TY - JOUR
T1 - An ultra-lightweight CFRP beam-string structure
AU - Zhang, Jianhua
AU - Zhou, Peizhao
AU - Guan, Chengyu
AU - Liu, TianQiao
AU - Kang, Won-Hee
AU - Feng, Peng
AU - Gao, Shuoqi
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - In this work, an ultra‐lightweight beam string structure made of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites was designed, optimized, fabricated and tested. ANSYS APDL was adopted to optimize the design of the structure. A four‐point bending test was carried out to investigate the structural behavior. Despite of being a non‐full‐scale structure, an exceptionally high structural efficiency, 56 N/g, was successfully achieved. Additionally, finite element analysis was conducted to investigate the effect of prestressing force in tension string. The added prestressing was identified to be able to increase the flexural strength of the structure by up to 15%. Moreover, with the thickened tension string, for instance for the 2.0‐mm‐thick string, 3% prestressing was able to provide a significant increase of the flexural strength and stiffness by up to 28% and 115%, respectively. The increased flexural strength was attributed to the improved stress distribution of compression beam. The proposed CFRP beam string structure, having an ultra‐lightweight and a high load‐carrying capacity, has a great potential to be widely adopted in conceptual developments and practical applications, particularly when high structural efficiency is required.
AB - In this work, an ultra‐lightweight beam string structure made of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites was designed, optimized, fabricated and tested. ANSYS APDL was adopted to optimize the design of the structure. A four‐point bending test was carried out to investigate the structural behavior. Despite of being a non‐full‐scale structure, an exceptionally high structural efficiency, 56 N/g, was successfully achieved. Additionally, finite element analysis was conducted to investigate the effect of prestressing force in tension string. The added prestressing was identified to be able to increase the flexural strength of the structure by up to 15%. Moreover, with the thickened tension string, for instance for the 2.0‐mm‐thick string, 3% prestressing was able to provide a significant increase of the flexural strength and stiffness by up to 28% and 115%, respectively. The increased flexural strength was attributed to the improved stress distribution of compression beam. The proposed CFRP beam string structure, having an ultra‐lightweight and a high load‐carrying capacity, has a great potential to be widely adopted in conceptual developments and practical applications, particularly when high structural efficiency is required.
UR - https://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:59685
U2 - 10.1016/j.compstruct.2020.113149
DO - 10.1016/j.compstruct.2020.113149
M3 - Article
SN - 0263-8223
VL - 257
JO - Composite Structures
JF - Composite Structures
M1 - 113149
ER -