• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.40 no.7
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• pp.625-631
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• 2003

Recent work at USC has focused on strategies to enhance the toughness and overall mechanical performance of polymer foams for use in lightweight sandwich structures. Both mechanical and chemical approaches have been employed with reasonable success. Fiber reinforcement, though difficult from a processing perspective, can lead to substantial enhancements in toughness and strength, while reducing friability. Chemical modifications are also challenging from a processing perspective, but can produce similar enhancements in performance. Efforts to enhance performance of phenolic foam and PVC foam through fiber reinforcement and chemical modification are described, along with the resulting enhancements in performance.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.349-360
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• 2010

Three dimensional free vibrations analysis of functionally graded fiber reinforced cylindrical shell is presented, using differential quadrature method (DQM). The cylindrical shell is assumed to have continuous grading of fiber volume fraction in the radial direction. Suitable displacement functions are used to reduce the equilibrium equations to a set of coupled ordinary differential equations with variable coefficients, which can be solved by differential quadrature method to obtain natural frequencies. The main contribution of this work is presenting useful results for continuous grading of fiber reinforcement in the thickness direction of a cylindrical shell and comparison with similar discrete laminate composite ones. Results indicate that significant improvement is found in natural frequency of a functionally graded fiber reinforced cylinder due to the reduction in spatial mismatch of material properties and natural frequency.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.641-644
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• 2006

Recently, fiber cementitious composite has been researched due to its good ductility. In this paper, Ductile Fiber Reinforcement Cementitious Coposite (DFRCC) is applied as reinforcement in concrete to prove its better performance. Compare to ordinary concrete, DFRCC has higher ductility which helps control the propagation of cracking without decreasing the elastic modulus and ultimate strength. In this research, experiments of different mixture ratios have been implemented to find a suitable mixture ratio value to produce high performance DFRCC material.

• Advances in materials Research
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.55-66
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• 2016

This paper describes a study on the effects of $Mg_2Si_{(p)}$ addition on the microstructure, porosity, and mechanical properties namely hardness and tensile properties of AA332 composite. Each composite respectively contains 5, 10, 15, and 20 wt% reinforcement particles developed by a stir-casting. The molten composite was stirred at 600 rpm and melted at $900^{\circ}C{\pm}5^{\circ}C$. The $Mg_2Si$ particles were wrapped in an aluminum foil to keep them from burning when melting. The findings revealed that the microstructure of $Mg_2Si_{(p)}/AA332$ consists of ${\alpha}$-Al, binary eutectic ($Al+Mg_2Si$), $Mg_2Si$ particles, and intermetallic compound. The intermetallic compound was identified as Fe-rich and Cu-rich, formed as polygonal or blocky, Chinese script, needle-like, and polyhendrons or "skeleton like". The porosity of $Mg_2Si_{(p)}/AA332$ composite increased from 8-10% and the density decreased from 9-12% from as-cast. Mechanical properties such as hardness increased for over 42% from as-cast and the highest UTS, elongation, and maximum Q.I were achieved in the sample of 10% $Mg_2Si$. The study concludes that combined with AA332, the amount of 10 wt% of$Mg_2Si$ is a suitable reinforcement quantity with the combination ofAA332.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.189-201
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• 2018

Intumescent system is a highly effective flame retardant technology that takes advantage of the mechanism of foaming and carbonization. In order to materialize Intumescent system, it is necessary to use reinforcement material to improve the strength of the material. In this study, we used kenaf as a natural fiber to manufacture intumescent/EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate) composites to improve mechanical and flame retardant performance. Finally two materials with different particle shape are applied to one system. Therefore, the influence factors of the particles with different shapes on the composite material were analyzed based on the tensile test. For this purpose, we have used the tensile strength analysis model and confirmed that it can only act as a partial strength reinforcement due to weak binding force between the matrix and particles. In the combustion characteristics analysis using cone calorimeter and UL 94, the combustion characteristics were enhanced as the content of Intuemscent was increased. As the content of kenaf increased, combustion characteristics were strengthened and carbonization characteristics were weakened. Through the application of kenaf, it can be confirmed that elastic modulus improvement and combustion characteristics can be strengthened, which confirmed the possibility of development of environmentally friendly flame retardant materials.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.203-209
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• 2010

In this study, the fatigue characteristics and life of a woven glass fabric/epoxy laminate composite applied to railway vehicles was evaluated. The fatigue test was conducted using a tension-tension load with a stress ratio R of 0.1 and frequency of 5 Hz. Two types of woven glass fabric/epoxy laminate composite was used in the fatigue test: with and without carbon/epoxy ply reinforcement. In addition, the fatigue life of the woven glass fabric/epoxy laminate composite was compared with that of aluminum 6005, which is used in the car body and underframe structures of railway vehicles. The test results showed that the failure strength and life of the woven glass fabric/epoxy laminate composite reinforced with three carbon/epoxy plies had a remarkable improvement compared with that of the bare specimen without reinforcement.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.15-26
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• 2020

