Engineering Structures 33 (2011) 2154–2161

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Engineering Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/engstruct

Mechanical properties of pultruded carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP)

plates at elevated temperatures
Ke Wang, Ben Young ∗ , Scott T. Smith
Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong

article info abstract

Article history: The use of fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites is becoming increasingly widespread in civil
Received 23 September 2010 infrastructure for strengthening and repair applications as well as whole FRP members and structures.
Received in revised form A question which, however, continually arises from all stake-holders is the performance of FRP materials
10 March 2011
under elevated temperatures. An accurate understanding of the material properties and behaviour of FRP
Accepted 11 March 2011
Available online 13 April 2011
at such high temperatures is crucial, and they are necessary pieces of information that are surprisingly
scarce in the literature. This paper therefore presents the mechanical properties of pultruded carbon
Keywords:
fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) plates at elevated temperatures. More specifically, CFRP pultruded plate
CFRP coupons were tested at steady and transient states for temperatures ranging from approximately 20 to
Elevated temperatures 700 °C. The tests showed that, for the temperature ranges 20–150 °C and 450–706 °C, reductions of the
Pultruded FRP plate tensile strength of the pultruded CFRP plate occurred. Between these temperature ranges, the tensile
Fire resistance strength decreased by a small amount, while at 300 °C the ultimate strength was approximately 50% of
High-temperature behaviour the room-temperature strength. In addition, the tensile strength of the plate was as low as 7% of the room-
temperature tensile strength at the approximate peak temperature of 700 °C. Finally, an equation that
relates the tensile strength of the plate to the entire tested temperature range which has been calibrated
with all the test data is proposed.
© 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction between externally bonded FRP strengthening to the adjacent con-

