Abstract
The impact behaviour of flax fibre-reinforced polymer (FFRP) renovated coconut fibre-reinforced concrete (CFRC) slabs was investigated through two series of experiments and theoretical analysis. The first experiment was carried out to find out the effectiveness of FFRP retrofitted method for the partly damaged concrete structure and its performance under impact loadings. The renovation process was applied on the pre-cracked rectangular CFRC slabs of 600 mm × 300 mm × 50 mm with FFRP laminates, before the repeated impact tests. Then, the parameters of these slabs, i.e., impact force history, deflection history and damage pattern, were discussed in detail. Another experiment was conducted on the FFRP-CFRC square slabs with a dimension of 600 mm × 600 mm × 50 mm. Based on test results, the effect of different FFRP configurations was discussed to find out the effective reinforcement method. In addition, the two-degree-of-freedom spring-mass model was applied to predict the impact force. Results demonstrate that FFRP composites have a good potential to be utilised as renovated construction materials under dynamic load conditions.
Highlights
Fibre-reinforced polymers (FRP) were first presented in the 1940s, followed by variousFRP reinforcing products invented in Europe and Asia in the 1970s and 1980s [1]
Abdel-Kader and Fouda [3] experimentally compared the performance between plain concrete and glass fibre-reinforced polymer (GFRP) sheet-strengthened concrete plates in terms of impact resistance under various compressive strengths
The results indicated that the GFRP reinforcement had a better performance, with a nonlinear ratio of improvement under different compressive strengths
Summary
Fibre-reinforced polymers (FRP) were first presented in the 1940s, followed by various. Kong et al [7] investigated the blast resistance of aramid fibre-reinforced plastic (AFRP) sheet retrofitted concrete slabs by analysing the effects of AFRP layer, FRP type, strengthening mode, FRP bond strength, and TNT mass. Natural fibre-reinforced polymer composite is developing rapidly lately in terms of its industrial applications, fundamental research, due to its low cost, low energy inputs, comparable mechanical properties, high specific strength, nonabrasive, and eco-friendliness [8,9,10,11]. Flax fibre-reinforced polymer wrapped coconut fibre-reinforced concrete (FFRP-CFRC) composites have been experimentally studied in recent years. A more effective wrapping configuration among different wrapping designs of the FFRP-strengthened CFRC slab were decided via impact test results, where their parameters were discussed in terms of impact force history, deflection history, energy absorption and damage pattern. Strain to fSatirlauirne (t%o )failure (%) Cured denCsuitrye(dg/dcemn3s)ity (g/cm3) LinBeaarrcoshlLrhiiannrkdeaangreesss(h%r)inkage (%)
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