Prof V. Carvelli, Durability and thermo-mechanical behavior of FRPs

Summary: Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composites, in recent years, have known a widespread diffusion in several construction applications. Properties of FRP are relatively known to scientists and engineers, but there are still many concerns about their durability and their performance in real environment conditions. The talk intends to focus on two durability related aspects: the degradation of the mechanical performance of pultruded composites adopted as cladding in building constructions; the thermo-mechanical behavior of GFRP reinforced concrete structural elements at elevated temperatures. The first includes and extensive experimental investigation on the mechanical performance of laminates with different resin systems, and the description of an Arrhenius related methodology for the prediction of their long-term behavior. The second topic deals with thin and thick concrete slabs reinforced with GFRP rebars exposed to elevated temperature and bending loading. Experimental measurements are considered to assess the accuracy of analytical and numerical predictions of their thermo-mechanical response.

Biography: Valter Carvelli is Professor of Solid and Structural Mechanics at Politecnico di Milano since 2007. He was Assistant Professor in the same university since 2002. He obtained the Ph.D. in Structural Mechanics at University of Bologna. The main research interests are in the field of the mechanical behavior of composite materials reinforced with long fibers and textiles, with particular attention to their application in constructions. He is author of more than 100 papers in peer-review international journals and international conference proceedings and author of one book. Many of his publications are dedicated to the experimental measurement and numerical prediction of the mechanical behavior of composites, with particular attention to the fatigue response and to the reinforcement of concrete structures. He was research fellow in some Universities in Europe and Japan. He is member of the Executive Committee of the European Society of Composite Materials. He is active in several research projects with national and European grants for the investigation and industrial application of composite materials.