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The purpose of this paper is to present the results of experimental and theoretical studies on the flexural capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) beams strengthened using externally bonded bi-directional glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) composites and different end anchorage systems.

A series of nine RC beams with a length of 1,600 mm and a cross-section of 200 mm depth and 100 mm width were prepared and externally strengthened in flexure with bi-directional GFRP composites. These strengthened beams were anchored with three different end anchorage systems namely closed GFRP wraps, GFRP U-wraps and mechanical anchors. All these beams were tested with four-point bending system up to failure. The experimental results are compared with the theoretical results obtained using the relevant design guidelines.

The experimental results demonstrate a significant increase in the flexural performance of the GFRP strengthened beams with regard to the ultimate load carrying capacity and stiffness. The results also show that GFRP strengthened beams without end anchorages experienced intermediate concrete debonding failure at the GFRP plate end, whereas all the GFRP strengthened beams with different end anchorage systems failed in rupture of GFRP with concrete crushing. The theoretical results revealed no significant difference among the relevant design guidelines with regard to the predicted ultimate moment capacities of the bi-directional GFRP strengthened RC beams. However, the results show that ACI Committee 440 Report (2008) design recommendation provides reasonably acceptable predictions for the ultimate moment capacities of the tested beams strengthened externally with bi-directional GFRP reinforcement followed by FIB Bulletin 14 (2001) and eventually by JSCE (1997).

The research work presented in this manuscript is authentic and could contribute to the understanding of the overall behaviour of RC beams strengthened with FRP and different end anchorage systems under flexural loading.

The purpose of this paper is to report the preparation, characterisation and machinability of resin hybrid GFRP composites, which are made of glass fibre and the mixture of epoxy & polyester resin.

Resin hybrid GFRP laminates containing 0, 20 and 40wt% of polyester resin with the epoxy resin are prepared by conventional hand layup technique using glass fibre as the reinforcement. The variation of break load and shear strength for three different combinations of epoxy and polyester resin are studied by ASTM. A plan of experiment based on Taguchi was established with prefixed cutting parameters and the machining was performed. A stylus type profilometer to examine the surface roughness and shop microscope to examine the delamination of resin hybrid GFRP laminates were used. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to investigate the cutting characteristics of resin hybrid GFRP composite materials using solid carbide end mill. The correlation was obtained by multiple‐variable linear regression using Minitab 14 software.

Taguchi analysis reveals that the resin hybrid GFRP laminate provides better machinability in terms of surface roughness and delamination when compared to homogenous GFRP laminates (pure epoxy resin). Polyester resin enhances the machinability of the GFRP laminates.

The machinability of the resin hybrid GFRP laminates can be improved further by modifying the polyester resin percentage.

The resin hybrid GFRP laminates so developed can be used in aircraft and aerospace applications to increase the shear and work of fracture properties.

Use of fibre‐reinforced polymer (FRP) composite rods, in lieu of steel rebars, as the main flexural reinforcements in reinforced concrete (RC) beams have recently been suggested by many researchers. However, the development of FRP RC beam design is still stagnant in the construction industry and this may be attributed to a number of reasons such as the high cost of FRP rods compared to steel rebars and the reduced member ductility due to the brittleness of FRP rods. To resolve these problems, one of the possible methods is to adopt both FRP rods and steel rebars to internally reinforce the concrete members. The effectiveness of this new reinforcing system remains problematic and continued research in this area is needed. An experimental study on the load‐deflection behaviour of concrete beams internally reinforced with glass fibre‐reinforced polymer (GFRP) rods and steel rebars was therefore conducted and some important findings are summarized in this paper.

The purpose of this paper is to present experimental investigations on the structural behaviour of composite sandwich panels for civil engineering applications. The performance of two different core materials – rigid plastic polyurethane (PU) foam and polypropylene (PP) honeycomb – combined with glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) skins, and the effect of using GFRP ribs along the longitudinal edges of the panels were investigated.

