Strain coordination of quasi-plane-hypothesis for reinforced concrete beam strengthened by epoxy-bonded glass fiber reinforced plastic plate

The testing of thirteen reinforced concrete （RC） beams strengthened by epoxy-bonded glass fiber reinforced plastic plate （GFRP） shows that the RC beam and the GFRP plate with epoxy bonding on it can work fairly well in coordination to each other. But there is relative slipping between RC beam and GFRP plate. And the strain of GFRP and steel rebar of RC beam satisfies the quasi-plane-hypothesis, that is, the strain of longitudinal fiber that parallels to the neutral axis of plated beam within the scope of effective height （h0） of the cross section is in direct proportion to the distance from the fiber to the neutral axis. The strain of GFRP and steel rebar satisfies the equation: ε GFRP =Kε steel .

Structural Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete for Slabs on Ground

This paper aims to contribute to the classification and specification of glass fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC) and to deal with the question if structural glass fiber reinforced concrete as a special kind of glass fiber reinforced concrete is suited for use in load-bearing members. Despite excellent material properties, the use of glass fibers in a concrete matrix is carried out so far only in non- structural elements or as a modification for the prevention of shrinkage cracks. The aim of re- search at the University of Applied Sciences in Leipzig is the use of alkali-resistant macro glass fibers as concrete reinforcement in structural elements as an alternative to steel fiber reinforcement. Slabs on ground, as an example for structural members, provide a sensible application for the new material because they can be casted as load bearing and non-load bearing and are mostly made of steel fiber reinforced concrete. In the future, structural glass fiber reinforced concrete shall provide a simple and visually appealing alternative to conventional steel bar or steel fiber reinforced concrete. The glass fibers can also be used in combination with conventional reinforcing bars or mat reinforcements. Initial investigations have announced some potential.

A Study on the Estimation of Prefabricated Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete Panel Strength Values with an Artificial Neural Network Model

In this study,artificial neural networks trained with swarm based artificial bee colony optimization algorithm was implemented for prediction of the modulus of rapture values of the fabricated glass fiber reinforced concrete panels.For the application of the ANN models,143 different four-point bending test results of glass fiber reinforced concrete mixes with the varied parameters of temperature,fiber content and slump values were introduced the artificial bee colony optimization and conventional back propagation algorithms.Training and the testing results of the corresponding models showed that artificial neural networks trained with the artificial bee colony optimization algorithm have remarkable potential for the prediction of modulus of rupture values and this method can be used as a preliminary decision criterion for quality check of the fabricated products.

Experimental study on ductility improvement of reinforced concrete rectangular Columns retrofitted with a new fiber reinforced plastics method

Reinforced concrete （RC） columns lacking adequately detailed transverse reinforcement do not possess the necessary ductility to dissipate seismic energy during a major earthquake without severe strength degradation. In this paper, a new retrofit method, which utilized fiber-reinforced plastics （FRP） confinement mechanism and anchorage of embedded bars, was developed aiming to retrofit non-ductile large RC rectangular columns to prevent the damage of the plastic hinges. Carbon FRP （CFRP） sheets and glass FRP （GFRP） bars were used in this test, and five scaled RC columns were tested to examine the function of this new method for improving the ductility of columns. Responses of columns were examined before and after being retrofitted. Test results indicate that this new composite method can be very effective to improve the anti-seismic behavior of non-ductile RC columns compared with normal CFRP sheets retrofitted column.

Square concrete columns strengthened with carbon fiber reinforced plastics sheets at low temperatures

Twenty-one square concrete columns were constructed and tested. The testing results indicate that bonded carbon fiber reinforced plastics(CFRP) sheets can be used to increase the strength and improve the serviceability of damaged concrete columns at low temperatures. The failure of the specimens,in most cases,takes place within the middle half of the columns. And the failure of strengthened columns is sudden and explosive. The CFRP sheets increase both the axial load capacity and the ultimate concrete compressive strain of the columns. The ultimate loads of strengthened columns at-10,0 and 10 ℃ increase averagely by 9.09%,6.63% and 17.83%,respectively,as compared with those of the control specimens. The axial compressive strength of strengthened columns is related to the curing temperatures. The improvement of axial compressive strength decreases with reducing temperature,and when the temperature drops to a certain value,the improvement increases with falling temperature.

