Polyurea has a high tensile strength, elongation, and the capability to absorb the energy generated by dynamic and impulsive blast loading. Glass fibers are a reinforcement material for repairing and retrofitting the concrete members. The polyurea provides ductility, and the fibers provide improved stiffness and strength to the composite system. Glass-fiber reinforced polyurea (GFRPU) is a composite of polyurea and fibers and is applied as a reinforcement through a simple spraying method. GFRPU coating has a simple construction, and unlike existing strengthening methods such as fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) or a steel plate, it prevents a debonding from the concrete surface. Seven beams of one externally nonreinforced concrete beam and six concrete beams with and without a reinforcing bar are tested using the thickness of the spray and the number of coating faces. The applicability of GFRPU was investigated through the experiments, and the test results indicate that the GFRPU strengthening method is feasible for enhancing the load-carrying capacity and flexural ductility.

Optimal sensor placement is used to establish the optimal sensor quantity and layout. In this study, the minimum quantity and locations of measurement sensors were assumed to satisfy the constraint conditions of the optimal sensor placement. A set of strain data in a truss structure was expanded to another set of displacements corresponding to the entire degrees of freedom from the relationship between the strain and displacement. It indicates to reduce the number of sensors because the strain depends on the displacements in a finite element model. The damaged truss element was traced using the expanded data that satisfied the prescribed constraints. The proposed optimal sensor placement method has a merit to explicitly determine the optimal sensor locations without any numerical scheme and statistical methods. The method was applied to the damage detection of a single-damaged truss structure. It was shown that the optimal sensor placement method depended on the sensor layout irrespective of the same quantity of sensors. In addition, a numerical example was used to compare sensitivities to damage detection based on the sensor placement and the existence of external noise contained in the measurement data.

Aged structures and structures constructed based on outdated non-seismic design codes should be retrofitted to enhance their strength, ductility, and durability. This study evaluates the structural performance of reinforced concrete (RC) columns enhanced via polyurea or glass fiber reinforced polyurea (GFRPU) strengthening. Four RC column specimens, including a reference specimen (an unstrengthened column), were tested to evaluate the parameters of the strengthening materials and the strengthened area. The tests were carried out under a combined constant axial compressive load and quasi-static cyclic loading. The experimental results show that the composite strengthening provides lateral confinement to the columns and leads to enhanced ductility, shear-resistance capacity, and dissipated energy. The shear strength provided by the composites depends on the degree of lateral confinement achieved by the composite coating. The specimens finally failed through the development of diagonal tension cracks within the potential plastic hinge regions. The specimen treated with GFRPU strengthening showed greater strength and dissipated more energy than the specimen treated with polyurea strengthening. Furthermore, by modifying ATC-40, this study proposed an equation to estimate the shear capacity provided by the composites.

The Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polyurea (GFRPU) which is the composite by the elastic polyurea and milled glass fiber have the mechanical characteristics to enhance tensile strength as well as ductility. It must be reinforcement materials in repair and retrofit applications for strengthening structural capacity and has a merit of simple construction of spray coating to prevent the debonding from concrete surfaces unlike the existing strengthening methods such as Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) or steel plate. This work compares the improvement degree in load-carrying capacity as well as flexural ductility of RC beam reinforced externally by polyurea or GFRPU. Seven specimens of four reinforced concrete (RC) beams for evaluating flexure-resisting capacity and three beams for shear-strengthening capacity are tested. The mechanical behavior and characteristics of the specimens reinforced by local and global reinforcement method classified according to strengthened area are compared. It is shown that the polyurea- or GFRPU- reinforcement leads to the enhancement in the load-resisting capacity up to 8~11% and flexural ductility within the range of 8.41~13.9 times of the non-reinforced beam. And the global reinforcement method has more improvement in the shear- and flexure-resisting capacity than the local method. It is also observed that the GFRPU can be more effectively utilized in enhancing the structural shear-resisting capacity than the flexure-carrying capacity. Doi: 10.28991/cej-2021-03091662 Full Text: PDF

Reinforced concrete (RC) structures with non-seismic reinforcement details are vulnerable to earthquakes. This experimental study evaluates the efficiency of three techniques to alleviate the dynamic responses of existing structures: glass fiber-reinforced polyurea (GFRPU) reinforcement, a lever-typed tuned mass damper (LTMD) system, and a hybrid system of GFRPU and LTMD reinforcements. The lateral-resisting capacity and ductility of the GFRPU reinforcement specimen were enhanced by the material characteristics, and the dynamic responses were alleviated. The LTMD control specimen controlled the dynamic responses by the passive control system of the tuned mass damper (TMD), and the control forces to sustain its geometric motion were exerted on the specimen. The hybrid system was designed to control the dynamic responses by the GFRPU reinforcement and the LTMD control system. Four specimens, including an unreinforced specimen, were tested under external excitations, including the El Centro earthquake. The vibrations were more controlled in the order of the GFRPU reinforcement specimen, the LTMD control specimen, and the hybrid control specimen. The hybrid system was evaluated as excellent for seismic reinforcement, such as preventing abrupt failure with the lateral-resisting capacity and ductility of GFRPU and improving the dynamic control capacity by LTMD.