City Research Online

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study of the basic properties of the main materials found in reinforced concrete (RC) structures strengthened by fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) sheets with scope to investigate the effect of ultraviolet (UV) exposure on the degradation of FRP, resin adhesive materials and concrete. The comparison studies focused on the physical change and mechanical properties of FRP sheet, and resin adhesive materials and concrete before and after UV exposure. However, the degradation mechanisms of the materials under UV exposure were not analyzed. The results show that the ultimate tensile strength and modulus of FRP sheets decrease with UV exposure time and the main degradation of FRP-strengthened RC structures is dependent on the degradation of resin adhesive materials. The increase in the number of FRP layers cannot help to reduce the effect of UV exposure on the performance of these materials. However, it was verified that carbon FRP materials have a relatively stable strength and elastic modulus, and the improvement of the compression strength of concrete was also observed after UV exposure.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. It has been published in Polymers by MDPI.
Publisher Keywords:	ultraviolet exposure; fibre reinforced polymers strengthening; resin materials; ultimate tensile; concrete degradation
Subjects:	Q Science > QD Chemistry T Technology > TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
Departments:	School of Science & Technology > Engineering
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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