Existing reinforced concrete (RC) infrastructure can be
strengthened and repaired with externally bonded fibre-reinforced
polymer (FRP) composites or externally mounted post-tensioned
FRP tendons and plates. An abundance of research exists on the
experimental validation of these various strengthening technolo-
gies to RC structural members at room temperature or common
operating conditions (e.g. [1,2]). There is, however, a distinct lack
of research on the characterization of FRP construction materials as
well as the strengthening of RC structures strengthened with FRP
composites at elevated temperatures and under fire conditions.
Fibre-reinforced polymer composites consist of fibres embed-
ded in a resin matrix [1]. The commonly used fibres of carbon and
glass can withstand a high temperature, and in the case of car-
bon fibres this temperature can exceed 2000 °C [1]. The epoxy
used in the resin matrix and also the epoxy used to bond the
FRP composite to concrete surfaces, however, degrades mechan-
ically with increased temperature. Such degradation commences
before the glass transition temperature, Tg , is reached. In this case,
the ability of the resin matrix to transfer forces amongst the fi-
bres is lost in addition to the ability of the resin to transfer forces
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +852 2859 2674; fax: +852 2559 5337.
E-mail address: young@hku.hk (B. Young).
0141-0296/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.engstruct.2011.03.006
crete substrate [3]. The Tg value can lie in the range 50–90 °C for
commercially available products used in civil infrastructure appli-
cations [4], and, interestingly, such temperatures can be reached on
surfaces exposed to direct sunlight in hot environments. Research
on the ability of insulation systems to keep the temperature in the
epoxy below critical temperatures for a certain period of time is
gaining momentum [5–8]. Such research on insulation systems is,
however, outside the scope of this paper.
Of the limited research undertaken to date on FRP-strengthened
members exposed to elevated temperatures, Kodur et al. [9] have
provided design guidance. Such guidance represents a culmination
of tests on FRP-strengthened RC structural elements such as beams,
slabs, and columns, conducted under elevated temperatures. Such
testing [6,10–12], though, has considered the behaviour of the
entire strengthened member and not the individual materials and
components. In addition, the tests were conducted in a transient
state manner in which the member was initially loaded and
then a fire curve (e.g. [13]) applied. More recently, Foster and
Bisby [4] identified a lack of research and understanding of the
mechanical properties of FRP strengthening systems in isolation
that are available to the construction industry. They also identified
a lack of research on the bond between the FRP and the concrete
substrate. The work presented in [4] was therefore directed
towards enhancing the limited research on the mechanical
properties of commercially available FRP materials under elevated
 K. Wang et al. / Engineering Structures 33 (2011) 2154–2161
Nomenclature
a, b , c coefficients for Eq. (1)
P (T ), Pinitial , PR , km , Tcentral , Rn coefficients for Eq. (2)
A, B, C , n coefficients for Eq. (3)
Enormal elastic modulus at normal room temperature
T surface temperature of specimen
Tg glass transition temperature
f mechanical property in question (ultimate strength,
elastic modulus, or bond strength)
f0 room-temperature value of mechanical property
in question (ultimate strength, elastic modulus, or
bond strength)
fu,T ultimate stress at temperature T °C
fu,normal ultimate stress at normal room temperature (i.e. 22 °C)
ε u,normal strain corresponding to the ultimate strength at
normal room temperature
temperatures. In their experimental study, they investigated the
mechanical properties of FRP bar and plate products under
elevated temperatures. More specifically, they conducted tensile
coupon tests, single-lap FRP-to-FRP bond tests, direct tension (pull-
off) FRP-to-concrete bond tests, and FRP-to-concrete double-lap
shear bond tests after exposure to temperatures of up to 400 °C.
In all cases, the strengths were found to decrease at various rates
as the temperatures were increased. The tests conducted by Foster
and Bisby [4] were focused on the post-fire behaviour. Other
researchers [14,15] have also investigated the behaviour of FRP
composite materials for temperatures up to 200 °C. Furthermore,
Cao et al. [16] investigated experimentally the tensile properties
of CFRP and hybrid FRP sheets at elevated temperatures, ranging
from 16 to 200 °C, and the strengths were found to reduce by
up to 40%. In general, information on the high-temperature and
residual properties of FRP composites used in civil applications
is still quite scarce, especially for the pultruded FRP products
which are widely used in civil applications. Investigations of
reinforced concrete, steel, stainless steel, and concrete-encased
steel composite structures at elevated temperatures have been
conducted [17–22].
The purpose of the study reported herein is to measure the me-
chanical properties of CFRP (herein simply FRP) pultruded plates
at temperatures ranging from room temperature (approximately
22 °C) up to high temperatures which may be expected in a fire
(i.e. 700 °C). Flat coupon specimens were prepared from commer-
cially available pultruded FRP plates and then tested to failure in
tension in a universal testing machine while under the influence
of various steady-state or transient temperature histories. In the
steady-state tests, the test specimens were heated to a specified
temperature and then the tensile test was carried out. In the tran-
sient tests, the specimens were loaded to a certain stress level and
then the temperature was increased until the test specimens failed.
The transient-state tests are considered more realistic in a fire;
however, for completeness, both steady-state and transient-state
tests were conducted. Furthermore, a unified equation for predict-
ing the ultimate strength of pultruded FRP plates at elevated tem-
peratures, which has been calibrated with the test data presented
herein, is finally proposed.
It is important to note here the practical implications and
applications of the results presented in this paper in the context of
strengthening concrete structures with FRP composites. The tests
show that the specific CFRP plates can withstand temperatures up
to 400 °C while still retaining about half of their tensile capacity.
This is important information in the case of strengthening concrete
members with unbonded post-tensioned plates with which the
end anchorages are protected from heat. However, in the case
2155
of concrete members strengthened with externally bonded CFRP
plates, the thermal resistance of the epoxy used to bond the plate
to the concrete will be the limiting factor. In such cases the epoxy
will lose its ability to function at temperatures typically below
100 °C, unless an epoxy of high thermal resistance is used. Once
the epoxy degrades in strength, the externally bonded plate will
simply detach, and the strengthening effect will be lost.
2. Experimental investigation
