Static strength of CFRP-strengthened tubular TT-joints containing initial local corrosion defect. (15th September 2021) - Mohamed, Hazem Samih
Abstract: Experimental tests on corroded tubular TT-joints with and without Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) reinforcement were conducted. The failure process, load-displacement curves, and observed failure modes of the tested specimens under axial brace compression were obtained and discussed. Experimental results indicate that the bearing capacity and stiffness of the corroded tubular TT-joints strengthened with six layers of CFRP were improved efficiently. The improvement in the static strength was mainly produced by the constraint of CFRP to the chord deformation at the brace/chord intersection. Thereafter, finite element analysis on 80 models were conducted to investigate the influence of the number of CFRP laminates, corrosion depth, and corrosion length on the static strengths of CFRP strengthened tubular TT-joints with local corrosion. Parametric study showed that, i) more layers of CFRP laminates increase both stiffness and ultimate capacity. ii), the contribution of each layer of CFRP laminates on the bearing capacity reduces gradually with the increase of the number of CFRP laminates or corrosion depth. iii) after a certain length of CFRP, the effect of CFRP length becomes neglectable. Finally, a new equation is proposed to investigate the influence of corrosion and CFRP strengthening on the ultimate bearing capacity of the CHS tubular TT-joints. Highlights: Static strength of CFRP-strengthened tubular TT-joint with corrosion was tested. Improvement of static behavior of CFRP-strengthened TT-joint with corrosion was studied. Efficiency of CFRP strengthening to corroded TT-joint was investigated numerically.