Application Of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer Cables As A Tensegrity System In A Suspen Dome

Suspen domes are widely used in prestressed steel structures which are predicated on the concept of tension because of their high structural efficiency and ease of achieving self-balance in practical engineering.The cable system is the key component of a suspen dome,with increase in span the load bearing efficiency and durability of the cable are affected due to self-weight necessitating the need for periodical maintenance and replacement.Carbon fibre reinforced polymer cables have advantages of light weight,high strength and good corrosion resistance over steel cables.Therefore,partially reinforcing a suspen dome with carbon fibre reinforced polymer cable in lieu of steel cable to fully display its high performing characteristics can give an extensive development prospects for its application.The material properties of carbon fibre reinforced polymer and steel cable differ;hence the need to study the behavioural pattern of carbon fibre reinforced polymer tensegrity system in reference to analysis and design theory of a suspen dome.Based on experimental research through theoretical analysis and numerical simulation,the study mainly focuses on the mechanical performance of carbon fibre reinforced polymer cables in a suspen dome with contents as follows:1,Experimental study on the anchorage performance for carbon fibre reinforced polymer cable was carried out.Based on bond theory of anchorage,the design of carbon fibre reinforced polymer hoop and radical anchor was tested in a suspen dome,the length and structure of the anchorage were optimized by finite element analysis.A uniaxial tensile test was carried out to study the mechanism and failure mode of the anchorage system and to verify the anchoring bearing capacity.The experimental results showed that the failure mode of the anchorage system is mainly based on slip failure and colloid interface.The stress state of the anchorage system is in relation with load size: with low load,the stress at the loading end is high and peak stresses at the anchor are shifted towards the middle and ends gradually as load increases.The anchorage system designed in this study satisfies the requirement for subsequent test for carbon fibre reinforced polymer tensegrity system.2,Research on static test for carbon fibre reinforced polymer cable in a suspen dome was carried out.A prototype with a span of 4m and a height of 0.4m(span to height ratio 1/10)was successfully designed and constructed to evaluate results based on static performance on specified loading points on the single reticulated layer.The experimental results show that the single reticulated layer of suspen domes are subjected to stresses while the radical and hoop cables are in tension.With increase in load,the displacement and strain of the structure linearly increases and the whole structure is in elastic state.The force state distribution is similar to that of the traditional suspen dome.Similarly,models were established on ANSYS platform to simulate loading process with mechanical properties of steel and carbon fibre reinforced polymer tensegrity system within elastic range for analysis and comparison.The results show that under same loading and boundary conditions the stress level and displacement at measured points of the structure are close but the safety of carbon fibre reinforced polymer tensegrity system is higher which implies that the application of carbon fibre reinforced polymer cable for a suspen dome has a good feasibility and is practicable.3,The structural stress process of carbon fibre reinforced polymer tensegrity system was studied.Based on the experimental model and an existing suspen dome namely the Beijing Olympic suspen dome,elastic-plastic analysis for carbon fibre reinforced polymer and steel tensegrity system under vertical imposed load were carried out respectively.The internal force distribution for the radical cable,hoop cable and the single reticulate layer of the two models were compared.The numerical results show that the internal force distributions for the two models are similar and the edges of the single reticulated layer at the hoop cable are the main structural part.The failure form of the structure is mainly tensile failure at the edge of the single reticulated layer and the buckling of compressive members.The load-displacement curve revealed that the structural stress are close for carbon fibre reinforced polymer tensegrity system and steel tensegrity system with elastic phase(in accordance with the experimental results)but in the elastic-plastic stage carbon fibre reinforced polymer is more rigid and the ultimate bearing capacity is slightly higher than steel tensegrity system.4,Temperature effect of carbon fibre reinforced polymer cables in a suspen dome was studied.The thermal expansiveness of carbon fibre reinforced polymer is relatively low in comparison with that of steel.Based on the experimental model and Beijing Olympic suspen dome,the force distribution state was analyzed for carbon fibre reinforced polymer and steel tensegrity system under hot and cold atmospheric conditions respectively.The numerical results showed that the effect of temperature effect on carbon fibre reinforced polymer differs from steel.The influence of temperature on the single reticulated layer for the steel tensegrity system is concentrated on the marginal area while the influence on the single reticulated layer for carbon fibre reinforced polymer tensegrity system is not concentrated at the marginal area.The internal changes of the central area of the single reticulated layer are significant under same temperature.The internal force and displacement of carbon fibre reinforced polymer tensegrity system are generally smaller.Based on creep theory,the effect of creep on carbon fibre reinforced polymer tensegrity system under high temperature was analyzed;the results revealed that the creep effect on carbon fibre reinforced polymer is very small.5,Preliminary study on dynamic behavior of carbon fibre reinforced polymer was studied.The structural dynamic responses for carbon fibre reinforced polymer and steel tensegrity system under instantaneous dynamic load were analyzed and compared respectively.The numerical results show that the modal responses of the two models are similar at low frequency but differ at high frequency.The structural response for carbon fibre reinforced polymer tensegrity system is more significant based on transient dynamic effect.6,Proposed design method and suggestion for carbon fibre reinforce polymer tensegrity system.Based on the experimental results,theoretical and numerical analysis,the study gives some suggestions are given in the design of a suspen dome with carbon fibre reinforced polymer cables from the aspect of structural design setup,model establishment,joint design and allowable displacement.Also,the study provides references for the development of a design theory for a suspen dome.