Papers by Author: Sheng Ping Chen

Abstract: The tensile and bending behaviour of steel-polypropylene hybrid fiber reinforced ferrocement were investigated in this paper through direct tensile test and four-point bending test. Different volume fractions of steel fiber, polypropylene fiber and steel wire mesh were considered. A total of 42 tensile and bending specimens were tested. Experimental results showed that, compared to plain ferrocement, the cracking tensile strength and the ultimate tensile strength of steel-polypropylene hybrid fiber reinforced ferrocement with 0.5% volume fractions of steel fiber and 1.0% volume fractions of polypropylene fiber increased by 9% and 15% , and the cracking moment and the ultimate moment also increased by 29% and 52%. It can be concluded that this mix ratio had best effect on the mechanical property of ferrocement.

Abstract: The flexural capacity and deflections of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) beams were discussed in this paper based on the nonlinear fracture mechanics. Analytical Equations describing the flexural capacity and deflections of the SFRC flexural members were proposed. Five series of steel fiber reinforced mortar beam specimens with different steel fiber volume fractions were tested. It is found that the flexural capacity before and after cracking depends largely on the tensile strength and the residual tensile strength of SFRC, respectively. The proposed design method can reflect not only the ability of SFRC to resist plastic strain, but also its contributions to toughness and crack arresting ability.

Abstract: Un-reinforced masonry (URM) structures may fail and collapse under out-of-plane loads generated by seismic forces or explosions. Adding a ferrocement overlay onto the URM walls is an effective solution in increasing the ultimate load capacity and ductility. This paper deals with the numerical and experimental studies on the out-of-plane behavior of un-reinforced masonry walls strengthened with ferrocement. The material parameters considered are the volume fraction of reinforcement and the loading area. A numerical model was proposed to simulate the experimental results. The employed material model for masonry wall is based on the theory of Drucker-Prager plasticity taking into account the tension softening behavior, while the ferrocement is modeled as a composite material with linear strain hardening followed by ideal plasticity. The proposed model simulates the load-deflection behavior of the strengthened wall well.