2.1. Testing device
An MTS 810 universal testing machine of 250 kN capacity was
used for the tensile coupon tests, while the temperature was ap-
plied by a high-temperature MTS 653 furnace which was con-
trolled by an MTS 409.83 temperature controller. The grips of the
universal testing machine, in addition to the mounted furnace, the
furnace controller, and an FRP specimen, are shown in Fig. 1. The
furnace, which was capable of reaching a maximum temperature
of 1400 °C, gained its heat from six pairs of silicon carbide heat-
ing elements arranged in three zones, as shown schematically in
Fig. 2. Insulation plates separated these three zones in order to en-
able more uniform heating and better temperature control. Three
internal thermocouples were located inside the furnace to measure
the air temperature, as shown in Fig. 2. Since the internal thermo-
couples were not in contact with the test specimens, the temper-
ature detected by the internal thermocouples was higher than the
surface temperature of the specimens. Therefore, three external
thermocouples were used to measure the surface temperature of
the specimens, and the temperature measured from these thermo-
couples was considered as the real temperature of the specimens
in this study. These thermocouples in contact with the test speci-
mens were labelled (in reference to Fig. 2) as No. 1 (upper chamber
and left-hand side of the FRP coupon), No. 2 (central chamber and
left-hand side of the FRP coupon), and No. 3 (central chamber and
right-hand side of the FRP coupon). The highest temperature read-
ing of the three thermocouples was selected as the failure temper-
ature of the specimen, since the failure should have occurred at the
hottest position of the FRP plate. The accuracy of the internal and
the external thermocouples is 0.25% and 0.2%, respectively.
2.2. Testing procedure
2.2.1. Steady-state tests
In the steady-state tests, the specimens were heated to
a specified temperature then loaded until failure while the
same temperature was maintained. After reaching the desired
temperature, times of either 5 or 30 min were maintained
before loading, which allowed the epoxy to undergo physical
and chemical changes. After such time, the tensile load was then
applied to the specimens until failure. During the heating-up and
holding stages, the test specimens were unrestrained (i.e. gripped
at one end only) in order to enable thermal expansion. After the
holding time had been reached, the grips at the other end of the
specimens were closed and then the specimens were tested (while
still under the influence of temperature) to failure. The heating
rate of the furnace was 50 °C/min. In addition, the tests were
undertaken in a ram displacement control mode at a constant rate
of 2 mm/min.
2.2.2. Transient-state tests
In the transient-state tests, the test specimens were initially
gripped at both ends and loaded in a load-controlled manner. Prior
to heating, the specimens were loaded in order to achieve stress
levels of nominally 1000, 1500 and 2000 MPa, which represented
2156 K. Wang et al. / Engineering Structures 33 (2011) 2154–2161
Temperature
Controller
Specimen
Furnace
Fig. 1. Test set-up.
Fig. 2. High-temperature furnace details (MTS model 653).
typical stress levels in practice. The furnace was then heated in
accordance with the experimental fire curve, as shown in Fig. 3. The
fire curve attempted to follow the widely used ISO [13] fire curve
(also known as a standard temperature–time curve) which can be
used to assess the fire resistance capacity of structures. Due to the
limitation of the furnace used in this test program, the maximum
heating rate could not exceed 100 °C/min. Therefore, the initial
part of the ISO fire curve could not be achieved, as can be observed
in Fig. 3. In order to simulate the ISO fire curve as closely as possible,
though, the following heating procedure was adopted.
• During the first 5 min of heating, the maximum heating power
of the furnace was used, namely 100 °C/min, in order to raise
the temperature inside the furnace from 20 °C up to 520 °C.
• During the following period, various heating rates in the range
5 –25 °C/min were adopted in order to make the furnace
temperature match the ISO fire curve from minute to minute.
The air temperature in the furnace was sometimes higher than
expected because of the inevitable overshooting of the heaters in
the furnace. This was due to the adoption of the proposed heating
procedure and use of the maximum heating rate capability.
Fig. 3. Time–temperature curves used in the transient state tests.
2.3. Test specimens
A total of 34 test coupon specimens were prepared and tested to
failure in this study. The specimens were divided into three groups
(G1–G3), as shown in Tables 1 and 2. The first two groups (G1 and
G2) were subjected to steady-state tests. Group G2 was identical
to G1, except for a longer holding time of 30 min as compared to
5 min for the former. Group G3 consisted of specimens subjected
to the transient-state tests.
Sika CarboDur 1214 pultruded plates were used in this study,
and details of properties at room temperature according to the
manufacturer [24] are included in Table 3. Tensile coupons were
cut to size in the laboratory in accordance with ACI 440.3R-04 [23]
and the dimensions shown in Fig. 4. An important consideration
when testing pultruded FRP plates was to ensure that rupture
failure occurred in the body of the test specimen and away from the
grips. For this reason, special attention was given to the design of
the grips. Surface-roughened aluminium tabs, which provided high
contact friction, proved to offer the best gripping due to the ability
to prevent crushing of the FRP in the grip region as well as the
ability to prevent slippage. The actual cross-sectional dimensions
of the test specimens within the centre gauge length region were
measured using a micrometer. The measured dimensions were
then used to determine the cross-sectional area of each coupon for
eventual use in calculating the stress levels.
3. Test results
3.1. Temperature and time
The variation of the surface temperature on a typical specimen
(i.e. TS-1000-1) against time is shown in Fig. 5. The horizontal
axis of this figure represents the test time (in minutes) and the
vertical axis represents the temperature (in °C). Fig. 5 shows that
there are two peaks in each of the three thermocouple curves. The
first peak occurs when the specimen was heated to over 350 °C
while the second is at around 640 °C. Shortly after these two peaks
were reached, the surface temperature on the specimen was higher
than the temperature of the furnace. The following comments are
therefore offered as a means of explanation.
At the first peak, the epoxy ignited, although it had already
started to decompose upon the glass transition temperature Tg
(around 60 °C) being reached. Upon ignition, gas was emitted and
the FRP plate caught fire, as observed in Fig. 6. When the epoxy
had completely burned off, the temperature on the specimen then
dropped. The second peak, at around 600 °C, was due to heat
being released from oxidation of the carbon fibres. In this case, CO
 K. Wang et al. / Engineering Structures 33 (2011) 2154–2161 2157

