DEVELOPMENT OF CARBON FIBER REINFORCED THERMOPLASTIC STRAND

ROD

ABSTRACT: The purpose of the main research is to develop a more linear

shape structural member using Carbon Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic composite

material. This paper will discuss the production stage begin with the instrumentation and

machinery used in manufacturing, material selection for manufacturing the threelayer

basic structure, and some improvement especially in material strength such as the

tensile strength. In the process, fiber content and cavity ratio test, tensile strength test,

alkali resistance test, temperature dependency test, weather resistance test, etc. is

performed. Products that satisfy the expected performance were applied to the actual

construction project. However, Carbon fiber composite materials are not included in

designated building materials in the Japanese building standard. Therefore, it is difficult

to apply the carbon fiber composite material in building construction in the present. An

example case on a real project, carbon fiber composite materials used in structural

member into the earthquake (horizontal) force resistant members.

1. INTRODUCTION

Carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic resin (CFRTP) strand rod is known as a

lightweight and sturdy material and when it is used as construction material, it will give

benefits such as in cost and construction period reduction because of it does not need

heavy equipment in the installation process. However, there are also disadvantages

such as the high material cost of carbon fiber and low fire resistance. It is also not been
recognized yet by Japanese Standards as a construction material, therefore its

utilization in construction practices is limited. Measurement tests on the basic

performance of materials in the development process are conducted in this research,

with the purpose to understand the structural performance required for CFRTP. The

observed structural performance is used in the actual project, using CFRTP as material

for seismic reinforcement. Carbon fiber (CFRTP) material used in this research is

carbon fiber composite material Torayca® T700SC shown by Figure 1.

2. VERIFICATION OF MATERIAL PERFORMANCE

2.1 Fiber Volume Content (VF)

Volume content (Vf) is measured by performing combustion process shown by

Figure 2. Tests were conducted based on the fiber content and cavity ratio test method

of carbon fiber reinforced plastic as recommended by JIS K 7075. The volume content

can be calculated by:

 2.2 Tensile Strength Test

Tensile strength test was performed to understand the performance of CFRTP

based on its tensile strength, standard deviation, and rigidity. The Specimen used in the

test listed in Table 1 and the test results for each specimen shown by Figure. 3 to

Figure. 6 (each Figure shows a maximum load on the top left, a histogram of rigidity on

the top right, and stress-strain relation on bottom).

a) Experiment Result of Specimen No. 1 The average of the maximum load

Pmax is 62.19 kN, with standard deviation σp of 3.74, and the average of the stiffness k

is 75.1 kN / mm, with a standard deviation σk of 11.9. The number of carbon fibers is

4.8 × 105 pieces, and the cross-sectional area of the carbon fiber is 18.33 mm2 .

Standard deviation obtained from this specimen is the largest compared to others

and it probably caused by the shape of CFRTP. Bundled carbon fiber material was

manually cut and introduced into the resin, and the tip was processed into tea whisker

shape.
 b) Experiment Result of Specimen No. 2 The average of the maximum load

Pmax is 40.39 kN, with standard deviation σp of 3.28, and the average of the stiffness k

is 5.93 kN / mm, with a standard deviation σk of 0.22. The number of carbon fibers is

2.4 × 105 pieces, and the cross-sectional area of the carbon fiber is 9.17 mm2 .

The Standard deviation for both of the maximum load and the rigidity resulted is

smaller than that resulted in the specimen No. 1. This is may be caused by the

manufacturing process of specimen no. 2. Unlike specimen no. 1, specimen no. 2 was

manufactured using machinery.

c) Experiment Result of Specimen No. 3 The average of the maximum load

Pmax is 56.33 kN, with standard deviation σp of 1.71, and the average of the stiffness k

is 4.20 kN / mm, with a standard deviation σk of 0.16. The number of carbon fibers is

2.4 × 105 pieces, and the cross-sectional area of the carbon fiber is 9.17 mm2 .

Standard deviation resulted was the smallest among specimens no. 1, no. 2 and

no. 3 (all of three specimens are straight shaped carbon fibers). Small standard

deviation resulted in this specimen might be caused by the improvement of accuracy in

the manufacturing process. The outer layer of carbon fibers was made from PET fiber to

glass fiber.

d) Experiment Result of Specimen No. 4 The average of the maximum load

Pmax is 87.22kN, with standard deviation σp of 4.25, and the average of the stiffness k

is 8.81 kN / mm, with a standard deviation σk of 0.82. The number of carbon fibers is

5.04 × 105 pieces, and the cross-sectional area of the carbon fiber is 19.25 mm2 .
 Standard deviation resulted was bigger than that resulted in specimen no.3. This

might be caused by the variation due to the shape of the specimen, which was

manufactured in the twisted shape.

e) The evaluation value σcu of the reinforcing material tensile strength was calculated

from the following formula (1 b)

f) The average tensile strength avσcu of only the fibers were calculated from the

following formula (1c)

g) Design standard strength dσcu was calculated from the following equation (1 d)
 Comparison of the tensile strength test result between CFRTP specimens and

steel material is shown in Table 2. The maximum tensile force of specimen no. 4 (7

bundles of 24k 3 pieces) is appeared to be the same for maximum tensile force resulted

from tensile strength test of PC steel. The effective strength of the carbon fiber of

specimen 1 is 3,393 / 4900 = 0.69 and this strength arises due to the addition of

strength from glass fiber.

