Structural performance of a façade precast concrete sandwich panel enabled by a bar-type basalt fiber-reinforced polymer connector

In this study,a novel diagonally inserted bar-type basalt fiber reinforced polymer(BFRP)connector was proposed,aiming to achieve both construction convenience and partially composite behavior in precast concrete sandwich panels(PCSPs).First,pull-out tests were conducted to evaluate the anchoring performance of the connector in concrete after exposure to different temperatures.Thereafter,direct shear tests were conducted to investigate the shear performance of the connector.After the test on the individual performance of the connector,five façade PCSP specimens with the bar-type BFRP connector were fabricated,and the out-of-plane flexural performance was tested under a uniformly distributed load.The investigating parameters included the panel length,opening condition,and boundary condition.The results obtained in this study primarily indicated that 1)the bar-type BFRP connector can achieve a reliable anchorage system in concrete;2)the bar-type BFRP connector can offer sufficient stiffness and capacity to achieve a partially composite PCSP;3)the boundary condition of the panel considerably influenced the out-of-plane flexural performance and composite action of the investigated façade PCSP.

Compressive Performance of Fiber Reinforced Recycled Aggregate Concrete by Basalt Fiber Reinforced Polymer-Polyvinyl Chloride Composite Jackets

The development of recycled aggregate concrete(RAC)provides a new approach to limiting the waste of natural resources.In the present study,the mechanical properties and deformability of RACs were improved by adding basalt fibers(BFs)and using external restraints,such as a fiber-reinforced polymer(FRP)jacket or a PVC pipe.Samples were tested under axial compression.The results showed that RAC(50%replacement of aggregate)containing 0.2%BFs had the best mechanical properties.Using either BFs or PVC reinforcement had a slight effect on the loadbearing capacity and mode of failure.With different levels of BFs,the compressive strengths of the specimens reinforced with 1-layer and 3-layer basalt fiber reinforced polymer(BFRP)increased by 6.7%–10.5%and 16.5%–23.7%,respectively,and the ultimate strains increased by 48.5%–80.7%and 97.1%–141.1%,respectively.The peak stress of the 3-layer BFRP-PVC increased by 42.2%,and the ultimate strain improved by 131.3%,relative to the control.This reinforcement combined the high tensile strength of BFRP,which improved the post-peak behavior,and PVC,which enhanced the structural durability.In addition,to investigate the influence of the various constraints on compressive behavior,the stress-strain response was analyzed.Based on the analysis of experimental results,a peak stress-strain model and an amended ultimate stress-strain model were proposed.The models were verified as well;the result showed that the predictions from calculations are generally consistent with the experimental data(error within 10%).The results of this study provide a theoretical basis and reference for future applications of fiber-reinforced recycled concrete.

Compressive Strength Estimation for the Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP)-Confined Concrete Columns with Different Shapes Using Artificial Neural Networks

An evaluation of existing strength of concrete columns confined with fiber-reinforced polymer( FRP) was presented with extensive collection of experimental data. According to the evaluation results, artificial neural networks( ANNs) model to predict the ultimate strength of FRP confined column with different shapes was proposed. The models had seven inputs including the column length,the tensile strength of the FRP in the hoop direction,the total thickness of FRP,the diameter of the concrete specimen,the elastic modulus of FRP,the corner radius and the concrete compressive strength. The compressive strength of the confined concrete was the output data. The results reveal that the proposed models have good prediction and generalization capacity with acceptable errors.

Deriving Tensile Properties of Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymers (GFRP) Using Mechanics of Composite Materials

This work addresses the tensile properties of glass fiber reinforced polymers (GFRP) and investigates the different ways of estimating them without the cost associated with experimentation. This attempt is achieved through comparison between experimental results, derived in accordance with the ASTM standards, and results obtained using the mechanics of composite materials. The experimental results are also compared to results derived from work by other researchers in order to corroborate the findings regarding the correlation of tensile properties of the GFRP material and the fiber volume fraction.

