• Iliopoulos, Sokratis
• Aggelis, Dimitrios G.
• Tysmans, Tine
• Sutter, Sven De
• Verbruggen, Svetlana

Abstract

The use of composites such as textile reinforced<br/>cements (TRCs) and fibre reinforced polymers (FRPs)<br/>enables the development of lightweight structures. Such<br/>a lightweight solution for floor renovation consists of<br/>a hybrid composite-concrete cross section: prefabricated<br/>beams (TRC–CFRP reinforced hollow boxes with concrete<br/>on top) support sandwich panels together with a finishing<br/>concrete compression layer creating a monolithic hybrid<br/>floor. As the hybrid beams are the main structural element<br/>of this floor system, their load-bearing and failure behaviour<br/>should be fully understood. In order to examine the optimal<br/>design of these structures in terms of load bearing capacity,<br/>the beams are separately tested in four point bending<br/>while the amount of CFRP reinforcement and the concrete<br/>thickness are varied. The digital image correlation (DIC) and<br/>acoustic emission (AE) measuring techniques are applied<br/>in a complimentary way to monitor the bending and failure<br/>behaviour of the full scale hybrid beams. DIC visualises<br/>the development of surface strain fields together with the<br/>exact cracking patterns in relation to the applied load. AE<br/>contributes in defining the load at the onset of serious cracking<br/>activity. Furthermore, AE characterizes the contribution<br/>of the different fracture modes that may vary from concrete<br/>cracking, delamination between the successive layers of the<br/>TRC or debonding at the interphase between the TRC hollow<br/>box and the concrete on the one hand and the CFRP on the<br/>other hand.

Topics

• surface
• polymer
• composite
• cement
• acoustic emission