Debonding failure and buckling failure are the main failure modes for these two applications. Conventional electrometric techniques may not provide precise results because of the limitations associated with single-point contact measurements. A nondestructive full-field measurement technique is a valuable alternative to conventional methods. In this study, the digital image correlation (DIC) technique was adopted to investigate the bond behavior and buckling behavior of CFRP-steel composite members. The CFRP-to-steel bonded joint and the CFRP-strengthened square hollow section (SHS) steel column were tested to verify the suitability of the DIC technique. The stereo-DIC technique was utilized to measure continuous deformation. The bond-slip relationship of the CFRP-to-steel interface was derived using the DIC data. Additionally, a multi-camera DIC system consisting of four stereo-DIC subsystems was proposed and applied to the compressive test of CFRP-strengthened SHS steel column. The precise buckling location and CFRP delamination of the CFRP-strengthened SHS steel column were identified. The experimental results confirm that the stereo-DIC technique can provide effective measurements for investigating the behaviors of CFRP-steel composite members.