The experimental campaign first included flatwise tensile tests on the GFRP skins; edgewise and flatwise compressive tests; flatwise tensile tests on small‐scale sandwich specimens; and shear tests on the core materials. Subsequently, flexural static and dynamic tests were carried out in full‐scale sandwich panels (2.50×0.50×0.10 m³) in order to evaluate their service and failure behaviour. Linear elastic analytical and numerical models of the tested sandwich panels were developed in order to confirm the effects of varying the core material and of introducing GFRP ribs.

Tests confirmed the considerable influence of the core, namely of its stiffness and strength, on the performance of the unstrengthened panels; in addition, tests showed that the introduction of lateral reinforcements significantly increases the stiffness and strength of the panels, with the shear behaviour of strengthened panels being governed by the ribs. The unstrengthened panels collapsed due to core shear failure, while the strengthened panels failed due to face skin delamination followed by crushing of the skins. The models, validated with the experimental results, allowed simulating the serviceability behaviour of the sandwich panels with a good accuracy.

The present study confirmed that composite sandwich panels made of GFRP skins and PU rigid foam or PP honeycomb cores have significant potential for a wide range of structural applications, presenting significant stiffness and strength, particularly when strengthened with lateral GFRP ribs.

This paper explores the behavior of GFRP and steel reinforced concrete columns when subjected to eccentrically axial loads. Six columns of 150^*150 mm cross section were tested. Four of them had GFRP reinforcement and two had steel reinforcement. The concrete strength of the GFRP reinforced columns was either 24.73 Mpa or 38.35 Mpa while for the steel reinforced columns it was 24.73 Mpa. The eccentricity was either 50 mm or 25 mm and the tie spacing was either 80 mm or 130 mm. Large longitudinal deformations were recorded for columns with GFRP reinforcement and for columns with large tie spacings. However, tie spacing had no notable effect on the maximum lateral deflection and ductility of GFRP columns of this research. The average maximum stress was about 60% of the concrete compressive strength for columns with initial eccentricity of 50 mm. GFRP bars recorded higher strains than steel bars and these strains were larger when the tie spacing was large. The increase in the strength of the concrete was associated with reduction in the GFRP bar strain. Two interaction diagrams were plotted for the columns and they present lower bound to the obtained experimental results.

This study aimed to investigate the collective effects of bending load and hygrothermal aging on glass fibre-reinforced plastics (GFRP) due to the fact that stress and water absorption is inevitable during GFRP applications.

The water boiling method was used to study the moisture absorption, desorption behaviour and evaluate the performance of GFRP laminates under loading in this article. The moisture diffusion of laminates is characterized in three aging conditions (25°C, 45°C and 65°C water), along with three levels of bending load coefficients (0, 0.3 and 0.6). The moisture diffusion coefficients are determined through the curve fitting method of the experimental data of the initial process, based on the Fickian diffusion model. Moreover, the laminates’ performance is further discussed after adequate environmental aging and loading.

It was found that moisture absorption is promoted by the presence of bending load and boiling during this study. The absorption diffusion coefficient and moisture equilibrium content of the specimens increased with an increasing loading ratio and temperature. The bending strength of the laminate varied according to a contrary trend. Furthermore, the desorbed moisture content is found to be much higher after higher levels of bending load because it is harder to desorb the moisture in the interfaces and micro cracks.

Collective effects of bending load and hygrothermal aging promote the absorption and result in accelerating property degradation of GFRP. It is significant to focus on these effects on the failure of GFRP.

A novel unit was designed to simulate the various loading acted on containers in this work.

This study aims to conduct an experimental study and finite element model (FEM) to investigate the flexural behavior of heat-damaged beams strengthened/repaired by hybrid fiber-reinforced polymers (HFRP).

Two groups of beams of (150 × 250 × 1,200) mm were cast, strengthened and repaired using different configurations of HFRP and tested under four-point loadings. The first group was kept at room temperature, while the second group was exposed to a temperature of 400°C.

