Reinforcing wrought iron with carbon fibre reinforced polymers
Reinforcing wrought iron with carbon fibre reinforced polymers
There are approximately 8,000 wrought iron bridges throughout the U.K. that were all constructed in the latter half of the 19th century. Network Rail commissioned this research as many of the bridges require some degree of strengthening to allow their continued safe use. The use of fibre reinforced polymer composites as an externally bonded reinforcement system is common practice for steel, concrete and cast iron structures.
An extensive testing program of the mechanical properties of a single source of wrought iron has been conducted. Many laboratory tests were carried out in conjunction with numerical modelling to provide an informed assessment of the behaviour of wrought iron. Tests were also carried out to investigate how the wrought iron reacted when reinforced with a pultruded carbon fibre composite. A number of specimens were exposed to a variety of aggressive environments that simulated typical conditions found throughout the country.
The testing procedure proved that the grain of slag fibres within wrought iron leads to a large degree of variability when carrying out small-scale laboratory tests. A number of specimens from the structure are required to provide representative mechanical properties. Network Rail’s greatest concern was that if the composite was bonded to the structure and loaded the outer layer of wrought iron would fail by de-bonding. Tests were carried out to prove that the inter-laminar shear strength of the wrought iron was greater than the shear strength of the adhesive bond. This guarantees that the adhesive bond is the weakest component of the reinforcement system.
The laboratory testing program and the numerical modelling showed that, in theory, wrought iron can be reinforced with fibre reinforced polymers. A wrought iron bridge needs to be reinforced, instrumented and studied to provide conclusive evidence of the applicability of the technique.
University of Southampton
Clarke, Howard William James
2006
Clarke, Howard William James
Clarke, Howard William James
(2006)
Reinforcing wrought iron with carbon fibre reinforced polymers.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.
Record type:
Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
There are approximately 8,000 wrought iron bridges throughout the U.K. that were all constructed in the latter half of the 19th century. Network Rail commissioned this research as many of the bridges require some degree of strengthening to allow their continued safe use. The use of fibre reinforced polymer composites as an externally bonded reinforcement system is common practice for steel, concrete and cast iron structures.
An extensive testing program of the mechanical properties of a single source of wrought iron has been conducted. Many laboratory tests were carried out in conjunction with numerical modelling to provide an informed assessment of the behaviour of wrought iron. Tests were also carried out to investigate how the wrought iron reacted when reinforced with a pultruded carbon fibre composite. A number of specimens were exposed to a variety of aggressive environments that simulated typical conditions found throughout the country.
The testing procedure proved that the grain of slag fibres within wrought iron leads to a large degree of variability when carrying out small-scale laboratory tests. A number of specimens from the structure are required to provide representative mechanical properties. Network Rail’s greatest concern was that if the composite was bonded to the structure and loaded the outer layer of wrought iron would fail by de-bonding. Tests were carried out to prove that the inter-laminar shear strength of the wrought iron was greater than the shear strength of the adhesive bond. This guarantees that the adhesive bond is the weakest component of the reinforcement system.
The laboratory testing program and the numerical modelling showed that, in theory, wrought iron can be reinforced with fibre reinforced polymers. A wrought iron bridge needs to be reinforced, instrumented and studied to provide conclusive evidence of the applicability of the technique.
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Published date: 2006
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Local EPrints ID: 466144
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/466144
PURE UUID: f47e40ab-a80f-4f7d-a2bc-2ebb1fe6fa55
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Date deposited: 05 Jul 2022 04:29
Last modified: 05 Jul 2022 04:29
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Author:
Howard William James Clarke
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