Statistical Characteristics of Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene Foil’s Mechanical Properties and Its Partial Safety Factors
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 28, Issue 5
Abstract
This paper investigates the statistical characteristics of ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) foils’ uniaxial and biaxial mechanical properties and suggests optimal partial safety factors of this material. Ten groups of uniaxial tensile tests and nine groups of biaxial tensile tests were performed. The test results indicated that two yield points of ETFE foils were more stable than the ultimate yield point, and then these two yield points were recommended as the reference points for single-layer pretensioned and cushion foil types. Moreover, a probabilistic limit state design method was adopted to calculate partial safety factors of ETFE foils. The statistical characteristics of an ETFE foil’s resistance and the partial safety factors of this material under three load effect combinations were determined. Reliability indexes were finally checked on the basis of the central point method and the Rackwitz–Fiessler method, whose results showed that the suggested partial safety factors could satisfy the target reliability index. These data offer a deeper understanding of ETFE foil mechanical properties and could be conveniently adopted in ETFE structural design.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51478333).
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 28 • Issue 5 • May 2016
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 10, 2015
Accepted: Aug 17, 2015
Published online: Jan 4, 2016
Published in print: May 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Jun 4, 2016
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