It was found that using multiple layers of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) and glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) enhanced the strength more than a single layer. Also, the order of two layers of FRP showed no effect on flexural behavior of beams. Using a three-layer scheme (attaching the GFRP first and followed by two layers of CFRP) exhibited increase in ultimate load more than the scheme attached by CFRP first. Furthermore, the scheme HGC (heated beam repaired with glass and carbon, in sequence) allowed to achieve residual flexural capacity of specimen exposed to 400°C. Typical flexural failure was observed in control and heat-damaged beams, whereas the strengthened/repaired beams failed by cover separation and FRP debonding, however, specimen repaired with two layers of GFRP failed by FRP rupture. The FEM results showed good agreement with experimental results.

Few researchers have studied the effects of HFRP on strengthening and repair of heated, damaged reinforced concrete (RC) beams. This paper investigates, both experimentally and analytically, the performance of externally strengthened and repaired RC beams, in flexure, with different FRP configurations of CFRP and GFRP.

Glass fibre reinforced plastics (GFRP) contain two phases of materials with drastically distinguished mechanical and thermal properties, which brings in complicated interactions between the matrix and the reinforcement during machining. Surface quality and dimensional precision will greatly affect parts during their useful life especially in cases where the components will be in contact with other elements or materials during their useful life. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the application of the Taguchi method with fuzzy logic to optimise the machining parameters for machining of GFRP composites with multiple characteristics.

The machining tests were performed on a CNC milling machine using solid carbide (K10) End mill cutting tool with three different helix angles. Experiments were planned using Taguchi’s orthogonal array with the cutting conditions prefixed.

The machining parameters, namely, helix angle of the end mill cutter, spindle speed, feed rate, depth of cut, and work piece fibre orientation (specially applied to the GFRP composites) were optimised with considerations of multiple response characteristics, including machining force, material removal rate, and delamination. The results from confirmation runs indicated that the determined optimal combination of machining parameters improved the performance of the machining process.

Multi-response optimisation of machinability behaviour of GFRP composites using fuzzy logic has not been attempted previously.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential design advantage in terms of resistance factors for normal weight concrete beams containing moderate-dose randomly dispersed short fibers and reinforced with glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars.

An analytical model based on the current code specifications is used to calculate the moment capacity of over-reinforced sections. The vast majority of the considered beams are over-reinforced, compression-controlled. The data of the fiber-reinforced concrete (FRC) reinforced with GFRP bars are collected from three published research studies which are based on experimentally tested results. Three different types of short fibers with four volume fractions are considered. Probabilistic model is established to conduct reliability-based calibration using Monte-Carlo Simulation. Limit state function, relevant load and resistance random variables are identified, and adequate statistical parameters are selected. Target reliability index consistent with the one used to develop current design code specifications is used.

Reliability analysis and calibration process are carried out with the intention of estimating the flexural resistance factors for FRC beams reinforced with GFRP bars.

The predicted flexural resistance factors ranged from 0.72 to 0.95, giving the resistance factors the potential to be increased above the currently specified value of 0.65 for compression-controlled members reinforced with FRP bars.

This study aimed to develop a mathematical model for delamination and surface roughness during end milling by using grey relational analysis (GRA) and to determine how the input parameters (cutting speed, depth of cut, helix angle and feed rate) influence the output response (delamination and surface roughness) in machining of hybrid glass fibre-reinforced plastic (GFRP) (abaca and glass) composite using solid carbide end mill cutter.

The Four factors, three levels Taguchi orthogonal array design in GRA is used to conduct the experimental investigation. The Shop Vision inspection system is used to measure the width of maximum damage of the machined hybrid GFRP composite. The Shop Handysurf E-35A surface roughness tester is used to measure the surface roughness of the machined hybrid GFRP composite. “Minitab 14” is used to analyse the data collected graphically. Analysis of variance is conducted to validate the model in determining the most significant parameter.

The GRA is used to predict the input factors influencing the delamination and surface roughness on the machined surfaces of the hybrid GFRP composite at different cutting conditions with the chosen range of 95 per cent confidence intervals. Analysis on the influences of the entire individual input machining parameters on the delamination and surface roughness has been conducted using GRA.

Effect of milling of the hybrid GFRP composite on delamination and surface roughness with various helix angle solid carbide end mill has not been analysed yet using the GRA technique.