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Abstract: In this paper, a design procedure for cold-formed channels periodically closed on their open face and utilized as joist web members is detailed. The design method for periodically closed [...]

The Editorial Board of the American Society of Civil Engineers Journal of Composites for Construction (Lawrence C. Bank, Editor) sponsored a survey of the civil/structural engineering programs around the world on the subject of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites, excluding the traditional steel-concrete composite construction and fiber reinforced concrete. This paper summarizes the main results from the survey. During the last decade, considerable focus has been devoted to the use of FRP composites in construction. The main driving force is the need for revitalizing the aging infrastructure with innovative materials and structural systems that last longer and require less maintenance. As the construction industry embraces FRPs in the field, the need for educating civil engineers with background on the subject has become more evident. Despite a significant number of field applications and laboratory research, the survey shows that FRPs have not yet been fully implemented in the engineering curricula, and the classrooms are still lagging behind. To improve this situation, civil engineering and their extension programs must provide sufficient training on unique features of FRPs so that engineers could design or specify them in construction. This survey should be repeated as a gauging tool again at the end of this decade. CE Database subject headings: Engineering education; Fiber reinforced polymers; Construction; Surveys.

Byline: Kenneth W. Neale, Marc Demers, Pierre Labossiere The results of two complementary experimental investigations on the use of fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) wraps for the protection and rehabilitation of reinforced concrete columns are presented. The first study consists of reinforced concrete cylinders with axial steel reinforcement subjected to accelerated corrosion, and an assessment of the FRP protection that can be provided by three types of FRP wrap (glass, carbon and aramid). This study also includes a comparison with results for two conventional protective systems (siloxane and polymer concrete). In the second study, on concrete columns with both axial and spiral reinforcement, an accelerated corrosion process is developed and applied to induce overall corroded conditions similar to those encountered in the field. The effects of FRP wrapping on restoring strength losses due to steel corrosion, and on arresting further corrosion damage, are investigated.

The objective of this research work is to simulate the interfacial shear response of fibre-reinforced polymer/concrete joints using a micromechanics-based concrete approach. The M4 version of the microplane concrete theory is coded in FORTRAN and implemented as a parallel user-defined subroutine into the commercial finite element software package ADINA. This article first focuses on three-dimensional nonlinear micromechanics-based finite element analyses. Then, validations are carried out using experimental results of 40 fibre-reinforced polymer/concrete joints. The objective is to assess the accuracy of the microplane approach to represent the interfacial shear behaviour of the fibre-reinforced polymer/concrete joints as an alternative to implementing interface elements. At the end of this article, numerical comparisons are presented between the predictions using a phenomenological concrete constitutive law adopted in the software package (with a smeared crack model) and the micromechanics-based analysis (microplane theory) to simulate the concrete behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ref.: Can. J. Civ. Eng. 40: Just-IN version; Published online on 29 April 2013 (2013). Dr. B. Benmokrane, the corresponding author of the paper Cyclic-load behavior of GFRP-reinforced concrete shear [...]

In this paper, experimental results from 23 direct shear tests on fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) strips mechanically fastened (MF) to concrete are reported. Based on the experimental results of one fastener FRP/concrete connection, bearing-slip models are developed to address the MF-FRP/concrete interfacial behavior. Finite element models are then presented to address the interfacial behavior between the FRP strips and the concrete substrate for both the MF-FRP/concrete direct shear specimens, as well as for MF-FRP-strengthened reinforced concrete (RC) beams. Results are presented in terms of ultimate load capacities, load-slip relationships, and strain distributions along the FRP strip. The numerical predictions are compared with experimental data, and a very good agreement is obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]