• Computers and Concrete
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.113-137
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• 2016

Extensive experimental studies on remarkable mechanical properties Polypropylene Fibre Reinforced Self-compacting Concrete (PFRSCC) have been executed, including different fibre volume fractions of Polypropylene fibers (0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75%, and 1%) and different water to cement ratios (0.21, 0.34, 0.38, and 0.41). The experimental program was carried out by using two hundred and sixteen specimens to obtain the impact resistance and mechanical properties of PFRSCC materials, considering compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and flexural strength. Statistical and analytical studies have been mainly focused on experimental data to correlate of mechanical properties of PFRSCC materials. Statistical results revealed that compressive, splitting tensile, and flexural strengths as well as impact resistance follow the normal distribution. Moreover, to correlate mechanical properties based on acquired test results, linear and nonlinear equations were developed among mechanical properties and impact resistance of PFRSCC materials.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.150-157
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• 2013

Fiber metal laminates (FMLs) are layered materials comprised of thin metal sheets and fiber reinforced plastic (FRP). This paper presents the numerical study of the formability enhancement of FMLs composed of an aluminum alloy and self-reinforced polypropylene (SRPP) composite. In this study, a numerical simulation based on finite element (FE) modeling is proposed to evaluate the formability of FMLs using ABAQUS/Explicit. The FE model, which included a single layer of solid and shell elements to model the blank, used discrete layers of the solid element with a contact model and shell elements with a friction based model for the aluminum alloy-composite interface conditions. This method allowed the description of each layer of FMLs and was able to simulate the interaction between the layers. It is noted through this research that the proposed numerical simulation described properly the formability enhancement of the FMLs and the simulation results showed good agreement with experimental results.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.655-661
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• 2017

Fiber reinforced concretes exhibit higher tensile strength depending on the percent and type of the fiber used. These concretes are used to reduce cracks and improve concrete behavior. The use of these fibers increases the production costs and reduces the compressive strength to a certain extent. Therefore, the use of fiber reinforced concrete in regions where higher tensile strength is required can cut costs and improve the overall structural strength. The behavior of fiber reinforced concrete and normal concrete adjacent to each other was investigated in the present study. The concrete used was self-compacting and did not require vibration. The samples had 0, 1, 2 and 4 wt% polypropylene fibers. 15 cm sample cubes were subjected to uniaxial loads to investigate their compressive strength. Fiber Self-Compacting Concrete was poured in the mold up to 0, 30, 50, 70 and 100 percent of the mold height, and then Self-Compacting Concrete without fiber was added to the empty section of that mold. In order to investigate concrete behavior under bending moment, concrete beam samples with similar conditions were prepared and subjected to the three-point bending flexural test. The results revealed that normal Self-Compacting Concrete and Fiber Self-Compacting Concrete may be used in adjacent to each other in structures and structural members. Moreover, no separation was observed at the interface of Fiber Self-Compacting Concrete and Self-Compacting Concrete, either in the cubic samples under compression or in the concrete beams under bending moment.

• Composites Research
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.197-203
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• 2015

Tensile properties of polypropylene based self-reinforced composites were investigated as a function of process variables of the double-belt lamination equipment such as pressure, temperature and cooling conditions. Elastic modulus was enhanced approximately 6 times from 0.2 to 1.2 GPa. The improvement mechanism was studied by identification of crystalline structure changes using DSC and XRD analysis. In addition, morphology change of self-reinforced composites was also investigated by SEM analysis in order to reveal the degree of impregnation.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.209-220
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• 2018

In order to evaluate the effect of hybrid fibers on the flexural performance of tunnel segment at room temperature, twelve reinforced self-consolidating concrete (SCC) symmetric inclination beams containing steel fiber, macro polypropylene fiber, micro polypropylene fiber, and their hybridizations were studied under combined loading of flexure and axial compression. The results indicate that the addition of mono steel fiber and hybrid fibers can enhance the ultimate bearing capacity and cracking behavior of tested beams. These improvements can be further enhanced along with increasing the content of steel fiber and macro PP fiber, but reduced with the increase of the reinforcement ratio of beams. The hybrid effect of steel fiber and macro PP fiber was the most obvious. However, the addition of micro PP fibers led to a degradation to the flexural performance of reinforced beams at room temperature. Meanwhile, the hybrid use of steel fiber and micro polypropylene fiber didn't present an obvious improvement to SCC beams. Compared to micro polypropylene fiber, the macro polypropylene fiber plays a more prominent role on affecting the structural behavior of SCC beams. A calculation method for ultimate bearing capacity of flexural SCC symmetric inclination beams at room temperature by taking appropriate effect of hybrid fibers into consideration was proposed. The prediction results using the proposed model are compared with the experimental data in this study and other literature. The results indicate that the proposed model can estimate the ultimate bearing capacity of SCC symmetric inclination beams containing hybrid fibers subjected to combined action of flexure and axial compression at room temperature.

