MODELING AND NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF STEEL TUBES RETROFITTED WITH FRP LAMINATES

Tubular sections are most applicable in offshore structures. Member deterioration and fatigue failure are often reported in these structures. Hence, rehabilitation of these structures is an important matter. In this paper, after reviewing of the FRP material behavior, suitability of these materials were numerically investigated for the rehabilitation of the steel tubular members and compared with experimental results. Results showed that using FRP laminates around steeltubes, improved behavior of these systems such as strength and stiffness. Furthermore, these materials reduced the ovalization effects of the tubes. In the present paper, the effect of FRP wrapped steel tubes is studied and the stress distribution was examined. Thereafter, a parametricstudy is carried out in order to investigate the effect of FRP laminates on total strength and stiffness. Results showed that FRP laminates around the steel tube, not only makes the stiffness better, but also increases the strength of the retrofitted tube

Keywords:

Tubular Structures , FRP , Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis , Offshore Structures