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Long-term performance monitoring of GFRP-reinforced concrete beams using sensor-mounted supplemental rebars under harsh environmental conditions

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Abstract

Fiber-optic sensors (FOS) are increasingly being used in reinforced-concrete (RC) structures for their accuracy and durability. One of the drawbacks of FOS is their fragility at installation. One recently developed method to address such deficiency is to install the FOS on a short bar (supplemental bar) that is rigidly connected to the structural reinforcement bars prior to concrete pouring. However, the durability of such systems under harsh environmental conditions has not been well established. In order to better understand the behavior of the aforementioned FOS systems under harsh environmental conditions, seven half-scale RC beams with glass fiber-reinforced polymer bars were exposed to four different exposure regimes, in the present study. After 14 months of exposure to harsh environmental conditions, the RC beams were subjected to static flexural testing to evaluate the FOS system behavior under each environmental condition. In addition, the strain responses of the sensors mounted on the supplemental bars and those in the main bars were monitored to validate the newly developed FOS mounting system. The results of this study show that the proposed FOS mounting system can efficiently capture the actual strain in all environmental conditions tested in this study except immersion exposure under high alkali solution. In addition, the flexural deformation and the exposure impact to the beam capacity were evaluated.

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Acknowledgements

The support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada is gratefully acknowledged. The authors also thank Pultrall Inc. for donating the FRP materials for this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Engineering Technology, University of Houston-Downtown, Houston, TX, USA

    Arash Rahmatian

  2. Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Montréal, QC, Canada

    Timir Baran Roy, Ashutosh Bagchi & Michelle Nokken

  3. Geotechnics and Structures Group, School of Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

    Amir Mofidi

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  1. Arash Rahmatian
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  2. Timir Baran Roy
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  3. Amir Mofidi
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  4. Ashutosh Bagchi
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Correspondence to Arash Rahmatian.

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Rahmatian, A., Roy, T.B., Mofidi, A. et al. Long-term performance monitoring of GFRP-reinforced concrete beams using sensor-mounted supplemental rebars under harsh environmental conditions. J Civil Struct Health Monit 9, 293–306 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13349-019-00330-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13349-019-00330-1

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