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I am the Head of Laboratory of Innovative Building Structures, where we performed our

tests. It is equipped with unique testing machines, which allow to test bending specimens
(up to fifteen meters long) subjected to static and cyclic load (up to two MN). The
equipment also allows testing frames (up to tree meters height). This presentation
was prepared together with Institute for Mechanics of Materials, University of
Latvia.

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This study is a part of the research project dedicated to developing an innovative
composite stress-ribbon structural system comprising a concrete slab adhesively connected
to the ribbon bands made from carbon fiber-reinforced polymer. The adhesive connection
increases the overall stiffness of the bridge system and improves its resistance to kinematic
effects. This presentation focuses on developing the design concept of the anchorage
system of the flexible composite ribbons.

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The first CFRP stress-ribbon bridge was constructed in TU Berlin in 2007. The non-
laminated strip-loop cable system developed by EMPA (Swiss) was used as the load-
bearing component in this bridge. Several unidirectional CFRP layers formed the
ribbons. Compared with laminated strips, the strip-loop cables are characterized by
a uniform strain distribution through reduced structural integrity.

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Considering FRP strips, adhesive bonding is the most straightforward technology for
joining such structural components. In adhesion joints, the loads are transferred
due to the shear effect. In real projects, however, the connection of FRP materials
faced severe problems. A relatively low inter-laminar shear strength of FRP
decreases the effectiveness of the anchorage systems. Brittle failure of the joint is a
typical consequence of stress concentration.

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The distribution of the shear stresses over the gripping surface is not uniform: a
stress peak appears near the anchor device’s entry. That leads to a premature
failure of the tensioned composite strip. An attempt to develop an efficient
adhesive gripping system was related to controlling the stresses in the CFRP strip by
varying curvatures of the contact surface. That could reduce the shear stresses
moving the peak stress inside the gripping device. Our Latvian colleagues developed
such a gripping system, but the preliminary tests indicated this system’s inability to
prevent the CFRP strip’s failure inside the gripping system.

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This drawback motivated developing the frictional gripping device that diminishes
shear and normal stresses peaks on the strip surface. This figure shows the
proposed gripping concept, where the number “1” designates the spiral support
disc; “2” indicates the paired plates fixed the disc by bolts “3”; the supplemental
system “4” clamps the internal end of the strip “5” before applying the tension
force P. Remarkably, the spiral disc “1” anchorages the flat strip, transferring the
applied load to the plates “2”. Thus, the tension force P induces the same
magnitude reaction at the fixing point “6”. The traction ratio χ describes the
gripping system efficiency.

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An innovative anchorage prototype with the shape of a Nautilus shell is considered
to control the shear stresses in the composite strip. The presented equation
describes a logarithmic spiral curve in a polar coordinate system.

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The gripping system prototype was developed for a prefabricated 10 mm wide and
0.5 mm thickness CFRP strip. The initial radius was selected to limit the total
stresses due to the combined action of the tension and bending effects in the strip.
In the considered case, the minimum radius r1 was set = 60 mm.

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Typical steel gips have a low cohesion coefficient to CFRP materials. Therefore, a
thermoplastic polymeric material was used to print the grip prototype. The parts of
the spiral grips as well as the dumbbell-shaped samples for the material
characterization were printed with identical printing parameters.

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The mechanical properties and tensile failure of four thermoplastic polymeric
materials were investigated performing tensile test of typical dumbbell-shaped
samples.

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It was shown that the ultimate strain of the specimens made of ABS, HIPS and PETG
materials were localized between printed filaments causing brittle failure, while PLA
specimens experienced a ductile failure; PLA also provides relatively high nominal
tensile strength. Therefore, the gripping system prototype was printed from the PLA
material.

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The inner part of the sample was printed with 60% infill at rectilinear raster
orientation (typical for prototyping purposes); two solid “shells” were printed on
the perimeter of the specimen. Internal conical supplemental grips were placed
inside the inner rectangular opening. These grips were used to fix the CFRP strip at
the preloading stage and prevent the gripping system’s sudden failure. The
curvature of the contact surface gradually decreases from the internal grips and
disappears at the entry of the anchorage device. In such a gripping system, shear
stresses at the strip surface vary smoothly along the contact surface. Tensile
deformations of the strip were measured using two strain gauges.

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The test results demonstrate ability of the proposed gripping system to reduce the
stress concentration: failure of the CFRP strip was localized outside the gripping
system. The stress-strain diagram of the strip demonstrates substantial differences
between deformations monitored inside the spiral gripping system (Gauge 1) and
outside the grips (Gauge 2). This difference is a consequence of friction between
the contact surfaces of the polymeric material and CFRP strip. The maximum tensile
stress in the gauging section and modulus of elasticity were very close to the results
of standard tests of the CFRP material.

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The average traction ratio is equal to 12.2 until the 6 kN load that agrees to the
theoretically predicted value of 13.0. This result makes the theoretical model
application for optimizing the spiraloid geometry possible.

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As it was mentioned, this study is a part of the project related to development of a
stress-ribbon bridge structure with composite ribbons.

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Such a prototype with steel ribbons has been built and tested in our laboratory. The
test results, i.e. the thrust forces, were used to develop two alternative spiral
gripping systems for CFRP strips.

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Let recall the proposed anchorage concept. The spiral disc anchorages the flat strip,
transferring the applied load to the fixing plate. Thus, the tension force P induces
the same magnitude reaction at the fixing point.

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The CARBOPLATE E 170 by MAPEI is used in this study as the flat ribbon. The producer
describes the following material properties: elasticity modulus E = 170 GPa; tensile
strength fu = 3.1 GPa; thickness t = 1.4 mm; width b = 50 mm. It can be observed
that the Archimedean curve determines a more compact anchorage joint than the
logarithmic alternative for the same traction ratio χ—the corresponding outer
radius r2 is equal to 284.5 mm and 586.6 mm. The coefficient C3 determines the
constant distance between the revolution branches equal to 100 mm.

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Finite element models illustrate the proposed gripping system efficiency. The
commercial FE software ATENA was used for that purpose. The deformation
problem was solved in a two-dimensional formulation; the spiral disc was meshed
using triangular shape finite elements, having 5 mm average size. The external cable
elements, i.e. the truss elements fixed at the contact points and freely sliding over
the polymeric disc between the supports, simulated the CFRP strip. A section of the
cable between the fixing points was considered a uniaxial bar element; the same
law of dry friction (with coefficient f = 0.4) governed all contact points’ movements
and the strip strain distribution.

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Here you can see the principle strain distribution in the polymeric spiral disc.

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The FE model predicts an almost identical traction ratio for both spiraloid models,
corresponding to the theoretical result. A relatively low elastic modulus of the spiral
disks made from a polylactic acid (PLA) can explain the difference between the FE
and theoretical model predictions.

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• The proposed spiral anchorage system resists the applied tension mainly by frictional
forces—the balance between the support curvature increase and the tension force
decrease controls the tension stresses in the strip. The prototype test results
demonstrated the ability of the developed gripping system to reduce the stress
concentration: failure of the CFRP strip was localized outside the gripping system.
• The proposed concept is suitable for the design of anchors of flexural strips. The stress-
strain behavior of the gripping system is closely related to flexural stiffness and strength
of the strip and cohesion parameters of the contact surfaces. The further improvement
of the theoretical model should address the deformability of the support disk that
allows the design of the self-tightening frictional gripping systems.

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This study was carried out under financial support received from European Regional
Development Fund under grant agreement with the Research Council of Lithuania
(LMTLT).

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