This study investigates the different types of ultrasonic inspection, when applied to assess the impact damage in Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic CFRP laminates. The study surveys the two most used ultrasonic testing approaches first; namely the pulse-echo and the through-transmission modes. Then, the manuscript discusses and analyzes the enhanced ultrasonic testing methods that use the polar s...

Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) laminates are applied to many aerospace structures. For these laminated CFRP structures, it is quite difficult to detect internal damage such as delamination, matrix cracks, and local fiber breakages. Carbon fibers are adopted as reinforcement in CFRP and it is an excellent electric conductor at the same time. The carbon fiber has been used as a strain sen...

In this paper, the lap splice length and the long-term (fatigue) performance of lap-spliced carbon FRP laminates were investigated. Lap-spliced CFRP coupon specimens were fabricated with a splice length of 12.7, 25.4, 38.1, 50.8, 76.2, and 101.6 mm. To eliminate the bending on the lap splice joint, a symmetric specimen configuration was adopted. The width of the specimens was 38.1 mm. These spe...

Carbon fiber reinforced polymers strengthen steel structural elements. These structural elements are normally subjected to static, dynamic and fatigue loadings during their life-time. CFRP laminate is commonly used structures under the subjected loads. A number of focused on the characteristics of CFRP sheets members under static, dynamic and fatigue loadings. is a gap in understanding the bond...

The need for repair and strengthening of deteriorated, damaged and substandard infrastructures has become an important challenge worldwide. The demand for increasingly heavier truck loads is forcing bridge owners to upgrade existing structures. In response to the growing need for concrete repair and rehabilitation, an experimental program was conducted to investigate the feasibility of using di...

Many steel structures are in need of strengthening due to reqUirements to increase carrying capacity and/or rehabili tation due to corrosion degradation. This paper summarizes the results of an investigation that has been conducted to evaluate the performance of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) materials to increase the strength and stiffness of steel structures. Two types of specimens we...

Spliced joints are used widely in retrofitting traditional timber structures, especially in heritage conservation applications where as much original material as possible needs to be retained. However, in practice this method is mainly applied based on experience, and there is a lack of understanding and quantification of the mechanical behaviour of retrofitted timber members. This paper presen...

Hierarchical carbon-nanotube (CNT)-based composites have significant potential to expand the performance and functionality of aerospace composite structures. Notably, circumferentially aligned CNT arrays have previously been grown on woven alumina filaments to form a "fuzzy fiber" reinforced plastic (FFRP) architecture with demonstrated improvements in interand intra-ply mechanical properties a...

Strengthening of reinforced concrete beams using externally bonded CFRP laminate is the most popular choice. However, premature end peeling of CFRP laminate has been shown to be the main weakness of this method. Development of high shear and normal stresses at the end of strengthening laminate is the key reason to cause end peeling which is not preventable by conventional anchoring system. This...