Simulation of the flexural behavior of prestressed fiber-reinforced polymer concrete

Recently, prestressed fiber-reinforced polymer concrete (PFRPC) has shown potential for use in highly stressed machine components. In particular, the low density and thermal and dynamic properties of the material should be mentioned. However, at present, there are still no possibilities for dimensioning the hybrid material, which consists of the granular material polymer concrete and prestressed carbon fibers. In particular, the numerical representation of the residual stress field poses a challenge. This paper is divided into 4 sections. First, the bending properties of pure polymer concrete, fiber-reinforced polymer concrete and PFRPC are determined experimentally. In the subsequent section, the numerical modeling of pure polymer concrete is carried out, first comparing various numerical and analytical models for determining the modulus of elasticity of granular materials. The model is then extended to include the integration of carbon fiber rovings, followed by an investigation into various methods for mapping the residual stress field. The Caquot model (15% accuracy) was found to be particularly suitable for mapping the polymer concrete, and a subdivision of the material into tensile and compressive areas proved to be essential. By determining the mechanical properties of the impregnated carbon fiber rovings using representative volume elements, the fiber-reinforced polymer concrete could be mapped with an accuracy of 2.2%. The integration of the selected models, in conjunction with the introduction of a homogeneous residual stress field derived from experimental values, enabled the successful representation of the bending test with an accuracy of 12.6%.