editorial civil engineering applications of polymer compositeseditorial civil engineering...

EditorialCivil Engineering Applications of Polymer Composites

Gonzalo Martínez-Barrera,1 Osman Gencel,2 and João M. L. Reis3

1Laboratorio de Investigacion y Desarrollo de Materiales Avanzados (LIDMA), Facultad de Quımica,Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Mexico, Km 12 de la Carretera Toluca-Atlacomulco, 50200 San Cayetano, MEX, Mexico2Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Bartin University, 74100 Bartin, Turkey3Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Laboratory (LMTA), Universidade Federal Fluminense, 24220 Niteroi, RJ, Brazil

Correspondence should be addressed to Gonzalo Martınez-Barrera; [email protected]

Received 28 December 2015; Accepted 29 December 2015

Copyright © 2016 Gonzalo Martınez-Barrera et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative CommonsAttribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work isproperly cited.

Researches have been done in order to improve perfor-mance of concrete and structures. As we know, polymersprovide huge opportunities for the advancement of materialsresearch, the improvement of material property, and thestrengthening of structures damaged. In this respect, recentdevelopments about polymer composites and their techno-logical developments in civil engineering are aimed in thisissue.

Topics include recovery and modification of waste andrecycled tire polymer fibers and their use as reinforcements ofconcrete. A novel proposal based on the modification of thephysicochemical properties of the waste automotive tire par-ticles, by using gamma irradiation, shows that improvementson the mechanical properties depend of gamma irradiationas well as concentration and size of waste tire particles.Another study shows that PP fibers can be substituted withhigher amount of recycled tire polymer fibers obtainingconcrete with similar shrinkage behavior. Such applicationswould contribute to solving the problem of waste tire dis-posal. Waste materials from Tetra Pak packages have beenused as reinforcement of polymer concrete elaborated withunsaturated polyester resin and silica sand and submittedto gamma irradiation. The results show improvements onboth compressive strength and flexural strength, as well asmodulus of elasticity when polymer concrete is irradiated.

Other studies are concerned with latex polymer cemen-titious composites (LCCs), for example, polypropylene fibersused in cementitious composites containing nanosilica andstyrene butadiene latex polymer, where the addition ofnanosilica significantly affected the bond strength and inter-facial toughness between macro-PP fiber and cementitious

composites. Synthesis of polymers for stabilization of min-erals, for example, synthesis of high molecular weight poly-acrylamide (PAM) and its application as sand stabilizer:the results showed that the use of high molecular weightpolymer gave excellent mechanical and thermal stability tothe polymer-sand composite. Other applications of acrylicresins can be found in the paper about environmental impactson the strength parameters of mineral-acrylic facade panels,elaborated with natural minerals produced from bauxite(aluminium hydroxides, ATH) and from acrylic resin (poly-methyl methacrylate, PMMA) and subjected to aging processin conditions of high temperature, high relative humidity,freeze-thaw cycles, and UV radiation.

Studies have been carried out by using fiber rein-forced polymer (FRP) materials; as we know, FRP materialshave advantages such as corrosion resistance, light weight,machinability, workability, and high strength. The shearcapacities of concrete beams reinforced with glass fiberreinforced polymer (GFRP) plates as shear reinforcementhave been studied. Also experimental assessment on theflexural bonding performance of concrete beam with GFRPreinforces bar under repeated loading. Moreover, structuralbehavior of concrete columns internally reinforced withglass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) rebars shows that theamount of GFRP longitudinal and lateral reinforcementslightly affects the column strength. another study is focusedon the behavior of full-scale porous GFRP barrier underblast loads; a discontinuous (porous) barrier composed byprecast concrete reinforced with GFRP bars was studied totake advantage of electromagnetic andmechanical propertiesas well as mitigating blast shock waves.

Hindawi Publishing CorporationInternational Journal of Polymer ScienceVolume 2016, Article ID 3941504, 2 pageshttp://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/3941504

2 International Journal of Polymer Science

The use of high performance composite fibers allows forthe improvement of the mechanical properties of cementcomposites, which are determined predominantly by theinterface properties between the fiber and cementitiousmatrix. Studies on the interface bond between fiber andcementitiousmatrix are discussed.The results show improve-ment on the compressive strength according to the embed-ment length of the fibers; moreover, chemical bond strengthwas independent of the water-to-binder ratio. Other studiescover experimental and analytical research results for predict-ing the flexural capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) beamsstrengthened in flexure with fabric reinforced cementitiousmatrix (FRCM). It was confirmed that the slippage betweenthe FRP fabric and matrix occurs at a high strain level.

Unreinforced masonry (URM) structures represent asignificant portion of existing historical structures around theworld. Recent earthquakes have shown the need for seismicretrofitting for URM structures. A strengthening techniqueusing externally bonded (EB) fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP)composites has attracted engineers since enhancing the shearstrength of URM walls with negligible change to cross-sectional area and weight of the walls. Results show thatFRP composites were effective to increase shear strength.Confining of damaged or corroded concrete columns withFRP sheets is always interesting for researches. However,the performance of this strengthening system at elevatedtemperature is still questionable. The effects of elevatedtemperatures on the compressive strength capacity of carbonand glass FRP-confined concrete cylinders are shown.

Experimental investigation on failure behavior of thenotched concrete beam strengthened with carbon fiber rein-forced polymer (CFRP) is studied, including the influencesof the length, thickness, and methods of bonding of CFRPlaminate on the ultimate bearing capacity and the failuremodes of the reinforced beam. A comparison between atheoretical analysis and the experimental observation showsthat the failure modes observed in the experimental studyare in agreement with the analytically predicted failuremodes. another research is concerned with the effects ofhooked-end steel fiber contents on themechanical propertiesof high performance concrete (HPC) and investigates thefeasibility of utilizing steel fibers to simplify the complicatedreinforcement detailing of critical HPCmembers under highshear stress. It is also recommended that both stirrups andsteel fiber should be used for fully confining the diagonal bargroups of coupling beams to achieve the ductile behavior.

Gonzalo Martınez-BarreraOsman GencelJoao M. L. Reis

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