Self-Luminous Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites for Structural Applications
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 27, Issue 3
Abstract
Glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) composites have been increasingly used in the construction of civil structures because of their light weight and high strength, tailored flexibility, and corrosion resistance. Such structural materials also present potential for a multifunctional design where functions other than load-carrying capacity, such as thermal insulation, energy supply, and intelligent inspection can be incorporated into one GFRP structural component. This paper further extends this concept by the development of the self-luminous function. In this application, a translucent resin modified with self-luminous powders, together with the nature of glass fibers, is able to illuminate the resulting GFRP composite in darkness and therefore provide the structural members with new architectural and aesthetic features or other service signatures. Mechanical experiments, luminance measurements, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging have been conducted to examine the self-luminous GFRP composites, and the results are reported in this paper.
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Acknowledgments
The authors wish to acknowledge Mr. Long Goh and Mr. Kevin Nievaart for their assistance in conducting the experiments at the Monash University Civil Engineering Laboratory. Thanks are given to Chongqing Polycomp International Corp. (CPIC), China for supplying glass fiber materials without charge. Thanks are also given to Mr. Trevor Ivory for supplying self-luminous powders and to Mr. Charlers Hrubos for conducting luminance tests. Financial support was received from the Australian Research Council through the Discovery Early Career Researcher Award scheme (DE120101913) and Monash University. The second author acknowledges China 973 project 2012CB026200, and the third and fourth authors also acknowledge the ARC discovery project DP120100170 and a Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication Fellowship.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 27 • Issue 3 • March 2015
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 30, 2013
Accepted: Feb 11, 2014
Published online: Jul 14, 2014
Discussion open until: Dec 14, 2014
Published in print: Mar 1, 2015
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