Performance Evaluation of One-Way Concrete Slabs Reinforced with New Developed GFRP Bars

The incorporation of fiber-reinforced-polymer (FRP) bars in construction as a replacement to steel bars provides a superior material which is capable to overcome corrosion problems. However, serviceability requirements are important issues to be considered in the design of concrete elements reinforced with glass-FRP (GFRP) bars which are known to have larger deflections and wider crack widths as well as weaker bond compared with steel reinforced concrete. As a solution to this problem, square GFRP bars are proposed. This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation that was performed, in which newly developed square and circular GFRP bars were fabricated in the lab. Also, the GFRP bars were tested and used to reinforce concrete slabs. A total of nine full-scale GFRP-reinforced concrete (RC) one-way slabs were constructed, tested and analyzed, considering the most influencing parameters such as the cross sectional shape of GFRP bars, reinforcement ratio, the concrete characteristics strength, and adding polypropylene fibers to the concrete mixture. The test results were showed that, the tested slabs with GFRP square bars improved the deflection and cracking behavior as well as the ultimate load.

Seismic retrofitting of reinforced concrete frame structures using GFRP-tube-confined-concrete composite braces

This paper presents a new type of structural bracing intended for seismic retrofitting use in framed structures. This special composite brace, termed glass-fiber-reinforced-polymer （GFRP）-tube-confined-concrete composite brace, is comprised of concrete confined by a GFRP tube and an inner steel core for energy dissipation. Together with a contribution from the GFRP-tube confined concrete, the composite brace shows a substantially increased stiffness to control story drift, which is often a preferred feature in seismic retrofitting. An analysis model is established and implemented in a general finite element analysis program - OpenSees, for simulating the load-displacement behavior of the composite brace. Using this model, a parametric study of the hysteretic behavior （energy dissipation, stiffness, ductility and strength） of the composite brace was conducted under static cyclic loading and it was found that the area ratio of steel core to concrete has the greatest influence among all the parameters considered. To demonstrate the application of the composite brace in seismic retrofitting, a three-story nonductile reinforced concrete （RC） frame structure was retrofitted with the composite braces. Pushover analysis and nonlinear time-history analyses of the retrofitted RC frame structure was performed by employing a suite of 20 strong ground motion earthquake records. The analysis results show that the composite braces can effectively reduce the peak seismic responses of the RC frame structure without significantly increasing the base shear demand.

Numerical Determination of Shear Strength of Steel Reinforced Concrete Column Strengthened by CFRP Sheets

The earthquake resistant property of reinforced concrete members depends on the interaction between reinforcing bars and surrounding concrete through bond to a large degree. In this paper a general system aimed at dealing with the failure analysis of reinforced concrete columns strengthened with carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) sheets including bond slip of the anchored reinforcing bars at the foot of the columns is presented. It is based on the yield design theory with a mixed modeling of the structure, according to which the concrete material is treated as a classical two dimensional continuum, whereas the longitudinal reinforcing bars are regarded as one dimensional rods including bond slip at the foot of the columns. In shear reinforced zones both the shear CFRP sheets and transverse reinforcing bars are incorporated in the analysis through a homogenization procedure and they are only in tension. The approach is then implemented numerically by means of the finite element formulation. The numerical procedure produces accurate estimates for the loading carrying capacity of the shear members taken as an illustrative application by correlation with the experimental results, so the proposed approach is valid.

Experimental study on slender reinforced concrete columns wrapped with CFRP

By axial compression tests on 6 reinforced concrete slender columns wrapped with carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP),with slenderness ratio(SR) from 4.5 to 17.5,the results show that when SR increases the retrofitting effect declines. In the case of same SR,the stability coefficient (SC) for the reinforced concrete(RC) columns with CFRP is much less than that without CFRP. There is 20% increase of stable bearing capacity to the former as compared with the latter when the SR in less than 17.5. The study summarized the simplified formula for SC,which provides a reference for engineering designers.

Shear capacity of reinforced concrete columns strengthened with CFRP sheet

This paper discusses the results of tests on the shear capacity of reinforced concrete columns strengthened with carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) sheet. The shear transfer mechanism of the specimens reinforced with CFRP sheet was studied. The factors affecting the shear capacity of reinforced concrete columns strengthened with CFRP sheet were analyzed. Several sug-gestions such as the number of layers, width and tensile strength of the CFRP sheet are proposed for this new strengthening technique. Finally, a simple and practical design method is presented in the paper. The calculated results of the suggested method are shown to be in good agreement with the test results. The suggested design method can be used in evaluating the shear capacity of reinforced concrete columns strengthened with CFRP sheet.

