Supercapacitors are important electrochemical energy storage devices for microelectronic and telecommunication systems, electric cars, and smart grids. However, the energy densities of existing supercapacitors are still inadequate for many applications. Vanadium oxides have been studied as viable supercapacitor alternatives, with varying results. Methods are often complicated or time-consuming, and electrode fabrication often includes carbon powder and binder. The objective of this work was to study the effect of processing conditions on specific capacitance of supercapacitors based on vanadium oxides coated on carbon fiber papers. This study was conducted to form easily-fabricated compounds of vanadium oxides which could offer promise as pseudocapacitor material, and to nucleate these compounds directly onto inexpensive carbon fiber without binder. The incipient wetness impregnation technique was used to fabricate the electrodes. Electrochemical performance of the resulting electrodes was tested in a Swagelok-type electrochemical two-electrode cell, and the electrodes were characterized by XRD and SEM. Interesting nanofeatures were formed and the vanadium oxides exhibited pseudocapacitance at a respectable level.

The research conducted in this study was concerned with the development of low-cost continuous production of carbon fiber/aluminum composites. Two coatings, alumina and zirconia, were applied to the fibers to protect against interfacial degradation. They were applied using a sol-gel method and common metal salts. The fibers were infiltrated with molten aluminum using an ultrasound sonicator. The resultant composites were well-infiltrated and were tested in tension to determine their mechanical properties. Strengths were only 15-35% of the theoretical values predicted by the rule of mixtures. The composite microstructure revealed a sizable void fraction and that the fibers within the composites did not contain any coating on their surface. It was hypothesized that this was a result of few exposed graphite plane edges on the fiber surface, causing poor adhesion of the oxide coating to the fiber surface. To improve adhesion, an amorphous carbon coating was applied to the fiber surface, but still the oxide coatings were removed from the fibers upon infiltration. It was found, however, that the carbon coating on its own did strengthen the interface between the fiber and the aluminum.

There is an excessive demand for the rehabilitation of frame type reinforced concrete (RC) buildings which do not satisfy current earthquake code provisions. Therefore, it is imperative to develop user-friendly seismic strengthening methodologies which do not necessitate the evacuation of building during rehabilitation period. In this study, it was aimed to strengthen the brick infill walls by means of diagonal Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) fabrics and to integrate them with the existing structural frame in order to form a new lateral load resisting system. The possible effects of height to width (aspect) ratio of the infill walls and scale of the frame test specimens on the overall behavior attained by the developed rehabilitation methodology were investigated. The experimental part of the study was carried out in two steps. In the first step, ten individual panel specimens were tested in order to understand the behavior of strengthened/non-strengthened masonry walls under diagonal earthquake loads. And in the second step, the tests of eight 1/3 and four 1/2 scaled one-bay, two-story RC frames having two different aspect ratios were performed to determine design details. The experimental results were revealed in terms of lateral stiffness, strength, drift and energy dissipation characteristics of the specimens. In the analytical part, an equivalent strut and tie approach was used for modeling the strengthened/non-strengthened infill walls of the frames. The predicted pushover responses of the frame models were compared with the test results. The design criteria required for the aforementioned strengthening methodology was developed referring these analytical results.

Παρατηρείται ότι, το ΙΑΜ έχει ήδη εδρεώσει τη θέση του ανάμεσα στα δομικά υλικά. Όμως για να μπορεί να χαρακτηριστεί ως πολυλειτουργικό υλικό, θα πρέπει να παρέχει και άλλες λειτουργίες μη δομικής φύσεως. Η διατριβή αυτή, επικεντρώθηκε στην ανίχνευση βλάβης σε στοιχεία ΙΑΜ μέσω διηλεκτρικών μετρήσεων και πιο συγκεκριμένα μέσω της μεταβολής της ηλεκτρικής αντίστασης στα στοιχεία αυτά. Τα αποτελέσματα των πειραματικών δοκιμών θα χρησιμοποιηθούν ώστε να θέσουν τις βάσεις για κατάλληλους συντελεστές συσχέτισης μεταξύ της εξέλιξης της βλάβης και της πιεζοαντίστασης σε στοιχεία ΙΑΜ. / This thesis presents the preliminary results of an ongoing experimental program aiming at assessing the piezoresistivity of carbon textile reinforced concrete dumbbell specimens under monotonic tensile loading, along the direction of loading. During testing both longitudinal strain and longitudinal electrical resistivity were recorded; electrical resistivity measurements were realized using a high-precision multimeter. The results of this experimental campaign may be used for setting the ground for establishing appropriate correlation factors between damage progression and piezoresistivity properties for TRC elements.