Table 1
Ultimate stress, failure mode, elastic modulus, and strain at break of specimens at room temperature.
Group Specimen Temperature Holding time Ultimate stress Failure Elastic modulusc Strain at break
identificationa T (°C) (min) fu,normal (MPa) modeb Enormal (GPa) εu,normal (%)
G1 (room temperature) SS-22-0-1 22 0 3239.3 I 188.0 1.70
SS-22-0-2 22 0 3169.8 I 193.4 1.65
SS-22-0-3 22 0 3052.1 I 193.7 1.61
SS-22-0-4 22 0 3072.5 I 191.4 1.57
a
The specimen identification is described in Table 2.
b
The failure modes are described in the text.
c
For calculation of the ultimate stress and elastic modulus, the composite area and the measured width and thickness of the specimen were used to determine the
cross-sectional area of the specimen. The range of strain for calculating the elastic modulus is 1000–3000 microstrain [23].

Table 2
Temperature, ultimate stress, and failure mode of tests at elevated temperatures.
fu,T
Group Specimen identificationa Temperature T(°C) Holding time (min) Ultimate stressb fu,T (MPa) fu,normal
Failure modec

G1 (temperature series) SS-50-5-1 50 5 2889.6 0.922 I

SS-50-5-2 50 5 3110.7 0.993 I
SS-100-5-1 98 5 2197.6 0.701 II
SS-100-5-2 103 5 2137.0 0.682 II
SS-100-5-3 97 5 2118.1 0.676 II
SS-150-5-1 146 5 1916.8 0.612 II
SS-150-5-2 155 5 1792.8 0.572 II
SS-150-5-3 150 5 1944.0 0.620 II
SS-200-5-1 211 5 1690.3 0.539 II
SS-200-5-2 203 5 1720.7 0.549 II
SS-200-5-3 181 5 1728.9 0.552 II
SS-200-5-4 198 5 1731.1 0.552 II
SS-300-5-1 308 5 1664.2 0.531 II
SS-300-5-2 279 5 1704.4 0.544 II
SS-300-5-3 300 5 1693.8 0.541 II
SS-400-5-1 395 5 1501.9 0.479 III
SS-400-5-2 398 5 1504.2 0.480 III
SS-400-5-3 420 5 1489.4 0.475 III
SS-500-5-1 520 5 1354.5 0.432 III
SS-500-5-2 500 5 1340.8 0.428 III
SS-600-5-1 623 5 689.5 0.220 III
SS-600-5-2 625 5 609.1 0.194 III
SS-700-5-1 706 5 143.5 0.046 IV
SS-700-5-2 698 5 223.2 0.071 IV
G2 (time series) SS-150-30-1 152 30 1858.0 0.593 II
SS-150-30-2 180 30 1776.4 0.567 II
SS-150-30-3 163 30 2002.6 0.639 II
G3 (stress series) TS-1000-1 600 – 1061.0 0.339 III
TS-1500-1 508 – 1500.0 0.479 II
TS-2000-1 135 – 2000.0 0.638 I
a
SS-50-5-1: SS = steady state, 50 = target temperature of specimen at failure, 5 = holding time at target temperature, 1 = first specimen in subseries. TS-1000-1:
TS = transient state, 1000 = target stress of specimen, 1 = first specimen in subseries.
b
For calculation of the ultimate stress, the composite area and the measured width and thickness of the specimen were used to determine the cross-sectional
area of the specimen [23].
c
The failure modes are described in the text.

