This work reports the outcomes of an extensive experimental campaign on the retrofitting of masonry walls by means of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets, carried out at University of Applied Sciences (UAS) Fribourg. In the first stage, static-cyclic shear tests were conducted on the masonry walls, followed by a second stage of tensile tests on alternative configurations of mechanical...

The axial compressive strength of unidirectional FRP made by pultrusion is generally quite lower than its axial tensile strength. This fact decreases the advantages of FRP as main load bearing member in engineering structure. A theoretical iterative calculation approach was suggested to predict the ultimate axial compressive stress of the combined structure and analyze the influences of geometr...

This paper presents the improvement of the antimicrobial character of woven fabrics based on cotton. The woven fabrics were cleaned in oxygen plasma and treated by padding with silver chloride and titanium dioxide particles. The existence of silver and titanium on woven fabrics was evidenced by electronic microscope images (SEM, EDAX) and by flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The antimi...

Traditional knitted fabrics have been extensively applied in dresses and home decoration, and in recent years, the applications of the fabrics knitted by new technologies and new materials also increase in other fields. The conductive fiber knitted fabrics was used in the article, and its electric properties under transverse stretching were tested and researched. Based on the electric model of ...

In this article a practical mass-spring system was developed to simulate the draping of woven and knitted fabrics. The material properties important to fabric drape, including aerial density, tensile, shear, and bending properties were measured using the Kawabata Evaluation System and the experimental data were incorporated into the mass-spring model to simulate the dynamic draping behavior of ...

This paper propose a new concept of an eddy current (EC) multi-element sensor for the characterization of carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRP) to evaluate the orientations of plies in CFRP and the order of their stacking. The main advantage of the new sensors is the flexible parametrization by electronical switching that reduces the effort for mechanical manipulation. The sensor response was...

Externally bonded carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates are a feasible and economical alternative to traditional methods for strengthening and stiffening deficient reinforced concrete and prestressed concrete girders as shown in Fig. (1). Although extensive research has already been undertaken to investigate the behavior of CFRP strengthened bridge girders, the majority of work condu...

This paper investigates the mechanical performance and electrical resistivity of a structural adhesive epoxy enhanced using milled carbon fibre (MCF) as well as the bond performance of carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRP) and steel adhesively bonded joints using the enhanced epoxy. The epoxy was enhanced using such MCFs with different weight ratios of 1.5%, 3% and 5%. Tensile experiments wer...

The current paper reviews existing design guidelines for strengthening beams in shear with carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets and proposes a modification to Concrete Society Technical Report TR55. It goes on to present the results of an experimental programme which evaluated the contribution of CFRP sheets towards the shear strength of continuous reinforced concrete (RC) beams. A tot...

This study investigates the mechanical behavior of steel fiber-reinforced concrete (SFRC) beams internally reinforced with steel bars and externally bonded with carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets fixed by adhesive and hybrid jointing techniques. In particular, attention is paid to the load resistance and failure modes of composite beams. The steel fibers were used to avoiding the rip...