Fatigue properties of special kind of reinforced concrete composite beams

The special reinforced concrete composite beam consists of a steel fiber reinforced self-stressing concrete composite layer and a reinforced concrete T-beam, and constructional bars are set up at their bonding interface. Fatigue properties of the composite beam under the action of negative moment were experimentally studied. Through inverted loading mode the load-bearing state of a composite beam was simulated under the action of negative moment. With the ratios of constructional bars being 0, 0.082% and 0.164% respectively as parameters, the effects of constructional bars on the properties of composite beam, such as fatigue life, crack propagation, rigidity loss as well as damage behavior of bonding interface, were studied. The mechanism of the constructional bars on the fatigue properties of the composite beams and the restriction mechanism of crack widths and rigidity loss were analyzed. The test results show that the constructional bars can enhance the shear resistance of the bonding interface between composite layer and old concrete beam and restrict expanding of steel fiber reinforced self-stressing concrete, which are beneficial to synergistic action of composite layer and old concrete beam, to reducing the stress amplitude of bars and the crack width of composite layer, and to increasing the durability and fatigue life of the composite beam.

Experimental Investigation on the Properties of Recycled Concrete Using Hybrid Fibers

Due to the inherent property of concrete being very weak in tension, efforts have been made to overcome this deficiency by adding various type of fibers like carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP), glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP), polypropylene fiber (PPF) and stainlesssteel fiber (SSF) smeared into the concrete mix. The present study involves experimental investigation on the use of GFRP, CFRP and SSF fibers alone or as combination to improve the mechanical properties of concrete. Furthermore, concrete cylinders were cast and tested for compression and tension using 10% fly ash as cement replacement in all specimens. Besides fiber material types, fiber reinforcement ratios of 1% and 1.5% were tested to investigate the mechanical properties of concrete. In all concrete cylinder tests, the fiber reinforcement ratio of 1% had a significant contribution in increasing the tensile strength as oppose to compressive strength. As a result, the tensile and compressive strengths were increased by 26% and 11%, respectively as compared to the control specimen. Increasing the fiber reinforcement ratio from 1% to 1.5%, resulted in diminishing the mechanical properties of concrete. However, reduction in concrete compressive strength was more prominent than the tensile strength. Furthermore, it was observed that, the crack propagation was decreased with the increase of fiber content when compared to the control specimen.

Behaviour of Multiscale Progressive Damage for Different Matrix Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastics Bars

The damage formation and evolution of glass fiber reinforced plastics( GFRP) bar on mechanical properties were mainly evaluated by theoretical analysis and numerical calculations which lack of test basis of damage process. The two different matrices of unsaturated polyester and vinylester GFRP bars were selected to carry out a series of macro-mesoscopic physical and mechanical tests to analyze the tensile progressive damage process on a multiscale. The formation of apparent crack,the bonding of internal components as well as the strain change were all reflected damage evolution of GFRP bar,and a certain correlation existed between them. Wherein the matrix has an obvious impact on the damage of bar,the component stress transfer effect of vinylester bar is better than unsaturated polyester from crack propagation observation and scanning electron microscopy( SEM). The cyclic loading tests quantitatively reflect the difference of damage accumulation between different matrix bars,and the failure load of bars decreases nearly 10%.

Flexural Experimental Study on Continuous Reinforced Concrete Beams Strengthened with Basalt Fiber Reinforced Polymer/Plastic

This paper discusses a new fibrous composite known as continuous basalt fiber reinforced polymer /plastic(BFRP).Compared with other fiber reinforced polymer/plastic,BFRP has many advantages,such as ductility,high thermal resistance,corrosion resistance and economic cost.To test mechanical properties and failure modes of flexural members strengthened with BFRP,flexural experiment is conducted on four two-span T-section continuous beams strengthened with BFRP and one un-strengthened comparative beam.The experimental result shows that the strengthened beams perform remarkably in terms of yield strength,ultimate strength and ductility.BFRP has good prospects in retrofitting and strengthening of concrete structures which require good ductility and corrosion resistance.