• Composites Research
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.221-226
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• 2018

The Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar(SHPB) has been the most widely used apparatus to characterize dynamic mechanical behavior of materials at high strain rates between $100s^{-1}$ and $10,000s^{-1}$. The SHPB test is based on the wave propagation theory which was developed to give the stress, strain and strain rate in the specimen using the strains measured in the incident and transmission bars. In this study, the SHPB was directly designed and fabricated for the dynamic mechanical properties of fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) composites. In addition, this apparatus was verified for the validity by comparing the strain data obtained through the high speed camera and Digital Image Correlation(DIC) during the high strain rate compression test of the self-reinforced polypropylene composite (SRPP) specimen.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.29-43
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• 2016

Composite materials are rapidly gaining popularity as an alternative to metals for structural and load bearing applications in the aerospace, automotive, alternate energy and consumer industries. With the advent of thermoplastic composites and advances in recycling technologies, fully recyclable composites are gaining ground over traditional thermoset composites. Stamp forming as an alternative processing technique for sheet products has proven to be effective in allowing the fast manufacturing rates required for mass production of components. This study investigates the feasibility of using the stamp forming technique for the processing of thermoplastic, recyclable composite materials. The material system used in this study is a self-reinforced polypropylene composite material (Curv$^{(R)}$). The investigation includes a detailed experimental study based on strain measurements using a non-contact optical measurement system in conjunction with stamping equipment to record and measure the formability of the thermoplastic composites in real time. A Design of Experiments (DOE) methodology was adopted to elucidate the effect of process parameters that included blank holder force, pre heat temperature and feed rate on stamp forming. DOE analyses indicate that feed rate had negligible influence on the strain evolution during stamp forming and blank holder force and preheat temperature had significant effect on strain evolution during forming.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.969-982
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• 2016

This paper investigates the compressive fatigue behaviour of polypropylene fibre reinforced self compacting concrete with Granite Sawing Waste (GSW). An experimental programme was conducted to obtain the fatigue lives of fibre reinforced self compacting concrete (FRSCC) at various stress levels. The stress ratio was kept constant as 0.3. Compressive fatigue test was conducted on 60 cubic specimens with 100mm edge length and 0.1% of polypropylene fibres at a frequency of 0.05Hz. The test results indicate that the fatigue lives of concretes containing granite sawing waste follow the double-parameter Weibull distribution. The fatigue strength equations have been developed based on different probabilities of failure.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.3-9
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• 2007

Fiber-reinforced self-compacting concrete (FRSCC) is a new type of concrete mix that can mitigate two opposing weaknesses: poor workability in fiber-reinforced concrete and cracking resistance in plain SCC concrete. This study focused on early-age cracking of FRSCC due to restrained drying shrinkage, one of the most common causes of cracking. In order to investigate the effect of fiber on shrinkage cracking of FRSCC, ring shrinkage tests were performed for polypropylene and steel fiber-reinforced SCC. In addition, finite element analyses for those specimens were carried out considering drying shrinkage based on moisture diffusion, creep, cracking resistance of concrete, and the effect of fiber. The analysis results were verified via a comparison between the measured and calculated crack width. From the test and analysis results, the effectiveness of fiber with respect to reducing cracking was confirmed and some salient features on the shrinkage cracking of FRSCC were obtained.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 2023

This study presents the experimental results performed to evaluate the effects of Polyvinyl-alcohol (PVA) and Polypropylene (PP) fibers on the fresh and residual mechanical properties of the hybrid fiber reinforced SCC before and after the exposure of 250℃, 500℃ and 750℃ temperatures. The compressive and splitting tensile strength, modulus of rupture (MOR), ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) as well as toughness and weight loss were investigated at different temperatures. PVA and PP fibers were added into SCC mixtures having only macro steel fiber and also having binary hybridization of both macro and micro steel fiber. The results showed that the use of micro steel fiber replaced by macro steel fiber improved the fresh and hardened properties compared to the use of only macro steel fiber. Moreover, it was emphasized that PVA or PP enhanced the residual flexural performance of SCC, generally, while it negatively influenced the workability, weight loss, UPV and the residual strengths with regards to the use of single steel fiber and binary steel fiber hybridization. Compared to the effect of synthetic fibers, PP had slightly more positive effect in the view of workability while PVA enhanced the residual mechanical properties more.