Damage impact on load-carrying strength of fiber reinforced polymers composites to be used in bridge engineering
Łukasz Gołębiowski, Radosław Karczewski, Katarzyna Balke, Rafał Molak
Quarterly No. 1, 2015 pages 177-182
DOI:
keywords: reinforced fiber polymers, composite load-carrying capacity, damage
abstract Fiber reinforced polymer composites (FRP composites) are advanced technical materials nowadays, offering broad applications in bridge engineering science. This work is aimed at analysing FRP composite damage in static tensile tests, by assessing the load-carrying capacities of the tested specimens. For the tests, demonstrative scale composites for constructing structural components of the load-carrying girder of a bridge structure were used. Such materials are considered an alternative for steel and concrete today as they have superior strength parameters. This is shown by their higher maximum load values. In this work, several typical types of FRP composites damage in tensile tests are analysed. The damage in the form of local warp degradation (warp crushing) caused by mechanical impact reduced the load-carrying capacity of the specimens by 45%. The manufacturing defects, consisting in textile creasing while placing in the mould, and the introduction of holes for mechanical fixation of structural components also reduce the load-carrying capacity to about 20%.