The top-and-seat angles with double web angles are commonly used in the design of beam-to-column joints in Asian and North American countries. The seismic behavior analysis of these joints with large cross-section size of beam and column (often connected by four or more bolts) is a challenge due to the effects from the relatively larger size of stiffened angles and the composite action from the adjacent concrete slab. This paper presents an experimental investigation on the seismic performance of exterior composite beam-to-column joints with stiffened angles under cyclic loading. Four full-scale composite joints with different configuration (only one specimen contain top angle in concrete slab) were designed and tested. The joint specimens were designed by considering the effects of top angles, longitudinal reinforcement bars and arrangement of bolts. The behavior of the joints was carefully investigated, in terms of the failure modes, slippage, backbone curves, strength degradation, and energy dissipation abilities. It was found that the slippage between top-and-seat angles and beam flange, web angle and beam web led to a notable pinching effect, in addition, the ability of the energy dissipation was significantly reduced. The effect of anchored beams on the behavior of the joints was limited due to premature failure in concrete, the concrete slab that closes to the column flange and upper flange of beam plays an significant role when the joint subjected to the sagging moment. It is demonstrated that the ductility of the joints was significantly improved by the staggered bolts and welded longitudinal reinforcement bars.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.435-451
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• 2021

Shear lag effect was a significant mechanical behavior of steel-concrete composite beams, and the effective flange width was needed to consider this effect. However, the effective flange width is mostly determined by static load test. The cyclic vehicle loading cases, which is more practical, was not well considered. This paper focuses on the study of shear lag effect of the concrete slab in the negative moment region under fatigue cyclic load. Two specimens of two-span steel-concrete composite beams were tested under fatigue load and static load respectively to compare the differences in the negative moment region. The reinforcement strain in the negative moment region was measured and the stress was also analyzed under different loads. Based on the OpenSees framework, finite element analysis model of steel-concrete composite beam is established, which is used to simulate transverse reinforcement stress distribution as well as the variation trends under fatigue cycles. With the established model, effects of fatigue stress amplitude, flange width to span ratio, concrete slab thickness and shear connector stiffness on the shear lag effect of concrete slab in negative moment area are analyzed, and the effective flange width ratio of concrete slab under different working conditions is calculated. The simulated results of effective flange width are compared with calculated results of the commonly used specifications, and it is found that the methods in the specifications can better estimate the shear lag effect in concrete slab under static load, but the effective flange width in the negative moment zone under fatigue load has a large deviation.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2017

In order to improve the deformation capacity of the high-strength concrete shear wall, five high-strength concrete shear wall specimens confined with high-strength rectangular spiral reinforcement (HRSR) possessing different parameters, were designed in this paper. One specimen was only adopted high-strength rectangular spiral hoops in embedded columns, the rest of the four specimens were used high-strength rectangular spiral hoops in embedded columns, and high-strength spiral horizontal distribution reinforcement were used in the wall body. Pseudo-static test were carried out on high-strength concrete shear wall specimens confined with HRSR, to study the influence of the factors of longitudinal reinforcement ratio, hoop reinforcement form and the spiral stirrups outer the wall on the failure modes, failure mechanism, ductility, hysteresis characteristics, stiffness degradation and energy dissipation capacity of the shear wall. Results showed that using HRSR as hoops and transverse reinforcements could restrain concrete, slow load carrying capacity degeneration, improve the load carrying capacity and ductility of shear walls; under the vertical force, seismic performance of the RC shear wall with high axial compression ratio can be significantly improved through plastic hinge area or the whole body of the shear wall equipped with outer HRSR.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.115-132
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• 2023

The present study experimentally and analytically investigates the effect of tensile reinforcement ratio and arrangement on the behavior of FRP strengthened reinforced concrete (RC) beams. The experimental part of the program was comprised of 8 RC beams that were tested under four-point bending. Results have shown that by keeping the total cross-section area of tensile reinforcing bars constant, in specimens with a low reinforcement ratio, increasing the number and decreasing the diameter of bars in the section lead to 21% and 29% increase in the load-carrying capacity of specimens made with normal and high compressive strength, respectively. In specimens with high reinforcement ratio, a different behavior was observed. Furthermore, the accuracy of the existing code provisions and analytical models in predicting the load-carrying capacity of the FRP strengthened beams failed by premature debonding mode were evaluated. Herein, a model is proposed which considers the tensile reinforcement ratio (as opposed to code provisions) to achieve more accurate results for calculating the load carrying capacity of FRP strengthened RC beams.