The presented research is a part of a broader study of strengthening methods closely associated with cold-formed sigma steel beams with tapes made of Carbon Fiber Reinforcement Polymer/Plastic (CFRP). The presented results are a continuation and extension of the tests described in previous work by the authors and refer to high-slenderness thin-walled steel sigma beams subjected to a significant large rotation. The main idea of this expanded study was to identify the effectiveness of CFRP tapes with respect to different locations, namely at a bottom-tensioned or upper-compressed flange. Six beams with a cross-section of an Σ140 × 70 × 2.5 profile by “Blachy Pruszyński” and made of S350GD steel with a span of L = 270 cm were tested in the four-point bending scheme. Two beams, taken as reference, were tested without reinforcement. The remaining beams were reinforced with the use of a 50-mm wide and 1.2-mm thick Sika CarboDur S512 CFRP tape, with two beams reinforced by placing the tape on the upper flange and two with tape located on the bottom flange. The CFRP tape was bonded directly to the beams (by SikaDur®-30 adhesive). Laboratory tests were aimed at determining the impact of the use of composite tapes on the limitation of displacements and deformations of thin-walled structures. In order to perform a precise measurement of displacement, which is, in the case of beams subjected to large rotations, a very difficult issue in itself, the Tritop system and two coupled lenses of the Aramis system were used. Electrofusion strain gauges were used to measure the deformation. In the next step, numerical models of the analyzed beams were developed in the Abaqus program. Good compliance of the results of laboratory tests and numerical analyses was achieved. The obtained results confirm the beneficial effect of the use of tapes (CFRP) on the reduction in displacements and deformations of steel cold-formed elements.

This paper presents selected issues related to the reinforcement of steel element cold-formed with CFRP tapes. The first section of the paper is a review of source literature and a presentation of the basic information on cold-formed thin-walled steel elements and CFRP composite materials, stressing the advantages and disadvantages of using them to reinforce steel structures. Next, the authors present original research on reinforcing bent thin-walled sigma-type steel beams using adhesive CFRP tapes. Reference beams with a cross-section of Σ200 × 70 × 2 and a length of 3 m, reinforced with CFRP tape, were tested in the four-point bending scheme. Then, the paper discusses a developed numerical model that is consistent with the subject matter of the laboratory tests. The developed numerical model was prepared to represent the failure of the connection between the beam and the composite tape. This was followed by a number of numerical analyses in order to determine the optimum adhesive layer that would allow us to achieve the maximum reduction of the displacements and strains in bent thin-walled sigma-type beams. Three thicknesses of the SikaDur adhesive layer were analyzed in the study. Based on the analyzes, it was found that the increase in the thickness of the adhesive layer slightly reduced the strain and displacement in the beams, but caused a significant decrease in the load value, at which damage appeared in the glued joint.

In order to design an optimal reinforcement of steel thin-walled beams with composite materials, it is worth analyzing two important, although often overlooked issues, which are the selection of the appropriate thickness of the adhesive layer and the effective anchoring length of the composite tape. This paper, which is part of a wider laboratory study devoted to the strengthening of thin-walled steel profiles, focuses on the second issue. The paper involves a description of laboratory four-point bending tests during which ten thin-walled steel beams made of a rectangular section with dimensions of 120 × 60 × 3 and a length of 3 m were tested. Two beams were taken as reference beams, and the other eight were reinforced using Sika CarboDur S512 carbon fiber composite tape, assuming four different effective anchorage lengths. The impact of the length of the anchoring of the composite tape on the value of the displacements and strains of the tested beams and on the value of the destructive load that caused tape detachment was analyzed. The following phase was numerical analyses carried out in the Abaqus program, which showed high consistency with the results of laboratory tests. In reference to the conducted tests, it was observed that the increase in the anchoring length of the composite tape has a slight impact on the change in the value of strains and displacements in the tested beams. Nevertheless, the increase in the effective anchorage length has a significant impact on the load value at which the composite tapes are detached from the surface of the steel thin-walled beam.

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