Development and Properties of Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastics Geogrid

Glass fiber reinforced plastics geogrid has a wide application in the field of soil reinforcement because of its high strength, good toughness, and resistance to environmental stress, creep resistance and strong stability. In order to get high-powered glass fiber reinforced plastics geogrid and its mechanical characteristics, the properties and physical mechanical index of geogrid have been got through the study of its raw material, production process and important quality index. The analysis and study have been made to the geogrid＇s mechanical properties with loading speed, three-axial compression, temperature tensile test and FLAC3D numerical simulation, thus obtain the mechanical parameters of its displacement time curve, breaking strength and elongation at break. Some conclusions can be drawn as follows： （a） Using glass fiber materials, knurling and coated projection process, the f^acture strength and corrosion resistance of geogrid are greatly improved and the interlocking bite capability of soil is enhanced. （b） The fracture strength of geogrid is related to temperature and loading rate. When the surrounding rock pressure is fixed, the strength and anti-deformation ability of reinforced soil are significantly enhanced with increasing reinforced layers. （c） The pullout test shows the positive correlation between geogrid displacement and action time. （d） As a new reinforced material, the glass fiber reinforced plastics geogrid is not mature enough in theoretical research and practical experience, so it has become an urgent problem both in theoretical study and practical innovation.

Numerical simulation and experimental study on electrothermal properties of carbon/glass fiber hybrid textile reinforced concrete

Carbon/glass fiber hybrid textile reinforced concrete is a relatively new composite material with good mechanical capacity and excellent electrical conductivity.Both small-scale slab heating experiments and numerical simulation are presented in this paper.Temperature variation curves obtained during heating indicate the effects of environmental temperature,heat-conducting layer thickness and electric heating power.Comparison of temperature rising between the situations with and without thermal isolation layer is given as well.The results indicate that the textile can form a good conductive heating network and generate enough heat to raise the temperature in the concrete when connected to a power supply,while the resistance of the slab remains stable during the heating.Numerical results are in good accordance with the experiments.Real time snow-melting experiment was conducted to verify the feasibility of deicing.The electrothermal properties of textile can be utilized for deicing and snow melting in a safe,environmentally friendly and efficient way.

Mechanism of improving ductility of high strength concrete T-section beam confined by CFRP sheet subjected to flexural loading

For the purpose of inventing a new seismic retrofitting method for the reinforced high strength concrete (HSC) T-section beam using carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheet, three series, a total of twelve T-section beams with nine specimens confined by CFRP sheet in the plastic zone and three control beams were conducted up to failure under four-point bending test. The effectiveness of confining CFRP sheet on improving the flexural ductility of unstrengthened T-section beams was studied. The parameters such as the width and the thickness of CFRP sheet and the type of T-section were analyzed. The experimental results show that ductility and rotation capacity of plastic hinge can be improved by the confinement of CFRP sheet, and the ductility indices increase with the increment of width and thickness of CFRP sheet. A plastic rotation model considering the width of CFRP sheet and the effect of flange of T-section beam is proposed on the basis of the model of BAKER, and the test results show a good agreement with the perdicted results. The relevant construction suggestions for seismic retrofitting design of beam-slabs system in cast-in-place framework structure are presented.

Mechanical behavior of concrete filled glass fiber reinforced polymer-steel tube under cyclic loading

The mechanical behavior of concrete-filled glass fiber reinforced polymer(GFRP)-steel tube structures under combined seismic loading is investigated in this study. Four same-sized specimens with different GFRP layout modes were tested by a quasi-static test system. Finite element analysis(FEA) was also undertaken and the results were presented. Results of the numerical simulation compared well with those from experimental tests. Parametric analysis was conducted by using the FE models to evaluate the effects of GFRP thickness, axial compression rate, and cross sectional steel ratio. The experimental and numerical results show that the technique of GFRP strengthening is effective in improving the seismic performance of traditional concrete-filled steel tubes, with variations related to different GFRP layout modes.

Experimental Study of the Shear Capacity of Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer Reinforced Concrete Beam with Circular Cross Section

In order to research the shear behavior of glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) reinforced concrete beam with circular cross section, based on the test results of 36 concrete beams subjected to four-point loading up to failure, the shear capacity and mechanical properties of deformation were analyzed comparatively between GFRP reinforced concrete (GFRP-RC) beams and steel reinforced concrete (steel-RC) beams. Furthermore, influencing factors of shear capacity of GFRP-RC beam with circular cross section were also investigated. The test results indicate that the failure modes of GFRP-RC and steel-RC beams are the same, but the crack patterns are slightly different. And, the shear capacity of GFRP-RC beam firstly increases with the reduction of shear span ratio, and then decreases. In addition, it was found that the influencing coefficient of GFRP on concrete increases with shear span ratio reducing.