SIMULATION OF DELAMINATION FAILURE IN RC BEAMS LAMINATED WITH FRP PLATE

Abstract

Due to the significant level of investment that developed countries have placed in their public and private infrastructure, and the aging of this infrastructure, rehabilitation and strengthening of existing reinforced concrete structures has become a research focus. With the advent of fibre reinforced plastics (FRP) new strengthening approaches have come to the fore using external bonding technologies. This approach has shown significant advantages compared to traditional methods, mainly due to the outstanding mechanical properties of the composite materials, its light weight and the simple application to structural members. However numerous investigations have revealed reductions in ductility and new, often brittle, failure modes due to mechanisms such as debonding at the interface between the FRP and the parent structure. It has been determined that the bond-slip behavior at the bond interface must be considered in the numerical modeling of externally-reinforced member in order to capture the perfect response of RC members strengthened with FRP. Essentials to analyses utilizing a general finite element program are the formulation of bond elements and their constitutive relations. The implementation of link interface elements along with reported bond slip laws has produced accurate predictions of member response.