Effect of Ageing Environment on Fiber-Reinforced Polymer/Granular Interface Shear Behaviour

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the ageing induced changes in Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP)/Granular interface shear behaviour under different aging environments. The testing materials in this study include two different FRP materials; Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) and Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP), and two different granular materials in terms of particle shape and D50. Acidic and alkaline aging environments were adopted in this study. The experimental program involves assessing the ageing effect on the testing FRP materials in terms of the changes in their hardness and surface roughness properties. Furthermore interface shear tests were conducted, using the unaged and aged FRP materials, to evaluate the effect of aging environments on FRP-granular interface shear coefficient. The test results indicated that FRP-granular interface shear behaviour was improved after subjected to the adopted aging environments. This behaviour could be attributed to the observed increase in the surface roughness of the aged FRP testing specimens.