Experimental Study On The Flexural Behavior Of Carbon Fiber Composite Structural Members

The technological revolution in materials and processes has had a significant impact in almost all sectors of the manufacturing industry. However, the construction industry has proceeded with only limited innovation due to the disproportionately low research investment in comparison to construction technique and expenditure. A number of advanced materials with great have recently started to make inroads into the construction market. Carbon fiber composites, with greatly improved corrosion resistance and durability, low weight and high strength, ease of transportation, non-magnetic properties and lower energy consumption during manufacture, are about to become an important part of the engineer's response to the construction challenges of the new century. The introduction of carbon fiber composites, more appropriately referred to as Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRP) into civil engineering creates the opportunity for a new and innovative approach to structures, especially some special framework.This paper presents research findings of an ongoing project into the experimental study on structural behavior of carbon fiber composite component. The concept combines the compression capability of core materials with the high strength＆low weight characteristics of carbon fiber composites. The basic concept discussed in this paper is presented together with a range of static flexural test results of small and full-scale component experiments. The experimental results of this paper have demonstrated some conclusions as below: (1) Carbon fiber composites and timber can be combined in a very efficient way to produce a new type of composite component that outperforms traditional components in a number of areas. The advantages of the new conceptual component include high load carrying capacity, excellent fatigue behavior, outstanding durability and low weight. (2) The behavior of this type of component is affected by several parameters, including the performance of composing materials, interface character, the fabric technics and control of the fabric process. (3) The failure behavior of this new type of component is brittle and provides fewredundancy and warning of failure, which is one of its disadvantages. On the base of all these experimental results, this paper also presents the analysis to the distribution of stress and strain, failure mechanism and so on. Moreover, this paper derives the simple formula of the ultimate flexural loading of this type of component. The calculated results of the each type of different components are agreed with the experimental results corresponding to their own failure conformation. On the condition, this paper put forward some proposal about the design and fabricating technique.This paper is a part of the project of the study on structural behavior of fiber composites. I wish this paper could give the scientific researcher some benefit.