Strain Monitoring of an Aluminium Joint with an Optical System

The stresses distribution can be easily determined in the cross-section of the elements but in a joint, the distribution of stresses is more complicated. Its complexity is also increased if stiffeners are added to the joint and if the connecting bolts are not positioned in a regular configuration. An aluminium cantilever with a two bolts connection is experimentally tested to determine the real capacity. Stiffeners reduce the stress intensity in the connection, but they are prone to instability problems if they are subjected to compression. In order to determine the real stress development in the stiffeners, the Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technique was used. This technique determines the strains in the loaded parts which then can be equivalated to the stress distribution. The paper presents the stress development in the compressed stiffeners of an aluminium joint considering also improvement solution for increasing the bending capacity by reducing the instability parameters.

Experiment and Research on Calculation Methods on Flexural Mechanical Behaviors of Non-Metallic Reinforced ECC Beams

Engineered cementitious composites (ECC) has high tenacity and the characteristics of strain hardening. In the bending test, ECC beams equipped with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) in the tensile region show good deformation ability and bending ability. In this paper, the constitutive models of ECC and CFRP materials are established by uniaxial tensile compression test. Based on the plane section supposition, the analysis theory of bending capacity of cross section for ECC beams with non-metallic reinforcement is proposed. The calculation results are compared with the four-point bending test results. The results show that: (1) ECC beams with non-metallic reinforcement reflect the advantages of the two materials, and have strong deformation capacity before bending failure. (2) The calculation results based on the theory of flexural capacity of normal section are in good agreement with the experimental results, and the maximum error is less than 4%. The research results can provide the basis and reference for the calculation analysis and practical application of non-metallic reinforced high toughness material structure.

Bending capacity of multi-layered FRP pipelines during offshore installation

The Fiber Reinforced Polymeric (FRP) pipelines have higher strength than steel, and excellent fatigue behavior and corrosion resistance. Because of their superior performance in mechanical loads and corrosive environment, they are a good choice for offshore applications. Since FRP materials are anisotropic and the pipelines are multilayered, the calculation of stresses is difficult. Stress analysis can be performed numerically with the aid of commercial software packages. However, the numerical solutions are approximate and the parametric study is problematic. In the present work, an analytical solution for bending stress calculation of multilayered FRP pipelines during offshore installation is presented. Typical examples are solved and bending capacity of multilayered FRP pipelines versus the fiber orientation angle and number of layers is provided and discussed.

Study on static load test of simply supported hollow slab bridge flexural strengthened with polyurethane–cement composite

PurposeAs the service time of bridges increases, the degradation of bending capacity, the lack of safety reserves and the decrease in bridge reliability are common in early built bridges. Due to the defective lateral hinge joints, hollow slab bridges are prone to cracking of hinge joint between plates, transverse connection failure and stress of single plates under the action of long-term overload and repeated load. These phenomena seriously affect the bending capacity of the hollow slab bridge. This paper aims to describe a new method of simply supported hollow slab bridge reinforcement called polyurethane–cement (PUC) composite flexural reinforcement.Design/methodology/approachThis paper first studies the preparation and tensile and compressive properties of PUC composite materials. Then, relying on the actual bridge strengthening project, the 5 × 20 m prestressed concrete simply supported hollow slab was reinforced with PUC composites with a thickness of 3 cm within 18 m of the beam bottom. Finally, the load test was used to compare the performance of the bridge before and after the strengthening.FindingsResults showed that PUC has high compressive and tensile strengths of 72 and 46 MPa. The static test revealed that the measured values and verification coefficients of the measured points were reduced compared with those before strengthening, the deflection and strain were reduced by more than 15%, the measured section stiffness was improved by approximately 20%. After the strengthening, the lateral connection of the bridge, the strength and rigidity of the structure and the structural integrity and safety reserves were all significantly improved. The application of PUC to the flexural strengthening of the bridge structure has a significant effect.Originality/valueAs a new type of material, PUC composite is light, remarkable and has good performance. When used in the bending strengthening of bridge structures, this material can improve the strength, rigidity, safety reserve and bending capacity of bridges, thus demonstrating its good engineering application prospect.

Experimental study on bending behavior of glulam beams strengthened with bamboo scrimber

PurposeIn view of the defects of glued wood beams, a new composite member – reconstituted bamboo board reinforced glued wood beams is proposed to improve the bearing capacity of glued wood beams.Design/methodology/approachThe bending test studied the ordinary glulam beams and the reinforced glulam beams with different layer numbers and different layer thicknesses by comparing with six kinds of glulam beams strengthened with bamboo scrimber and one kind of ordinary glulam beams and used the method of third-point stepwise loading on the glulam beams strengthened with bamboo scrimber.FindingsThe bamboo scrimber improved the bending behavior of the ordinary glulam beams. The 10 mm bamboo scrimber layer can meet the requirements of the maximum ultimate bending capacity and minimize the defects. So 10 mm bamboo scrimber layer was the optimal thickness. During the loading process, the strain change of the normal section of the reconstituted bamboo board reinforced glued wood beam basically conforms to the plane section assumption.Originality/valueThe bending rigidities of the glulam beams strengthened with bamboo scrimber increased up to 28.25%, 8.53% and 76.67%, and the ultimate bending capacity increased from 83.44% to 99.34% with the increase of the bamboo scrimber plate layers (the replacement rate). The ultimate bending capacities and the bending rigidities of the glulam beams strengthened with bamboo scrimber increased to 52.32%∼60.18% and 90.07%∼99.34% with the changing of the bamboo scrimber thicknesses from 7.1 mm to 25 mm.

