An automobile industry have an interest in replacement of conventional leaf spring with composite leaf spring to get better performance with less weight. This paper deals with by replacing the conventional leaf spring with composite leaf spring. The dimensions of an existing conventional steel leaf spring of a light commercial vehicle were taken to fabricate the special die which is further use...

Most of the laboratory tests investigated the flexural performance of un-preloaded or undamaged RC beams strengthened with CFRP composites. However, in engineering applications, the structural member must carry a certain load or damage. There is a lack of systematical investigations on the effects of preload or damage level on the flexural load-carrying capacity of CFRP-strengthened RC beams. T...

The use of near-surface mounted (NSM) fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) bars is an interesting method for increasing the shear and flexural strength of existing timber members. This article examines the behaviour of carbon FRP (CFRP) bars in timber under direct pull-out conditions. The objective of this experimental program is to investigate the bond strength between composite bars and timber: bar...

Thermal non-destructive testing and evaluation of glass fibre reinforced plastic materials has gained more importance in aerospace industry due to low weight and high strength capabilities in severe environmental conditions. More recently, pulse compression favorable non-stationary excitation schemes have been exhibiting reliable defect detection capabilities in infrared non-destructive testing...

Two different design problems are commonly encountered by highway bridge maintenance engineers: the upgrade of existing members to handle increased load demand, or the repair of bridge members which have experienced impact events due to overheight vehicles. This paper shows that through the use of carbon fiber reinforced (CFRP) materials highway bridge girders can be effectively strengthened or...

It can be learned that the equivalent viscous damping ratio is a crucial parameter in the application of the displacement based (DBD) method. Analytical studies presented here and elsewhere indicate that the equivalent viscous damping ratio is highly dependent on the axial load level. Furthermore, the same can apply for the loading type; namely, seismic and blast loads. Based on research findin...

This study focuses on developing fragility-based seismic vulnerability assessment techniques for seismically retrofitted multi-column bridge bent. Fragility curves are developed using Probabilistic Seismic Demand Model (PSDM) to assess the relative performance of different retrofit methods under near fault ground motions. Two different retrofit techniques namely CFRP jacketing and ECC jacketing...

Article history: Received 08.05.2012. Received in revised form 20.07.2012. Accepted 03.09.2012. Nowadays, fiber reinforced polymer materials are getting widely used in civil engineering. They have some advanced engineering characteristics like high stiffness-to-weight ratio, high strength-toweight ratio, anti-electromagnetic interference, electrical isolation and their long term durability. Met...

We have developed an instrument for directly measuring the emissivity of reflective surfaces at near-millimeter wavelengths. The thermal emission of a test sample is compared with that of a reference surface, allowing the emissivity of the sample to be determined without heating. The emissivity of the reference surface is determined by one's heating the reference surface and measuring the incre...