This paper explores the use of Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) material for strengthening of steel bridges. The research work includes an experimental program to study the effectiveness of using very small diameter CFRP strands, configured in a sheet format, for strengthening of steel structures. The experimental program includes scaled steel-concrete composite beams strengthened with th...

ABSTRACT Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composite systems can be used for shear strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) members. The present study investigated the shear performance and the modes of failure of simply supported RC T-beams externally strengthened in shear with FRP composites. Two different FRP-based strengthening systems were investigated, namely, externally bonded FRP sheets a...

Mechanical fasteners especially bolting is commonly used in joining carbon-fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite structures due to their good joinability and easy for maintenance characteristics. Since this approach involves with notching, a proper progressive damage model (PDM) need to be implemented and verified to capture existence of damages in the structure. A three dimensional (3D) fa...

Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite materials have been widely used for retrofitting civil infrastructure systems. The ultimate goal of this study was to develop an in-site non-destructive testing (NDT) technique that can continuously and autonomously inspect the bonding condition between a carbon FRP (CFRP) layer and a host reinforced concrete (RC) structure, when the CRFP layer is used f...

This paper reports the effects of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) length on the failure process, pattern and crack propagation for a strengthened concrete beam with an initial notch. The experiments measuring load-bearing capacity for concrete beams with various CFRP lengths have been performed, wherein the crack opening displacements (COD) at the initial notch are also measured. The app...

Composite sandwich materials have yet to be widely adopted in the construction of naval vessels despite their excellent strength-to-weight ratio and low radar return. One barrier to their wider use is our limited understanding of their performance when subjected to air blast. This paper focuses on this problem and specifically the strength remaining after damage caused during an explosion. Carb...

Neutral fragments from a nanosecond KrF excimer laser-ablated carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP, carbon fiber/epoxy resin composite) were investigated by laser-ionization time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry in order to explore the laser ablation dynamics of CFRP. The neutrals were detected after the post-ionization by an ArF excimer laser pulse at variable delay times, td, relative to th...

The prerequisite for more competent and cost effective transport has led to the evolution of innovative testing and evaluation procedures. Non-destructive testing and evaluation (NDT & E) techniques for assessing the integrity of composite structures are essential to both reduce manufacturing costs and out of service time of transport means due to maintenance. Smart methods for assessing the in...

The present paper proposes a new diagnostic tool for the structural health monitoring that employs a Kriging Interpolation. Structural health monitoring is a noticeable technology for aged civil structures. Most of the structural health monitoring systems adopts parametric method based on modeling or non-parametric method such as artificial neural networks or response surfaces. The conventional...

Laminated composite structures operating in a marine environment are subject to moisture ingress. Due to the slow diffusion process of moisture, the distribution of moisture is not uniform so that the laminates can develop hygrothermal stresses. An accurate prediction of the moisture concentration and the associated hygrothermal stress is vital to the understanding of the effect of marine envir...