Flexure-Compression Testing of Bridge Timber Piles Retrofitted with Fiber Reinforced Polymers

The adequacy of using Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) retrofit technique to restore the flexure-compression behavior of deteriorated bridge timber piles is examined experimentally in this paper. Sixteen specimens are tested monotonically under eccentric compressive loading. The specimens are first tested in their unretrofitted condition to determine their elastic properties. Each specimen is then cut and connected (posted) using the proposed FRP retrofit technique, and retested. The results show that the retrofitted specimens are capable of reaching same or higher strengths than that of the unretrofitted specimens with minimal reduction in their stiffness. Based on the experimental results, a design equation is presented to compute the volumetric ratio of FRP needed for retrofitting bridge timber piles under eccentric load.

A Voronoi diagram approach for detecting defects in 3D printed fiber-reinforced polymers from microscope images

Fiber-reinforced polymer(FRP)composites are increasingly popular due to their superior strength to weight ratio.In contrast to significant recent advances in automating the FRP manufacturing process via 3D printing,quality inspection and defect detection remain largely manual and inefficient.In this paper,we propose a new approach to automatically detect,from microscope images,one of the major defects in 3D printed FRP parts:fiber-deficient areas(or equivalently,resin-rich areas).From cross-sectional microscope images,we detect the locations and sizes of fibers,construct their Voronoi diagram,and employ-shape theory to determine fiber-deficient areas.Our Voronoi diagram and-shape construction algorithms are specialized to exploit typical characteristics of 3D printed FRP parts,giving significant efficiency gains.Our algorithms robustly handle real-world inputs containing hundreds of thousands of fiber cross-sections,whether in general or non-general position.

BFPC固定结合面虚拟材料热特性参数建模

为确定含有玄武岩纤维树脂混凝土(basalt fiber polymer concrete,BFPC)固定结合面的机床基础件热特性参数,基于虚拟材料法建立了含有BFPC固定结合面组件的仿真模型,并对其热特性进行仿真分析;设计制造了含有BFPC固定结合面的组件,通过实验方法研究组件的热特性。将仿真分析和实验研究的结果进行对比,分析表明:两种方法得到的组件在不同时刻的温度场具有一致性,且仿真与对应实验点温度的误差不大于8.57%,证明了所建立的BFPC固定结合面虚拟材料参数模型的准确性,以及基于此采用虚拟材料法对含有BFPC固定结合面组件进行热特性仿真分析的精确性和有效性。

玄武岩纤维棒聚合物混凝土的弯曲韧性

研究了玄武岩纤维棒(BFB)的纤维增强指数I_(R)对玄武岩纤维棒聚合物混凝土(BFB-PC)韧性指标T_((2(n-1)))(n)的影响,通过分形理论探究了T_((2(n-1)))(n)与裂缝形貌的关系,并建立了弯曲韧性计算模型.结果表明:当IR=90.0时,BFB对BFB-PC的增韧效果最优,此时BFB-PC的弯曲韧性比未掺BFB时提升了8.39倍;BFB的增韧阈值为IR=37.5和IR=90.0;当IR相同时,与未掺聚合物的混凝土相比,聚灰比为0.06的BFB-PC T_((2(n-1)))(n)更高;IR越大裂缝形貌越复杂,T(2(n-1))(n)与裂缝分形维数呈二次函数关系;本文提出的弯曲韧性计算模型准确描述了BFB对PC梁的增韧作用,其试验值与理论值的相对误差小于15.00%.

BFRP筋回收轮胎钢纤维混凝土黏结性能分析

对玄武岩纤维增强复合材料(BFRP)筋在回收轮胎钢纤维(RTSF)混凝土中的黏结性能进行了试验和分析研究.对不同RTSF体积掺量、BFRP筋直径和嵌入长度的试件进行了拉拔试验,研究其对黏结破坏模式、黏结滑移响应和黏结强度的影响,并提出了BFRP筋RTSF混凝土的黏结滑移理论模型.结果表明:BFRP筋RTSF混凝土黏结破坏类型包括拔出破坏、劈裂破坏以及拔出且劈裂破坏;BFRP筋直径对黏结破坏模式无显著影响,而RTSF体积掺量、BFRP筋直径和嵌入长度均对黏结强度有较大影响,且RTSF体积掺量与极限黏结强度呈正相关,BFRP筋直径和嵌入长度对其影响与之相反;当RTSF体积掺量从0增大至1.5%时,其极限黏结强度最大可提高约23.87%.与已有模型相比,所提出的黏结滑移理论模型对BFRP筋RTSF混凝土的黏结滑移曲线具有更高的拟合精度.