The influence of long-term load on the reinforced concrete beams strength-ened with a carbon fiber composite layer in the tensioned zone is considered in this dissertation. The evolution of deformations in the layers of the beams and the evolution of beam deflection is analyzed. The load carrying capacities after a long-term load action are also determined herein. The built-up-bars theory for calculation of deflections and the load carrying capacity after a long-term load action is presented in this dissertation. The thesis consists of an introduction, four main chapters, the results and conclusions and a list of used literature. The introduction describes the major objectives of the dissertation. It pre-sents the aims, the methods of research, the scientific novelty and defended pro-positions. The first chapter reviews application of carbon fiber composite polymer in strengthening structures. The influence of a long term load on concrete, polymer matrix, carbon fiber reinforced composite, strengthened concrete beams is also considered. In addition, it considers the calculation methods that evaluate the long term load influence. The second chapter is dedicated to applying of the built-up-bars theory in calculation of deflections and the load carrying capacity, including long term load action. Also, variation of concrete and carbon fiber composite contact stiff-ness is presented in this chapter. Chapter three presents the carried out experiments. It describes the experi-mental... [to full text] / Disertacijoje nagrinėjama lenkiamųjų gelžbetoninių sijų, tempiamojoje zo-noje sustiprintų anglies pluošto kompozitu, elgsena esant ilgalaikiam statinės apkrovos poveikiui. Disertacinio darbo tikslas – atlikti eksperimentinius tyrimus ir nustatyti ilgalaikės apkrovos poveikį sijos laikomajai galiai bei įlinkių vysty-muisi; apskaičiuoti sijos įlinkį pagal sudėtinių strypų teoriją įvertinant ilgalaikės statinės apkrovos poveikį bei betono ir anglies pluošto kompozito jungties stan-dumo pokytį dėl šlyties valkšnumo deformacijų prieaugio. Disertaciją sudaro: įvadas, keturi pagrindiniai skyriai, rezultatų apibendri-nimas ir išvados, naudotos literatūros sąrašas, autoriaus publikacijų disertacijos tema sąrašas. Įvadiniame skyriuje nagrinėjama tiriamoji problema ir darbo aktualumas, nurodytas tyrimų objektas, suformuluoti darbo tikslai ir uždaviniai, pateikta ty-rimų metodika, aptarta darbo svarba ir praktinė rezultatų reikšmė, pristatyti gi-namieji teiginiai. Pirmajame skyriuje atlikta literatūros apžvalga. Čia nagrinėjamas ilgalaikės apkrovos ir aplinkos poveikis anglies pluošto kompozitui, kompozito ir betono jungčiai bei gelžbetoninių sijų elgsenai. Pateikiami sustiprintų sijų elgsenos eks-perimentinių tyrimų, veikiant trumpalaike ir ilgalaike apkrova, rezultatai. Apta-riamos skaičiavimo metodikos, vertinančios ilgalaikį apkrovos poveikį. Antrajame skyriuje pateikiama skaičiavimo metodika, grindžiama sudėtinių strypų teorija. Skaičiavimo metodika skirta sijų, sustiprintų anglies... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

Aluminium matrix composites are among the most promising candidate materials for light weight and high strength applications such as transportation and armour. In a previous study 6061 aluminum matrix composites reinforced with plain weave carbon fiber preform (AS4 Hexcel) were successfully fabricated by squeeze casting using the laminate fabrication technique. This research aims at optimizing the fabrication process in order to achieve improved strength and mechanical properties. It focuses on the liquid infiltration squeeze casting method. Good mechanical bonding between fiber and aluminium is achieved thanks to improved infiltration and impregnation of the fabric by liquid aluminium. Oxidation products at fiber/aluminium interface and porosity are reduced. As a result, composites are produced with overall improved mechanical properties. The flexural strength is increased by up to 19.9% and 15.4% compared to the laminate approach and the reference 6061 aluminium alloy squeeze cast under identical conditions, respectively. Similarly, overall hardness is improved. However, the impact strength is reduced by 7.76% and 25.78% when compared to casts fabricated by the laminate method and the reference aluminium alloy, respectively. The thesis constitutes a good basis for further research on fiber and particle reinforced aluminium matrix composites with the goal of further improving fracture toughness, particularly for gradient materials used in armour applications.

