Compression-Resilience Responses of Commonly Used Membrane Materials in Spiral Case Structures of Hydroelectric Power Plants: Experimental Investigation
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 30, Issue 6
Abstract
The compressive behavior of membrane materials used in spiral case structures (SCSs) is of interest because, to a large extent, it determines the structural performance of SCSs. Unfortunately, it has not been dealt with in depth and was routinely assumed to be linear and elastic in SCS structural design. The aim of this work is to further current knowledge of the compression-resilience responses of the two most commonly used membrane materials: the polyurethane (PU) cork and polyethylene (PE) foam. A lever-type consolidometer was employed for the current cyclic compression-resilience test. The compressive behavior of both materials was stabilized after six loading/unloading cycles (with maximum pressure of 1.0 MPa). Strong evidence of the nonlinearity and inelasticity of both materials was found. The relevance of cyclic loading/unloading to the permanent set of both materials is clearly supported by the current findings. This study has gone some way toward enhancing the community’s understanding of the nonlinearity and inelasticity of the two membrane materials and has highlighted the need to consider them in the structural design of SCSs.
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Acknowledgments
This work was made possible by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51679013, 51609020, 51679175, and 51309030) and from the Fundamental Research Funds for Central Public Welfare Research Institutes (Changjiang River Scientific Research Institute CKSF2016015/GC and CKSF2017067/GC). The original photographs for Figs. 1(a and b) were provided by Mr. Xin-Chun Hu, Xi’an Forest Products (Cork) Chemical Plant, and Mr. Qian-Long Han, Changjiang Institute of Survey, Planning, Design and Research. Their generosity is gratefully acknowledged. The authors also thank Dr. Jia-Jun Pan, Ms. Xiao-Min He, Ms. Ju Luo, and Mr. Tong-Xiang Huang for their technical assistance in the experimental work.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 30 • Issue 6 • June 2018
Copyright
©2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 22, 2017
Accepted: Nov 21, 2017
Published online: Mar 30, 2018
Published in print: Jun 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Aug 30, 2018
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