玄武岩纤维增强复合材料拉挤圆管抗弯性能研究

为使玄武岩纤维增强复合材料(Basalt Fiber Reinforced Polymer,BFRP)拉挤圆管在桥梁工程中得到更广泛地应用,对其抗弯性能进行试验及有限元分析。对2根长度为750 mm的BFRP拉挤圆管进行三点抗弯试验;采用LS-DYNA有限元软件对试验过程进行模拟,验证有限元模拟的正确性;在保持BFRP拉挤圆管总厚度不变的条件下,研究内、外层双向纤维布的铺设厚度和角度对抗弯性能的影响。结果表明:试件从加载至破坏分为线弹性阶段、下降阶段和残余阶段,试件破坏后残余强度较大且卸载后迅速回弹恢复几何形状;有限元模拟试件的荷载~滑移曲线、失效现象和试验结果吻合较好,有限元模拟正确;布置适量厚度的内、外层双向纤维布可以提高试件的抗弯承载力;将内、外层双向纤维布铺设方向由90°变为45°后,抗弯承载力进一步提高,随着外层45°纤维布厚度增加,破坏时的挠度下降。建议制作BFRP拉挤圆管时,布置适量厚度的双向纤维布,角度以45°为宜。

玄武岩纤维增强复合材料现状及发展前景研究

玄武岩纤维(BF)具有绿色环保、高强耐腐、隔音隔热等优点,广泛应用于各类玄武岩纤维复合材料(BFRP)的研发中。目前BFRP还存在制备工艺不足、产品质量不稳定、改性混掺工艺不足等问题,针对上述问题的研究缺乏系统性总结。为此,研究了当前BFRP的制备与生产工艺、增强机理及应用现状,总结并提出了BFRP的发展及应用困境,并给出了相应的建议和研究展望。研究表明:当前基于最优单掺纤维的BFRP不断应用于土建交通、石油运输、航空航天等领域中,并呈增长趋势;但高性能BF生产、纤维混掺、BF界面改性等新型BFRP制备工艺还存在生产成本高和成品质量不稳定等问题,制约了高性能低能耗BFRP研发;BFRP生产应用全过程的规范标准仍然不健全,限制了BFRP的推广应用。随着新工艺不断发展和高性能BF的陆续研发,BFRP性能将更优异、能耗更低,未来将是BFRP深度应用的时代。研究对于高性能低能耗BFRP的研发及应用具有一定参考价值。

玄武岩纤维增强聚合物筋混凝土循环拉拔试验及预测模型

为探究动荷载下玄武岩纤维增强聚合物(BFRP)筋与混凝土的黏结行为,开展了BFRP筋混凝土正反向循环拉拔试验,对其黏结动力性能进行分析。结果表明,从黏结应力⁃滑移关系曲线揭示,循环荷载下BFRP筋与混凝土黏结行为经历4个阶段的受力特征:弹性阶段、裂缝扩展阶段、裂缝闭合阶段和摩擦阶段;随BFRP聚合物筋直径的增大,降低了BFRP筋⁃混凝土界面的黏结强度;随循环次数的增加,BFRP筋与混凝土的黏结强度减小,黏结强度对应的滑移量增加,剪切滞回面积减小,耗能能力降低;基于试验结果,提出了适用于计算循环荷载下BFRP筋与混凝土黏结性能的预测模型,从而为BFRP筋混凝土抗震和疲劳行为奠定试验和理论基础。

Constructing quasi-vertical fiber bridging behaviors of aramid pulp at interlayer of laminated basalt fiber reinforced polymer composites to improve flexural performances

