Manufacture and rehabilitation of guard-rail posts using composites for superior performance

The effectiveness of an external composite reinforcement in improving the strength and durability of a conventional CCA treated wood post was studied. A combination of HMR as primer and epoxy as adhesive was found to provide the best possible adhesion of a glass fibers to CCA treated wood. Wrapped samples, representing a scaled down version of the proposed posts were subjected to 6-cycle accelerated aging and freeze-thaw chemical aging (in acidic, alkaline, water and salt water solutions). The retention in mechanical properties was measured using flexure tests and DMTA. The performance in terms of modulus and rigidity was reduced the most by acidic medium, and the least by saltwater medium. It was concluded that under unaged conditions, the flexural rigidity of wood is improved by 162% due to composite wrapping. The technique of composite wrapping also shows a promise of improving the properties of guard-rail posts under actual field conditions.

Name thesis:degree_name

MS

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Chemical and Biomedical Engineering

Year dc:date.available

2000

Author dc:creator

• Anegunta, Swetha

Contributors dc:contributor

• Rakesh K. Gupta.

• Chemical engineering

Identifier

https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/1031

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchrepository.wvu.edu:etd-2034