Access Type

Open Access Thesis

Date of Award

January 2012

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

First Advisor

Hwai-Chung Wu

Abstract

ABSTRACT

FRP BOND STRENGTH DEGRADATION: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY USING PULL-OFF TESTING

by

CLARISSE MACHADO MIKAMI

December 2012

Advisor: Dr. Hwai-Chung Wu

Major: Civil Engineering

Degree: Master of Science

Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) is an advanced composite material that has been employed efficiently to rehabilitate deteriorated concrete structures. Environmental factors, however, affect the durability performance of FRP. As bond at the interfacial region between FRP and concrete is essential to the overall integrity of the system, the focus of this thesis is on bond deterioration due to hot weathering conditions.

In this study, an experimental program was developed to investigate the effect of long-term environmental exposure on bond strength. During this program, concrete beam specimens were cast, strengthened with a single ply of CFRP in a hand layup installation method and exposed to accelerated tests in the laboratory, such as cyclic hygrothermal (temperature and humidity) conditions, and immersion in distilled and salt water. Pull-off testing was used to generate quantitative data on the CFRP bond degradation, which allowed as aimed, the drawing of trends, conclusions and a comparison to previous work performed at Wayne State University. Future research was also recommended to further enlighten this issue.

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