Curvature thylakoid 1 proteins modulate prolamellar body morphology and promote organized thylakoid biogenesis in Arabidopsis thaliana

The term “de-etiolation” refers to the light-dependent differentiation of etioplasts to chloroplasts in angiosperms. The underlying process involves reorganization of prolamellar bodies (PLBs) and prothylakoids into thylakoids, with concurrent changes in protein, lipid, and pigment composition, which together lead to the assembly of active photosynthetic complexes. Despite the highly conserved structure of PLBs among land plants, the processes that mediate PLB maintenance and their disassembly during de-etiolation are poorly understood. Among chloroplast thylakoid membrane–localized proteins, to date, only Curvature thylakoid 1 (CURT1) proteins were shown to exhibit intrinsic membrane-bending capacity. Here, we show that CURT1 proteins, which play a critical role in grana margin architecture and thylakoid plasticity, also participate in de-etiolation and modulate PLB geometry and density. Lack of CURT1 proteins severely perturbs PLB organization and vesicle fusion, leading to reduced accumulation of the light-dependent enzyme protochlorophyllide oxidoreductase (LPOR) and a delay in the onset of photosynthesis. In contrast, overexpression of CURT1A induces excessive bending of PLB membranes, which upon illumination show retarded disassembly and concomitant overaccumulation of LPOR, though without affecting greening or the establishment of photosynthesis. We conclude that CURT1 proteins contribute to the maintenance of the paracrystalline PLB morphology and are necessary for efficient and organized thylakoid membrane maturation during de-etiolation.

Ductility of Concrete Beams Reinforced with FRP Rebars

Concrete beams reinforced with FRP rebars have greater durability than standard steel reinforced elements. The main disadvantage of using FRP rebars is the low ductility of elements which may be unacceptable in certain situations. There are several different ways of increasing the ductility of concrete elements, which are analyzed in this paper. They are compared based on efficiency, influence on durability and ease of construction. Less analyzed and tested methods are given more attention to try and expand the current knowledge and possibilities. For methods that lack experimental data, theoretical analysis is undertaken to assess the possible influence of that method on the increase in ductility. Ductility was obtained by calculating bending moment–curvature diagrams of cross sections for different reinforcement layouts. One method that lacks experimental data is confining the compressive area of beams with tensile FRP reinforcement. Theoretical analysis showed that confining the compressive area of concrete can significantly increase the ductility and bending capacity of beams. Since experimental data of beams reinforced with FRP rebars in tension and confined compressive area is sparse, some suggestions on the possible test setups are given to validate this theoretical analysis. Concrete beams reinforced with FRP can be detailed in such a way that they have sufficient ductility, but additional experimental research is needed.

Seismic Resistance Properties of Improved Dry-Type Beam-Column Joint: An Experimental Research

Dry-type joints are an advanced type of sustainable beam-column connection mode used in the prefabricated concrete frame structural system. This paper proposed an improvement scheme for high-strength bolt dry-type joints and designed a new type of common bolt dry-type joints. A pseudo test involving low-cycle repeated loading is conducted to assess the seismic resistance properties of new joints including damage mode, hysteretic curve, skeleton curve, and ductility factor. Numerical simulation is applied to validate the rationality of experimental results. It is found that when the bending capacity of the end block of the beam is consistent with that of the bolt, the deformation of the bolt will no longer increase greatly after a period of large deformation; at this period, the bolt does not fully enter the plastic stage, but at this time, the end block of the beam begins to appear large cracks and enter the plastic deformation and has good energy dissipation performance.

Effects of dowels on the mechanical properties of wooden composite beams in ancient timber structures

In order to provide more accurate suggestions for the restoration of ancient timber buildings, five types of specimens were designed for static loading tests. The tree species used for the specimens was larch. The wooden composite beams were composed of purlins, tie plates, and fangs. The study analyzed the effects of the number and position of dowels on the mechanical behaviors of wooden composite beams in ancient timber buildings. The bending moment, slippage, strain of the wooden composite beams under the deflection of the beam allowed according to code, and the ultimate bearing capacity of the wooden column composite beams under failure conditions were examined. The test results showed that the dowels could improve the bending capacity of the wooden composite beams. The even distribution of the dowels was beneficial in reducing the sliding effect of the wooden composite beams. Under the amount of deflection allowed by the code, the mid-span section strain along the height of the wooden composite beam approximately conformed to the plane section assumption. The wooden composite beam still had bending capacity after each member failed. The results of this study illustrated that dowels improved the overall mechanical properties of the wooden composite beams.