Table 3
Properties of Sika⃝
r
CarboDur⃝
r
1214 plates at room temperature [24].
Property Thickness (mm) Fibre content by volume (%) Tensile strength Tensile modulus Strain at rupture (%)
Mean value (MPa) Min value (MPa) Mean value (GPa) Min value (GPa)

Sika 1.4 68 3100 > 2800 165 160 1.7

1214

(a) Side. (b) Front.

Fig. 4. Schematic of coupon specimen geometry (units: mm).

and CO2 were produced [4], and the maximum loss of fibre mass The results of the Group G2 tests show that the ultimate
occurred. Oxidation of carbon fibres was also observed in the tests strength and failure modes for the specimens were almost the
of Foster and Bisby [4]. same as compared to the corresponding specimens in Group G1.
2158 K. Wang et al. / Engineering Structures 33 (2011) 2154–2161
Fig. 5. Time–temperature curves of specimen TS-1000-1 in the transient-state
tests.
Fig. 6. Burning of epoxy resin at 350 °C (specimen TS-1000-1).
The results are shown in Fig. 7, as well as Tables 1 and 2. The reason
for this behaviour was because there was only a small amount
of the epoxy resin matrix in the specimen. It can therefore be
concluded that the holding time of 5 min was sufficient, and that
the prolonged holding time did not affect the tensile strength of
the FRP coupons.
3.2. Stress–displacement relationships and failure modes
The tensile stress–displacement curves exhibit temperature-
dependent features, as observed in Figs. 8 and 9. It is evident
that the ultimate strength deteriorated when exposed to elevated
temperature. The stress–displacement relationship is essentially
linear from room temperature to temperatures as high as 520 °C
right up to rupture failure. In addition, for temperatures ranging
from 625 °C to the maximum temperature of 706 °C, the
stress–displacement relationships become nonlinear at high stress
levels due to loss of fibres from oxidation.
A brief description of all failure modes encountered in all tests
is provided in this section. For Groups G1, G2, and G3, the failure
photographs are shown in Fig. 7(a), (b) and (c), respectively, while
the types of failure modes are listed in Tables 1 and 2. Based on
the Group G1 test specimens shown in Fig. 7(a) for increasing
temperature, four different failure modes can be defined, which are
herein referred to as Modes I, II, III, and IV. Each of the failure modes
is defined in terms of the temperature ranges extracted directly
from the test data provided in Tables 1 and 2.
Mode I
The temperature of Mode I failure was relatively low, and
within the range 22–50 °C. The specimens failed primarily in a
brittle fibre rupture fashion and also simultaneously at different
positions along the length of the specimens. The temperature
appears to have had little to no effect on the failure mode of the
test specimens.
Mode II
For Mode II failing specimens, the rupture position was always
in the region of the furnace. This failure mode occurred between
the temperature range 97–308 °C. The primary phenomenon
for Mode II failure was softening and gasification of the epoxy
resin matrix followed by fibre rupture. Fig. 10(a) shows a typical
specimen which has failed in a Mode II manner. In this case, part
of the epoxy has been lost.
Mode III
From 395 to 625 °C, the specimens failed in a Mode III manner.
In this case, there was no epoxy left on the pultruded FRP plate
inside the furnace since the epoxy had self-ignited at about 350 °C.
Fig. 10(b) shows a typical Mode III failed specimen. In this case, the
specimen bent freely after the test due to the complete loss of all
epoxy.
Mode IV
Mode IV failing specimens endured temperatures from 698 to
706 °C. For such specimens, the epoxy was completely burned, and
about half of the carbon fibres had oxidized.
3.3. Transient-state tests
The failure temperature for each of the specimens in the Group
G3 tests was reached when the tensile load could no longer
be sustained. Fig. 11 shows the temperature to cause failure
of the Group G3 test specimens. In this figure, the horizontal
axis represents the specimen temperature, and the vertical axis
represents the load. The failure temperatures of the test specimens
of Group G3 in the transient state are given in Table 2. The
comparison between the steady-state and transient-state test
results is also plotted in Fig. 12. It should be noted that there
was an abrupt drop of failure temperatures when the stress ratio
(fu,T /fu,normal , as defined in Section 3.4) was increased from 0.34
to 0.65. In addition, it was also found that the transient-state test
results were slightly higher than those obtained from the steady-
state tests under a certain load level.
3.4. Ultimate strength
The reduction factor of the ultimate strength at temperature
T to the ultimate strength at room temperature (fu,T /fu,normal )
obtained from the steady-state tests at different temperatures
is listed in Table 2, and plotted in Fig. 12. The vertical axis
of Fig. 12 represents the strength reduction ratio fu,T /fu,normal ,
and the horizontal axis represents the temperature. This figure
shows that two large reductions of the failure strength of the
test specimens occurred in the temperature ranges 22–150 °C and
450–706 °C. In between these temperature ranges there was a
gradual reduction in strength, and at 300 °C the ultimate strength
of the test specimens reduced to approximately 50% of the room-
temperature strength. In addition, when the temperature rose to
around 706 °C, the test specimens experienced a significant drop
in strength compared with the room-temperature strength.
3.5. Proposed equation for ultimate strength
In recent years, researchers have been developing models
to predict the behaviour of FRP materials made from different
 K. Wang et al. / Engineering Structures 33 (2011) 2154–2161 2159

