Fatigue behavior of crane beam strengthened with CFRP

In order to study the fatigue behavior of the damaged reinforced concrete （RC） beams strengthened by carbon fiber reinforced polymer （CFRP） laminate, three T-shaped beams strengthened by CFRP and one contrasting beam are tested under fatigue loading, with the parameters of different modes of strengthening and different fatigue load levels considered. The main results obtained from the tests are： the width of the crack decreases 50. 2% to 66%, and the development of the crack is limited; the stress of steel decreases 24. 1% to 28. 2%, and the stiffness increases 14.9% to 16. 1% after being strengthened. Based on the technical specification for strengthening concrete structures with CFRP and the conclusions from the tests, a calculating scheme of the flexure stiffness is given, which can be used for reference in engineering design. Finally, some suggestions are given for design in fatigue strengthening.

The Sensing Principle of FBG and Its Experimental Application in Structure Strengthening Detection

Based on the basic theory of the fiber Bragg grating sensor,a kind of stickup FBG sensor is developed,which is applied in the structure strengthening.With the experiment of the FBG senor and the common electricity sensor stuck on the reinforced structure,the result shows that the FBG sensor not only has a high performance,but also can realize the control on the spot and on the line.

Strengthening Porous PVA with TiO_2 Structure by an Ice-Templating Method

A poly vinyl alcohol（PVA） scaffold with aligned porous is strengthened by in-situ combining with TiO2. The increased freezing rate can be used to further increase the strength of aligned porous materials. The strengthened porous PVA exhibits aligned interconnected porous structures and shows a significant enhancement in tensile testing and compression strength testing.

Mode-I fracture and durability of FRP-concrete bonded interfaces

In this study, a work-of-fracture method using a three-point bend beam （3PBB） specimen, which is commonly used to determine the fracture energy of concrete, was adapted to evaluate the mode-I fracture and durability of fiber-reinforced polymer （FRP） composite-concrete bonded interfaces. Interface fracture properties were evaluated with established data reduction procedures. The proposed test method is primarily for use in evaluating the effects of freeze-thaw （F-T） and wet-dry （W-D） cycles that are the accelerated aging protocols on the mode-I fracture of carbon FRP-concrete bonded interfaces. The results of the mode-I fracture tests of F-T and W-D cycle-conditioned specimens show that both the critical load and fracture energy decrease as the number of cycles increases, and their degradation pattern has a nearly linear relationship with the number of cycles. However, compared with the effect of the F-T cycles, the critical load and fracture energy degrade at a slower rate with W-D cycles, which suggests that F-T cyclic conditioning causes more deterioration of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer （CFRP）-concrete bonded interface. After 50 and 100 conditioning cycles, scaling of concrete was observed in all the specimens subjected to F-T cycles, but not in those subjected to W-D cycles. The examination of interface fracture surfaces along the bonded interfaces with varying numbers of F-T and W-D conditioning cycles shows that （1） cohesive failure of CFRP composites is not observed in all fractured surfaces; （2） for the control specimens that have not been exposed to any conditioning cycles, the majority of interface failure is a result of cohesive fracture of concrete （peeling of concrete from the concrete substrate）, which means that the cracks mostly propagate within the concrete; and （3） as the number of F-T or W-D conditioning cycles increases, adhesive failure along the interface begins to emerge and gradually increases. It is thus concluded that the fracture properties （i.e., the critical load and fracture energy） of the bonded interface are controlled primarily by the concrete cohesive fracture before conditioning and by the adhesive interface fracture after many cycles of F-T or W-D conditioning. As demonstrated in this study, a test method using 3PBB specimens combined with a fictitious crack model and experimental conditioning protocols for durability can be used as an effective qualification method to test new hybrid material interface bonds and to evaluate durability-related effects on the interfaces.

MICROSTRUCTURE AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF Fe_3Al BASED ALLOYS

The promise for industrial applications offered by iron aluminides is today restricted by insufficient ductility at room temperature and mediocre strength and creep resistance at high temperatures. The tendency to embrittlement in the presence of hydrogen or water vapour limits the ductility even more. The atomic arrangements in binary and alloyed variants are examined here and related to the difficulties of dislocation propagation at room and at high temperatures. In this way the influence of intrinsic structure and alloying modifications on mechanical behaviour can be understood. Possibilities for further improving properties through structure control are considered.