Manufacturing and process modeling of FRP rebars by a combined pultrusion/filament winding process

A combined pultrusion and filament winding process is developed to fabricate composite rebars. A pultrusion machine is designed and constructed, and a filament winding machine is installed and modified. Experience in building the machines is reported. To optimize the working process, the parameters in the pultrusion process were analyzed using a three dimensional heat transfer model. A FORTRAN program was developed for this purpose. The ductility of composite rebars has been a major concern. A combined pultrusion and filament winding method is used to fabricate composite rebars. Materials chosen are carbon fibers and epoxy resin. The rebar made has a kind of pseudo-ductility. This is realized by a mixture of carefully chosen different kinds of carbon fibers and winding angles. Properties of composite rebar made are analyzed. Optic fiber sensors were embedded into the composite rebar for structural monitoring purpose --Abstract, page iii