T = 22°C
T = 308°C

T = 50°C T = 420°C

T = 103°C T = 520°C

T = 625°C
T = 155°C

T = 211°C T = 706°C

(a) Group G1 temperature series, holding time = 5 min.

T = 599°C
T = 152°C 2000 MPa

T = 507°C
T = 180°C 1500 MPa

T = 135°C
T = 163°C 1061 MPa
(b) Group G2 time series, holding time =30 min. (c) Group G3 stress series.

Fig. 7. Typical failure modes of FRP plates.

fibres and with different manufacturing procedures at elevated

temperatures. However, the development of analytical models
at high temperatures has been much less in comparison to
experimental investigations. In order to describe the mechanical
behaviour of FRP composites under elevated temperatures,
Bisby [7] proposed a sigmoid function. This function described the
reductions in strength, elastic modulus, and bond strength for FRP
composites for temperatures up to about 800 °C. The equation is
provided as follows.

(1 + a)
 
f 1−a
= tanh (−b (T − c )) + , (1)
f0 2 2
where f is the mechanical property in question (i.e. tensile
strength, elastic modulus, bond strength) at temperature T (in
degrees Celsius, °C), f0 is the room-temperature value of the
mechanical property in question, and a is an assumed constant,
with the coefficients b and c obtained by least-squares regression Fig. 8. Stress–displacement relationship of Group G1.
of test databases. The proposed values of a, b, and c are provided
in [7]. While there is a considerable scatter of the results in [7] hyperbolic tangent function model is presented as follows [15]:
(i.e. low R2 values), the analytical curves presented in [7] captured 
the overall trends in the data gathered. Evaluation of Eq. (1) with Pinitial + PR Pinitial − PR
P (T ) = Rn · −
the test results reported in this paper shows the predictions to 2 2
deviate somewhat. Such discrepancy may be due to Eq. (1) being 
originally calibrated from scattered data from a variety of FRP
products. × tanh (km · (T − Tcentral )) , (2)
More recently, Gibson et al. [25] proposed a model which was
derived from composite laminate theory for elevated temperatures where P (T ) is a particular mechanical property (i.e. the elas-
up to 200 °C. More specifically, the model takes the form of tic modulus, strength) at temperature T , Pinitial is the room-
a hyperbolic tangent function which predicts the temperature temperature value of that property, PR is the average value of
evolution through the thickness and the profile of the residual the property at high temperature, km is a constant describing the
resin content, which in turn reflects the extent of thermal damage breadth of the distribution which is determined by a nonlinear
of the FRP [25]. Subsequently, Chowdhury et al. [15] calibrated multi-parameter least squares regression analysis, and Tcentral is the
Gibson’s [25] model with glass FRP (GFRP) coupon tests and FRP- temperature around which the curve is nearly symmetrical (note
to-FRP bond strength tests also for temperatures up to 200 °C. The that Tcentral is not necessarily equal to Tg ). In addition, Rn accounts
2160 K. Wang et al. / Engineering Structures 33 (2011) 2154–2161

(a) Stress–displacement relationship of Group G2. (b) Stress–displacement relationship of Group G3.

Fig. 9. Stress–displacement relationship of Groups G2 and G3.

(a) Mode II (97–308 °C). (b) Mode III (395–625 °C).

Fig. 10. Physical characteristics of type II and III failure modes.