Over the last decade, six major earthquakes that occurred in Turkey dramatically demonstrated the poor performance of the buildings that were designed and constructed far from Turkish seismic code&rsquo / s requirements. The Marmara region, where most of the population and industry is located, is in the active seismic zone. With the rising cost of damages due to earthquakes, the necessity of the cost-benefit analysis for various rehabilitation strategies used in existing buildings has become a major concern for the decision makers who are in the position of making decisions on the building rehabilitation This study evaluates the performance of two different rehabilitation strategies applied to two five-story reinforced concrete buildings and assesses their cost-benefit analyses. These buildings were chosen to be representative of the typical residential To carry out the structural analysis of the buildings, three-dimensional models of the buildings were developed using SAP2000 [6]. Two alternative strengthening methods, insertion of reinforced concrete shear walls and application of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRP) on hallow clay tile infill walls, were used for both of the buildings. While modeling infill walls strengthened with CFRP, two specific modeling attempts proposed by the researchers at Middle East Technical University were used. Pushover analyses were performed to evaluate seismic performance of the buildings. The Life Safety criterion was chosen as the rehabilitation objective. The global and component response acceptability limits were checked and the cost-benefit analysis was performed in order to determine the most attractive rehabilitation alternative. The results and comparisons given here illustrated that strengthening with shear wall had the most significant improvement on the seismic performance and cost effectiveness of the case study buildings. Outcomes of this study are only applicable to the buildings employed here and are bound by the assumptions made, approximations used and parameters considered in this study. The findings cannot be generalized for the buildings rehabilitated with CFRP due to lack of the consistent models for CFRP application. More research needs to be conducted to provide solid guidelines and reliable models applicable to the CFRP rehabilitated infill walls.

This thesis presents a technique used to stochastically estimate the location of hidden discontinuities in carbon fiber composite materials. Composites pose a challenge to signal processing because speckle noise, as a result of reflections from impregnated laminas, masks useful information and impedes detection of hidden discontinuities. Although digital signal processing techniques have been exploited to lessen speckle noise and help to localize discontinuities, uncertainty in ultrasonic wave propagation and broadband frequency based inspections of composites still make it a difficult task. The technique proposed in this thesis estimates the location of hidden discontinuities stochastically in one- and two-dimensions based on statistical data of A-Scans and C-Scans. Multiple experiments have been performed on carbon fiber reinforced plastics including artificial delaminations and porosity at different depths in the thickness of material. A probabilistic approach, which precisely localizes discontinuities in high and low amplitude signals, has been used to present this method. Compared to conventional techniques the proposed technique offers a more reliable package, with the ability to detect discontinuities in signals with lower intensities by utilizing the repetitive amplitudes in multiple sensor observations obtained from one-dimensional A-Scans or two-dimensional C-Scan data sets. The thesis presents the methodology encompassing the proposed technique and the implementation of a system to process real ultrasonic signals and images for effective discontinuity detection and localization.

