Dear All,
I am currently writing a PhD research proposal on the topic "Quantification of performance of plastic fibre in concrete elements compared to steel mesh". What are the possible research methodology I may use except literature review, mix design of specimens?
Many Thanks
Aawash
Experimental investigation to investigate the physical, mechanical, durability and thermal properties of fibre reinforced concrete. Then you can establish simple mathematical models to be used to develop FE model that fully predict the behaviour of plastic fibre reinforced concrete.
As this is a comparative analysis of plastic fibres to steel mesh you could use the descriptive research design and collect data with a survey questionnaire and apply an ANNOVA analysis to compare the variance of the two groups.
Experimental investigation to investigate the physical, mechanical, durability and thermal properties of fibre reinforced concrete. Then you can establish simple mathematical models to be used to develop FE model that fully predict the behaviour of plastic fibre reinforced concrete.
The possible research methodology in addition to the literature review, mix design of specimens can be writing a computer program (code) to simulate numerically the behavior of FRC members under the applied load on them, This can be done by adopting a finite element method using the constitutive laws of the concrete and fiber materials and considering the boundary condition, convergence criteria and equilibrium on sections and overall strength/deformation parameters. For starting you may start with simple uniaxial constitutive laws for materials and then extend it and use nonlinear constitutive laws of uniaxial or 3D laws. Compatibility and bond stress between the fibers and concrete should be carefully modeled. For compatibility you may the strain plane surface and consider that in sections the planes remain plane after deformation in sections (Navier's law). An alternative simple but perhaps with not enough accuracy may be appling the existing ready-made software and try to fit some types of elements and by using special meshing and discretization method for the FRC member modeling, This alternative is not enough for a Ph.D. program, it may be OK for a master degree program.
All the best and best of luck in your Ph.D. research.
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