Fig. 11. Definition of failure temperatures of Group G3 specimens (stress series

specimens).
for resin decomposition, and Rn equals 1 when there is no decom-
position loss and 0 when the resin has been completely vapor-
ized [15].
The results using Chowdhury et al.’s [15] model are plotted in
Fig. 12. The model provides a conservative lower bound due to
the model being calibrated from tests on a different FRP material
instead of pultruded CFRP plates as investigated in this study.
Chowdhury et al.’s [15] tests on GFRP coupons show them to
Fig. 12. Ultimate plate strength: test results and predictions.
degrade at a greater rate than the pultruded CFRP plate coupons
presented herein. The original form of Chowdhury et al.’s [15]
model (as defined in [25]) is recalibrated with the pultruded CFRP
plate data presented in this paper. The range of data extends up to
395 °C, which physically represents the complete vaporization of
the epoxy. In the recalibration, Rn is taken to be 1.0 and PR is 0.48 of
 K. Wang et al. / Engineering Structures 33 (2011) 2154–2161
Table 4
Coefficients of proposed ultimate strength equation.
Temperature (°C) Coefficients
A B C n
22 ≤ T < 150 1.00 22 200 0.9
150 ≤ T < 420 0.59 150 490 0.7
420 ≤ T < 706 0.48 420 76,000 1.8
the strength properties at 395 °C. In addition, Pinitial is also equal to
1.0, which is the average of the observed values of the property at
room temperature. Owing to a lack of relative test results, Tcentral
is estimated to be 100 °C, since, at such temperature, the trend
of test data below 200 °C in Fig. 12 is nearly symmetrical. Using
a nonlinear single-parameter least-squares regression analysis, km
becomes 0.0139. The resulting calibrated curve shown in Fig. 12
matches the test results very well (i.e. the R2 value is 0.93). The
model is, however, limited to temperatures up to about 400 °C. A
new modelling approach is therefore required in order to describe
the complete tested temperature range.
In order to determine a new model, inspiration is drawn
from metals subjected to high temperatures. More specifically,
the stress–temperature relationship for the CFRP pultruded
plates reported herein exhibited the same shape as that of
elevated temperature tests on stainless steel and cold-formed steel
materials conducted by Chen and Young [26,27]. As a result, the
stress–temperature model presented in [26,27], which is given in
Eq. (3), is proposed herein.
fu,T (T − B)n
=A− . (3)
fu,normal C columns. ACI Struct J 2005;10(6):883–91.
In Eq. (3), the coefficients A, B, C , and n are calibrated for
different temperature ranges with the steady-state and transient-
state test results presented herein. The calibrated coefficients are
presented in Table 4. Despite the small scatter in the data in the
three zones (i.e. the R2 of three zones are 0.90, 0.82 and 0.96,
respectively), the model is robust, and is capable of describing the
entire temperature range.
4. Conclusions
An experimental investigation of the mechanical properties of
pultruded CFRP plates at elevated temperatures for both steady-
state and transient-state tests has been presented. It should be
noted that the results are specific to the type of resin and fibre
as well as to the fibre volume fraction of the plate tested. In the
steady-state tests, the temperatures ranged from approximately
20 to 700 °C, whereas in the transient-state tests the stress ratios
ranged from 0.34 to 0.64. The failure modes and ultimate strengths
have been discussed and the stress–displacement relationships
have been plotted. The FRP plate was found to ignite when
the temperature reached around 350 and 600 °C. These two
self-ignitions were caused by the epoxy matrix transforming
into a gaseous state and then by oxidization of the carbon
fibres, respectively. Generally, the stress–displacement relation
was essentially linear from room temperature to temperatures as
high as 520 °C. Four different failure modes were then identified
and described, namely (i) rupture of the FRP plate (Mode I),
(ii) partial loss of epoxy matrix followed by plate rupture (Mode
II), (iii) complete loss of epoxy matrix (Mode III), and (iv) complete
loss of epoxy matrix as well as considerable oxidation of the carbon
2161
fibres (Mode IV). At 300 °C, the ultimate strength of the plates
reduced to approximately 50% of that at room temperature. In
addition, when the temperature rose to around 700 °C, the test
specimens experienced a significant drop in strength compared
to the room-temperature strengths. Finally, an equation for the
ultimate strength of pultruded CFRP plates for temperatures
ranging from room temperature to about 700 °C has been proposed
in this study.
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