A novel prestressed carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) plate strengthening method for signal towers was proposed. The proposed strengthening system incorporates a circumferential anchorage system, a support system, a column system, and CFRP plates. These elements synergistically interact with the tower, forming a self-balancing system. This integrated system can provide exceptional flexural capacity and reduce the lateral displacement of the tower under wind load. To validate this novel method, a series of four static load tests were conducted. The results showed that the initial stiffness of the strengthened tower with CFRP plate prestresses of 0, 200, and 400 MPa increased by 71.0 %, 113.8 %, and 113.8 % compared with the unstrengthened tower, respectively. Moreover, the CFRP plate slacking occurred later for the strengthened tower with higher CFRP plate prestress, and the stiffness of the tower after the CFRP plate slacking kept increasing as CFRP plate prestress increases. The results indicate that the prestressed CFRP plate strengthening method effectively improved the behavior of the tower under wind load. Moreover, the finite element method (FEM) was utilized to analyze the influence of the ratio of the circumferential anchorage system height to tower height, the ratio of the support system height to tower height, the ratio of the column height to tower height, the ratio of steel support length to tower diameter, the elastic modulus of the CFRP plate and CFRP plate prestress on the strengthening effect. Finally, a strengthening procedure was proposed according to FEM results and sensitivity analysis. The analysis findings can serve as a guide for designing the strengthening system.
Discussion(0)
No comments yet. Be the first to comment.