CFRP lamella stay-cable and its force measurement based on microwave radar

Abstract

Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) has advantageous characteristics such as lightweight, high strength, high corrosion and fatigue resistance, low creep, and high damping, etc. It is suitable to be used in bridge structures as cables, which can effectively solve the problems of easy rusting, heavyweight, low tensile strength, and low fatigue performance of steel cables. This paper firstly illustrates the advantageous properties of CFRP lamella compared with CFRP rod in terms of cable anchoring and then investigates the performance of wedge-shaped clamp anchorage for CFRP lamella cable by finite element analysis and static tensile test. Finally, the process of measuring the cable force of CFRP lamella stay-cable with non-contact microwave cable force measurement technology is introduced. The finite element analysis and experiment show that the wedge-shaped clamp anchorage can effectively anchor the CFRP lamella stay-cable with a relatively high anchorage efficiency, and the maximum stress of the CFRP lamella stay-cable is at the free section instead of the anchorage section, and the failure pattern is mainly the fiber explosion of the free section. The results of microwave cable force measurement are consistent with those of the traditional pressure sensor and strain gauge methods. The non-contact microwave cable force measurement technology is easy and fast to operate, and it is suitable for measuring the force of CFRP cable.

Keywords

• CFRP lamella stay-cable
• Cable force
• Wedge-shaped clamp anchorage
• Microwave radar
• Vibration frequency method