• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 2002

Fiber-Reinforced Plastics (FRP) have received significant attention for use in civil infrastructure due to their unique properties, such as the high strength-to-weight ratio and stiffness-to-weight ratio, corrosion and fatigue resistance, and tailorability. It is well known that FRP wraps increase the load-carrying capacity and the ductility of reinforced concrete columns. A number of researchers have explored their use for seismic components. The application of concern in the present research is on the use of FRP for corrosion protection of reinforced concrete columns, which is very important in cold-weather and coastal regions. More specifically, this work is intended to give practicing engineers with a more practical procedure for estimating the strength of a deficient column rehabilitated using FRP wrapped columns than those currently available. To achieve this goal, a stress-strain model for FRP wrapped concrete is proposed, which is subsequently used in the development of the moment-curvature relations for FRP wrapped reinforced concrete column sections. A comparison of the proposed stress-strain model to the test results shows good agreement. It has also been found that based on the moment-curvature relations, the balanced moment is no longer a critical moment in the interaction diagram. Besides, the enhancement in the loading capacity in terms of the interaction diagram due to the confinement provided by FRP wraps is also confirmed in this work.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.31-40
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• 2004

The purpose of this study is to investigate the change of the physical properties, bending and luster properties, which are related to the touch and appearance of silk fabrics modified by the degumming process. The silk has long been known as one of the most elegant and soft textile materials. The raw silk yarn, or cocoon bave, spun from the spinneret, is rather stiff due to the sericin covering the two fibroins together. The sericin can be removed during a degumming process. The removal of the sericin would result in remarkable change in the physical properties of the raw silk fabrics, including luster of the fabrics, which process parameters could possibly be utilized to adequately control the silk fabric properties. The KES(Kawabata Evaluation System) is a testing methodology that has been used with considerable success for predicting the hand and tailorability of apparel fabrics. This study uses one of the KES, bending tester, to measure the bending properties of the silk fabrics degummed for specified period to change the physical/mechanical properties of the fabric. The KES bending measurement revealed that the bending rigidity decreased for both the warp and weft direction of the silk fabrics with the increase of the degumming period. It has been shown in this study that the some of the hand-related physical properties, including the bending rigidity, drapability, and luster, could be modified with the change in the degumming period.