Depuis les débuts de l’aéronautique, le feu fut l’un des premiers risques identifiés. Cependant, ce dernier est encore aujourd’hui la source d’accidents, souvent fatals, faute d’issue lorsqu’il intervient en vol. Dans le même temps, le besoin de réduire la masse des aéronefs actuels, pour limiter les coûts de fonctionnement, a rendu l’utilisation des matériaux composites, particulièrement réactifs au feu, indispensables. Afin de valider la performance au feu de ces matériaux, il est donc nécessaire de certifier leurs performances lorsqu’ils sont soumis au feu. Or ces essais représentent un coût non-négligeable pendant les phases de développement. L’utilisation des simulations numériques semble donc être une bonne alternative afin de limiter le nombre d’essais. Néanmoins ces dernières nécessitent un certain nombre de paramètres d’entrée et une bonne connaissance des phénomènes de dégradation. Ainsi dans ce travail, la dégradation thermique de deux matériaux composite est étudiée, le thermoplastique carbone-PEKK et le thermodurcissable carbone-phénolique. Les propriétés thermiques et cinétiques, indispensables pour la modélisation numérique du comportement au feu des matériaux, sont dans un premier temps caractérisées à petite échelle (ATG/DSC, DIL, diffusivité par méthode flash). Par la suite, ces propriétés sont utilisées dans le modèle de pyrolyse qui est validé à moyenne échelle, à l’aide de mesures de dégradation au cône calorimètre. Enfin, des essais de résistance au feu sont réalisés afin de valider les simulations numériques à grande échelle à l’aide du brûleur NexGen de la plateforme expérimental feux VESTA. De plus, les produits de pyrolyse sont évalués au cours de la dégradation (Py-GC-MS) pour déterminer les limites inférieures d’inflammabilité en fonction de la température et ainsi proposer une classification des matériaux étudiés. / Since the beginning of aeronautics, fire has been one of the first identified risks. However, the latter is still today the source of accidents, often fatal, lack of outcome when it intervenes in flight. At the same time, the need to reduce the mass of current aircraft, to limit operating costs, has made the use of composite materials, particularly fire-resistant, essential. In order to validate the fire performance of these materials, it is therefore necessary to certify their performance when subjected to fire. These tests represent a non-negligible cost during the development phases. The use of numerical simulations seems to be a good alternative in order to limit the number of trials. Nevertheless, the latter require a certain number of input parameters and a good knowledge of degradation phenomena. Thus in this work, the thermal degradation of two composite materials is studied, the thermoplastic carbon-PEKK and the thermosetting carbon-phenolic. The thermal and kinetic properties are first characterized on a small scale (ATG / DSC, DIL, diffusivity by flash method). Subsequently, these properties are used in the pyrolysis model that is validated on a medium scale using calorimeter cone degradation measurements. Finally, fire resistance tests are carried out using the NexGen burner of the experimental VESTA fire platform. In addition, the pyrolysis products are then evaluated during the degradation (Py-GC-MS) to determine the lower flammability limits and thus propose a classification of the materials studied.

[pt] Este trabalho é uma pesquisa experimental realizada no Laboratório de Estruturas e Materiais da PUC–Rio, utilizando–se a técnica de aplicação do compósito de fibras de carbono (CFC) colados externamente em consoles curtos de concreto armado. Foram ensaiados seis consoles curtos, sendo: um de referência, três com reforço de CFC na horizontal e dois com reforço de CFC na diagonal. A resistência média do concreto aos 28 dias foi de 30 MPa. A seção transversal do pilar foi de 25 cm × 50 cm e a seção do transversal console foi de 25 cm × 37,5 cm. O diâmetro da armadura tracionada em laço era de 10 mm e o diâmetro da armadura de costura era de 6,3 mm. Os consoles foram instrumentados com extensômetros elétricos de resistência na armadura tracionada, no estribo, no concreto e no CFC. Os ensaios comprovaram um razoável desempenho dessa técnica de reforço. Os resultados experimentais foram comparados com os resultados obtidos no modelo de Bielas e Tirantes e no modelo cinemático da Teoria da Plasticidade, visando a comparação das forças verticais últimas teóricas e experimentais. Foi avaliado o ângulo de inclinação das bielas e o fator de efetividade da deformação específica no reforço de CFC. / [en] This work is an experimental research of concrete short corbels wrapped with Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) strips. Different strengthening configurations were used. Was carried out on six corbels strengthened by CFRP. One control specimen without CFRP, three corbels with horizontal CFRP strips and two corbels with diagonal CFRP strips. The concrete had a 28 day compressive strength of 30 MPa. The column cross-section dimensions were 25 cm x 50 cm and the corbel cross-section dimensions were 25 cm x 37,5 cm. The flexural reinforcement consisted of four deformed bars each of diameter 10 mm with four transverse bars of diameter 6,3 mm. The corbels were instrumented with strain gages in flexural reinforcement, stirrup, concrete surface and CFRP strips. The analytical models based on Strut-and-Tie model and in the kinematic model of the Theory of Plasticity, allows one to determine the bearing capacity of corbels. The experimental values are then compared with the analytical results, showing good agreement. The strut angle and the strengthening effectiveness were evaluated.