The use of advanced polymer composites to form an economic structural unit

An advanced polymer/continuous fibre composite (APC) and concrete system is an example in which two very dissimilar materials can be joined to form a composite structure. In the current investigation a duplex beam will be analysed where the high-compressive strength concrete is placed above, and the high strength and stiffness fibre/polymer composite is placed below the neutral axis; in this form the two materials will be used to their best advantage. When this structural duplex Tee beam is under load, two failure criteria of the system have been identified. These are the failure of the shear bond between the APC permanent shuttering and the concrete, and failure by buckling of the composite web of the beam. The experimental test results show that the shear bond is not critical. Buckling occurs in the specified panels at 20% of the ultimate load. On increasing the load, the beam continues to perform conventionally and fails in the concrete by crushing. In addition, the paper shows that the performance of the APCs are not impaired by long-term creep and fatigue loading whilst the concrete element shows a typical reduction in stiffness for these types of loading regimes. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.