Modeling of thermo-mechanical properties and responses for FRP composites in fire

 ABSTRACT

The changes of mechanical properties of FRP composites subjected to elevated and high temperatures were modeled based on chemical kinetic theory; they compared well with experimental results obtained by Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA). Together with the material property sub-models, a thermo-mechanical model was then developed to predict the thermal and mechanical responses (temperature and elastic deflection) of full-scale cellular FRP panels subjected to a four-point bending configuration and fire from one side. Two different thermal boundary conditions were investigated: with and without liquid-cooling of the panels in the cells. Finite difference method was used to calculate the temperature, E-modulus and effective coefficient of thermal expansion in time and space domain. The elastic deflection due to stiffness degradation and thermal expansion were obtained at each time step based on classical beam theory. The predicted results compared well with the measured data over a test period of up to two hours