2.3 Thermal Expansion Coefficient

Observation of strength and thermal characteristics of CFRTP was conducted in

this study using specimens listed in Table 3. Prior to the test, specimens were kept for

24 hours or more at a temperature of 20 ± 2 ° C. and a relative humidity of 65 ± 5%

according to Standard temperature state class 2 and standard humidity state class 2

(JIS K 7100), then stored for another 48 hours at the measurement maximum

temperature. Measurement conditions for measurement of thermal expansion

coefficient are in accordance with the Test method of thermal expansion coefficient by

thermomechanical analysis of continuous fiber reinforcement (draft) (JSCE-E 536-

1995). From the result of the measurement of the thermal expansion coefficient,

contraction starts when temperature exceeding 50 °C. This is considered to be caused

by dehydration caused by dehydration and desolvation. Heat treatment is necessary as

a pretreatment from this occurrence. Based on the relationship between thermal

expansion coefficient measurement and pretreatment time, the specimens pretreated at

70 °C were stable at 1.64 to 1.98 × 10 -6 / °C. The processing time is considered to be

sufficient for 12 hours. The thermal expansion coefficient of the carbon fiber strand rod
is less than 2 × 10 -6 / °C. The thermal stability of CFRTP is higher than that of steel

materials and concrete as shown by Table 4.

2.4 Alkali Resistance Test

Alkali resistance test of CFRTP was performed measurement of changes in

appearance and maximum tensile load of the specimen after dipping in an aqueous

alkaline solution. Alkaline concentration should be pH13 or higher and immersed at

60°C for 28 days. Test conditions conform to Alkali resistance test method for

continuous fiber reinforcement (draft) (JSCE-E 538- 1995). The test was performed

using 5 specimens listed in Table 5. Table 6 shows the results of tensile strength test,

and Figure. 7 shows a comparison of strength development. It was confirmed that the

tensile strength after immersing in an alkaline solution at a pH of 13 or more was

retained to be proof stress of more than 70%. Since the glass fiber used for the outer

layer of No. 5 is a general-purpose type, it is very likely that about a 30% reduction in

strength was observed. Therefore, alkali-resistant glass is considered to be superior in

concrete composite materials.

2.5 Temperature Dependence Test

Temperature dependence of tensile strength is confirmed by measuring tensile

strength based on the condition of the specimens. Specimens used in the test are listed

in Table 7. The test conditions are based on ASTM D 3090, where the test temperature

shall be at -20 °C, 23 °C, 50 °C, or 82 °C. The results of the tensile strength test are

shown in Table 8 and the displacement of the maximum load by the ambient

temperature is shown in Figure. 8. The maximum load decreases as the ambient

temperature rises. It is considered that it might be caused by the effect of temperature

on the thermoplastic resin in the CFRTP.

2.6 Weather Resistance Test

Weather resistance performance test is conducted by performing tensile strength

test after accelerated exposure test using specimens listed in Table 9. The test

conditions are in accordance with Promotional exposure test method for plastic building

materials (JIS A 1415) and perform an accelerated exposure test using sunshine

weather meter and metering weather meter. Tensile strength test results of the

specimens using the sunshine weather meter and metal weather meter are shown by

Table 10 and Table 11 respectively. The sunshine weather meter 2000 hours
(equivalent to 10 years), Metering ring weather meter 500 hours (equivalent to 50

years). There was almost no decrease in strength in the tensile strength test after

exposure.

3.2 Seismic Retrofit

This building was designed in compliance with earthquake resistance standard at

the time of construction, however, it was judged to be questionable on seismic

resistance on the first and second floors in the X direction and the whole Y direction

after various examination on appearance observation, drawing collation, concrete

strength, and concrete neutralization. Therefore, seismic retrofitting is necessary for the

first and second floors in the X direction and all floors in the Y direction. Since CFRTP is

a very high-strength material, it has a performance that can be used in seismic retrofit of

the entire building. Initially, it was considered to retrofit to building entirely using CFRTP,

however, due to authorization limitation, CFRTP is used as an addition to conventional

retrofitting to such as structural walls and slit dampers.

4. CONCLUSIONS

In this research, CFRTP with more linear shape has been developed and used

as a construction material. Starting with the development of materials manufacturing

machinery, it was possible to produce materials with the required performance, focusing

on the tensile strength development of the CFRTP material in the three-layer structure.

However, the application of CFRTP material is still a challenge because it is yet to be

used as construction material due to limitation by Japanese Building Standard. This

research is expected will be useful as a pioneering effort to make high-strength fiber

composite materials widely used in the future and future research in material

improvement such as fire resistance is recommended.

6. REFERENCES

[1] Maeda Yutaka: cutting edge technology of carbon fiber "Diffusion Edition",

CMC Publishing, April 2013

 [2] Izuka Yoshio: Carbon Fiber - Challenge to Complex Era -, Fiber Company,

March 2012

[3] Design and Construction Guidelines for Concrete Structures Using

Continuous Fiber Reinforcement (draft), Civil Engineering Society, September 1996

[4] Continuous fiber reinforced concrete structural design and construction

guidelines, Japan Architectural Institute, April 2002

[5] Otani Wataru : Research on product development of carbon fiber composite

materials for construction using thermoplastic resin, 2013

[6] Tomita Atsushi: Study on laminated wood incorporating carbon fiber braid

(adaptation to beam material), 2014

[7] Hiramatsu Toru: Introduction to carbon fiber composite, pp.10-118

[8] Hiramatsu Toru: Book on carbon fiber, pp.10-96

[9] Epoxy Resin Technology Association: Review Epoxy Resin Volume 4

Application Edition, 2003

[10] Maeda Yutaka: Application and market of carbon fiber, 2008

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