A concise state-of-the-art survey of fiber-reinforced polymer (also known as fiber-reinforced plastic) composites for construction applications in civil engineering is presented. The paper is organized into separate sections on structural shapes, bridge decks, internal reinforcements, externally bonded reinforcements, and standards and codes. Each section includes a historical review, the current state of the art, and future challenges.

Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites for Construction—State-of-the-Art Review

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease characterized by pain and disability. It involves all ages and 70% of people aged >65 have some degree of osteoarthritis. Natural cartilage repair is limited because chondrocyte density and metabolism are low and cartilage has no blood supply. The results of joint-preserving treatment protocols such as debridement, mosaicplasty, perichondrium transplantation and autologous chondrocyte implantation vary largely and the average long-term result is unsatisfactory. One reason for limited clinical success is that most treatments require new cartilage to be formed at the site of a defect. However, the mechanical conditions at such sites are unfavorable for repair of the original damaged cartilage. Therefore, it is unlikely that healthy cartilage would form at these locations. The most promising method to circumvent this problem is to engineer mechanically stable cartilage ex vivo and to implant that into the damaged tissue area. This review outlines the issues related to the composition and functionality of tissue-engineered cartilage. In particular, the focus will be on the parameters cell source, signaling molecules, scaffolds and mechanical stimulation. In addition, the current status of tissue engineering of cartilage will be discussed, with the focus on extracellular matrix content, structure and its functionality.

/pdf/tissue-engineering-of-functional-articular-cartilage-the-j3xll85bsq.pdf

Tissue engineering of functional articular cartilage: the current status

The lack of practicable nonlinear elastic contact models frequently compels the inappropriate use of Hertzian models in analyzing indentation data and likely contributes to inconsistencies associated with the results of biological atomic force microscopy measurements. We derived and validated with the aid of the finite element method force-indentation relations based on a number of hyperelastic strain energy functions. The models were applied to existing data from indentation, using microspheres as indenters, of synthetic rubber-like gels, native mouse cartilage tissue, and engineered cartilage. For the biological tissues, the Fung and single-term Ogden models achieved the best fits of the data while all tested hyperelastic models produced good fits for the synthetic gels. The Hertz model proved to be acceptable for the synthetic gels at small deformations (strain < 0.05 for the samples tested), but not for the biological tissues. Although this finding supports the generally accepted view that many soft materials can be assumed to be linear elastic at small deformations, the nonlinear models facilitate analysis of intrinsically nonlinear tissues and large-strain indentation behavior.

/pdf/spherical-indentation-of-soft-matter-beyond-the-hertzian-2nbczbik0e.pdf

Spherical indentation of soft matter beyond the Hertzian regime: numerical and experimental validation of hyperelastic models

This paper presents the experimental results of large-scale concrete-filled glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) circular tubes and control hollow GFRP and steel tubes tested in bending. The diameter of the beams ranged from 89 to 942 mm and the spans ranged from 1.07 to 10.4 m. The study investigated the effects of concrete filling, cross-sectional configurations including tubes with a central hole, tube-in-tube with concrete filling in between, and different laminate structures of the GFRP tubes. The study demonstrated the benefits of concrete filling and showed that a higher strength-to-weight ratio can be achieved by providing a central hole. The results indicated that the flexural behavior is highly dependent on the stiffness and diameter-to-thickness ratio of the tube and, to a much less extent, on the concrete strength. Test results suggest that the contribution of concrete confinement to the flexural strength is insignificant; however, the ductility of the member is improved. A strain compatibility model has been developed, verified by the experimental results, and used to provide a parametric study of the different parameters, significantly affecting the behavior. The parametric study covered a wide range of FRP sections filled with concrete, including under-reinforced, balanced, and over-reinforced sections.

Flexural Behavior of Concrete-Filled Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Circular Tubes

Structural behavior of concrete filled carbon fiber composite tubular columns

Structural characterization of concrete filled fiber-reinforced shells

The design of tissue-engineered constructs grown in vitro is a promising treatment strategy for degenerated cartilaginous tissues. Cartilaginous tissues such as articular cartilage and the annulus fibrosus are collagen fiber-reinforced composites that exhibit orthotropic behavior and highly asymmetric tensile-compressive responses. They also experience finite deformations in vivo. Successful integration with surrounding tissue upon implantation likely will require cartilage constructs to have similar structural and functional properties as native tissue. Reliable stress constitutive equations that accurately characterize the tissue’s mechanical properties must be developed to achieve this aim. Recent studies have successfully implemented bimodular theories for infinitesimal strains (Soltz et al., 2000; Wang et al., 2003); those models were based on the theory of Curnier et al. (1995).Copyright © 2004 by ASME

Andrew Davol

Papers

Structural behavior of concrete filled carbon fiber composite tubular columns

Structural characterization of concrete filled fiber-reinforced shells

A Bimodular Second-Order Orthotropic Stress Constitutive Equation for Cartilage

Enhancement of photovoltaic power farms using a new power prediction approach

Structural Characterization of Concrete Filled