UK Partner
Jiye Chen (UK PI), Reader School of Civil Engineering and Surveying (SCES)
Ukraine Partner
Bezushko Denys (Ukraine PI), ass. prof. Institute of Digital Technologies, Design and Transport, Odessа Polytechnic National University
Co-Investigators
Stephanie Barnett (UK CI) HoS SCES
Project objectives
Unfortunately, many infrastructures, e.g., buildings and bridges, in Ukraine are destroyed or damaged by the ongoing war. Massive reconstruction of the country is expected coming soon. However, rebuilding all damaged infrastructures is a huge financial issue and time consumed process. The prosed project will develop a smart repairing technology using carbon fibre-adhesive composite repairs and innovative constructional composites for enhancing partly or locally damaged infrastructures in cost-effective and efficient way. It is estimated that this smart repairing technology would be much low cost (between 1% and 50% of reconstruction costs depending on the damaged size in infrastructures) comparing to totally rebuilding damaged infrastructures. This project will bring huge financial savings and shorten the reconstruction time thus accelerate economic development in Ukraine. The project corresponds to the topic of scientific research and scientific and technical (experimental) development of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine for 2022-2026 in the direction of: Creation and application of technologies for obtaining, welding, joining, diagnostics and processing of structural, functional and composite materials; Scientific research on the problems of construction and architecture in the context of the post-war reconstruction country.
Project goals
Aims: to develop carbon fibre-adhesive composite repairs and innovative constructional composites for enhancing damaged infrastructures in cost-effective way to promote the economic development and welfare of Ukraine.
Objectives:
1. Assess damaged infrastructures and establish benchmarks for repairable infrastructures with the help of carbon fiber-adhesive composite.
2. Design carbon fibre-adhesive composite repairs with optimised shapes and sizes for variable infrastructures with support from calculations of carbon fibre reinforced concrete structures using the finite element method in the Lira SAPR software complex, LUSASA or ABAQUS.
3. Development of recommendations that comply with the regulatory documents of Ukraine and take into account modern world experience regarding strengthening of damaged reinforced concrete structures with the help of carbon fiber-adhesive composite.
4. Investigate innovative bio-mimicked sandwiches, carbon fibre – concrete and carbon fibre – steel composite components in infrastructures.
5. Investigate novel 3D printing bio-mimicked laminated composites for applications in constructional industry. It is well known that carbon fibre composites are lightweight, high strength and stiffness. One of its applications is repairing damaged structures by adhesion technology providing high bonding strength, which has been used in aerospace, ship buildings and construction sectors. This project will use advanced predictive modelling technology, the extended cohesive damage model (ECDM) developed by Dr Jiye Chen at UoP [1-3] to design suitable repairs for bonding carbon fibre composites on damaged steel or concrete, and to optimise repairs to achieve the best damage resilience of repaired infrastructures. The ECDM will be used to predict bonding strength of repaired structures, and to optimise the size, thickness and shape for composite patches and adhesive layers to match variable repairs required by different infrastructures.
The carbon fibre-adhesive repairing process is particularly swift, which is very suitable for recovering damaged infrastructures in a shorten period to meet the time requirement in reconstruction of the country in Ukraine.
An innovative bio-mimicked composite sandwiches developed by Dr Jiye Chen [4, 5] can be used as new constructional materials. The proposed project will also develop carbon fibre – concrete and carbon fibre - steel composite components, providing patches or replacements on the damaged areas in infrastructures.
A very recently developed new technology by Dr Jiye Chen [6]: 3D printing bio-mimicked laminated composites with enhanced damage resilience can be used to replace some damaged key elements, e.g., steel joints, which is recognised as an economic and efficient technology.
The UK principal investigator (PI) Dr Jiye Chen together with the Ukraine PI will manage the project and will play the role to discuss and investigate each objective and deliver expected outcomes. The Ukraine PI will work together with the UK PI on each objective with needed inputs or revision, especially provides a site for a case study required by this project for validation, and widely disseminate research outcomes in Ukraine constructional industry and top international journals, e.g., composite structures and building materials and construction.
Role of each Partner
UK PI Jiye Chen will undertake actions together with Ukraine PI and all CIs to complete objectives 1 to 2.
Ukraine PI Bezushko Denys will undertake actions with assistance from UK PI and all CIs to complete objective 3.
UK PI Jiye Chen and Ukraine PI Kostiantyn Dyadura with assistance from all CIs will undertake actions to complete objectives 4 and 5.
Timing
Project Start Date: 01/02/23
Project End Date: 31/08/23
Expected results
1. Establish benchmarks for repairable infrastructures with the help of carbon fiber-adhesive composite.
2. Designed carbon fibre-adhesive composite repairs with optimised shapes and sizes for variable infrastructures.
3. Provided recommendations that comply with the regulatory documents of Ukraine and take into account modern world experience regarding strengthening of damaged reinforced concrete structures with the help of carbon fiber-adhesive composite