Basalt Fiber Reinforced Polymer(BFRP)composites have huge potential application respects for some civil fields due to enough strength/modulus to weight and low cost by replacing carbon fiber composites.Aiming at the issues in the Resin-Rich Region(RRR)and Interfacial Transition Region(ITR)of fiber reinforced polymer composites,the characteristic Aramid Pulp(AP)fibers with micro-fiber trunk and nano-fiber branches were manufactured into multiple non-woven ultra-thin interleaving at the interlayers of BFRP composites via compression molding to reinforce the flexural strengths and elastic moduli.AP fibers were introduced into RRR to form interleaving at the interlayer,the brittle epoxy adhesive layer was improved and enabled to avoid cracking under a low external load.Free fiber branches of AP were also embedded into BF layer to construct quasi-vertical fiber bridging behaviors in ITR,stronger mechanical interlocking was created to prevent crack propagation along the bonding interface of BF/epoxy.Three-point bending testing results showed the interleaving film with 4 g/m^(2)AP exhibited the best effect among various areal densities and yielded average 315.75 MPa in flexural strength and 21.38 GPa in elastic modulus,having a 63.4%increment and a 47.1%increment respectively compared with the bases.Overall,the simple and low-cost AP interleaving is confirmed as an effective method in improving interlayer structure and flexural performance of BFRP composites,which may be considered to manufacture high-performance laminated fiber reinforced polymer composites in civil aviation industry.

Fatigue shear performance of concrete beams reinforced with hybrid(glass-fiber-reinforced polymer+steel)rebars and stirrups

Reinforced concrete beams consisting of both steel and glass-fiber-reinforced polymer rebars exhibit excellent strength,serviceability,and durability.However,the fatigue shear performance of such beams is unclear.Therefore,beams with hybrid longitudinal bars and hybrid stirrups were designed,and fatigue shear tests were performed.For specimens that failed by fatigue shear,all the glass-fiber-reinforced polymer stirrups and some steel stirrups fractured at the critical diagonal crack.For the specimen that failed by the static test after 8 million fatigue cycles,the static capacity after fatigue did not significantly decrease compared with the calculated value.The initial fatigue level has a greater influence on the crack development and fatigue life than the fatigue level in the later phase.The fatigue strength of the glass-fiber-reinforced polymer stirrups in the specimens was considerably lower than that of the axial tension tests on the glass-fiber-reinforced polymer bar in air and beam-hinge tests on the glass-fiber-reinforced polymer bar,and the failure modes were different.Glass-fiber-reinforced polymer stirrups were subjected to fatigue tension and shear,and failed owing to shear.

Application of an interpretable artificial neural network to predict the interface strength of a near-surface mounted fiber-reinforced polymer to concrete joint

Accurately estimating the interfacial bond capacity of the near-surface mounted(NSM)carbon fiber-reinforced polymer(CFRP)to concrete joint is a fundamental task in the strengthening and retrofit of existing reinforced concrete(RC)structures.The machine learning(ML)approach may provide an alternative to the commonly used semi-empirical or semi-analytical methods.Therefore,in this work we have developed a predictive model based on an artificial neural network(ANN)approach,i.e.using a back propagation neural network(BPNN),to map the complex data pattern obtained from an NSM CFRP to concrete joint.It involves a set of nine material and geometric input parameters and one output value.Moreover,by employing the neural interpretation diagram(NID)technique,the BPNN model becomes interpretable,as the influence of each input variable on the model can be tracked and quantified based on the connection weights of the neural network.An extensive database including 163 pull-out testing samples,collected from the authors’research group and from published results in the literature,is used to train and verify the ANN.Our results show that the prediction given by the BPNN model agrees well with the experimental data and yields a coefficient of determination of 0.957 on the whole database.After removing one non-significant feature,the BPNN becomes even more computationally efficient and accurate.In addition,compared with the existed semi-analytical model,the ANN-based approach demonstrates a more accurate estimation.Therefore,the proposed ML method may be a promising alternative for predicting the bond strength of NSM CFRP to concrete joint for structural engineers.

Flexural Performance of Reinforced Concrete Beams Strengthened with Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Polymer(CFRP)under Hygrothermal Environment Considering the Influence of CFRP-Concrete Interface

As an important component,the bond behavior of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer(CFRP)-concrete interface for a reinforced concrete(RC)beam is very significant.In this study,a theoretical model was established to analyze the flexural behavior of CFRP-strengthened RC beams,and the CFRP-concrete interfacial bond-slip relationship under hygrothermal environment was unified into one model.Two failure criteria corresponding to two types of failure modes,i.e.,concrete crushing and intermediate crack(IC)-induced debonding,were developed.Through the theoretical model,the flexural behavior of deflection,interfacial shear stress distribution and ultimate load of a CFRP-strengthened RC beam under hygrothermal environment were obtained and predicted.Moreover,the theoretical model was verified by test results.The results showed that the hygrothermal environment had a significant impact on the CFRP-concrete interface behavior.Compared with the control beam without hygrothermal environment pretreatment,the deflection and ultimate load of the strengthened RC beam decreased by 51.9%and 20%,respectively.

Shear behavior of ultra-high-performance concrete beams prestressed with external carbon fiber-reinforced polymer tendons

The ultra-high-performance concrete(UHPC)and fiber-reinforced polymer(FRP)are well-accepted high-performance materials in the field of civil engineering.The combination of these advanced materials could contribute to improvement of structural performance and corrosion resistance.Unfortunately,only limited studies are available for shear behavior of UHPC beams reinforced with FRP bars,and few suggestions exist for prediction methods for shear capacity.This paper presents an experimental investigation on the shear behavior of UHPC beams reinforced with glass FRP(GFRP)and prestressed with external carbon FRP(CFRP)tendons.The failure mode of all specimens with various shear span to depth ratios from 1.7 to 4.5 was diagonal tension failure.The shear span to depth ratio had a significant influence on the shear capacity,and the effective prestressing stress affected the crack propagation.The experimental results were then applied to evaluate the equations given in different codes/recommendations for FRPreinforced concrete structures or UHPC structures.The comparison results indicate that NF P 18-710 and JSCE CES82 could appropriately estimate shear capacity of the slender specimens with a shear span to depth ratio of 4.5.Further,a new shear design equation was proposed to take into account the effect of the shear span to depth ratio and the steel fiber content on shear capacity.

Experimental and numerical investigations of the compressive behavior of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer-strengthened tubular steel T-joints

A method for strengthening damaged tubular steel T-joints under axial compression by wrapping them with carbon fiber-reinforced polymer(CFRP)sheets was proposed and evaluated.The influence of the CFRP strengthening on the failure mode and load capacity of T-joints with different degrees of damage was investigated using experiments and finite element analyses.Five T-joints were physically tested:one bare joint to obtain the peak load and corresponding displacement(D1m),two reinforced joints to provide a reference,and two pre-damaged then retrofitted joints to serve as the primary research objects.The ratio of the pre-loaded specimen chord displacement to the value of D1m was considered to be the degree of damage of the two retrofitted joints,and was set to 0.80 and 1.20.The results demonstrate that the maximum capacity of the retrofitted specimen was increased by 0.83%–15.06%over the corresponding unreinforced specimens.However,the capacity of the retrofitted specimen was 2.51%–22.77%lesser compared with that of the directly reinforced specimens.Next,111 numerical analysis models(0.63≤b≤0.76,9.70≤g≤16.92)were established to parametrically evaluate the effects of different geometric and strengthening parameters on the load capacity of strengthened tubular T-joints under different degrees of damage.The numerical analysis results revealed that the development of equivalent plastic strain at the selected measuring points was moderated by strengthening with CFRP wrapping,and indicated the optimal CFRP strengthening thickness and wrapping orientation according to tubular T-joint parameters.Finally,reasonable equations for calculating the load capacity of CFRP-strengthened joints were proposed and demonstrated to provide accurate results.The findings of this study can be used to inform improved CFRP strengthening of damaged tubular steel structures.

Strength and Deformation of Axially Loaded Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Sheet Confined Concrete Columns

Experimental results of 29 axially loaded fiber-reinforced polymer sheet (FS) confined concrete columns and two reference plain concrete columns are introduced. Twenty four column specimens were confined with carbon fiber sheet (CFS) and five column specimens were hybrid confined with both CFS and glass fiber sheet (GFS). The influence of aspect ratio, FS material, initial axial force ratio, and FS confine-ment degree on the strength and deformation of columns were studied. Based on the experimental results, the equations of complete stress-strain curve of CFS confined concrete are proposed. These equations are suitable for the nonlinear analysis of square and rectangular section columns. Suggestions of applying FS to confine concrete columns are presented.