| dc.description.abstract | Over the past decade, extensive research has been conducted on the strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) structures using externally bonded fibre reinforced polymer (FRP). More recently, near-surface mounted (NSM) FRP reinforcement has attracted an increasing amount of research as well as practical applications. In the NSM method, grooves are first cut into the concrete cover of an RC element and the FRP reinforcement is bonded inside the groove with an appropriate filler (typically epoxy paste or cement grout). The FRP reinforcement is either prestressed or non-prestressed depending on the required level of strengthening. In all cases, the bond between an NSM bar and the substrate material plays a key role in ensuring the effectiveness of NSM strengthening.
The present work investigated experimentally the bond behaviour of non-prestressed and prestressed beams reinforced with near surface mounted carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) bars under monotonic and fatigue loading. Forty concrete beams were cast and tested in seven groups. The test variables considered in this study were: presence of internal steel reinforcement or not, the type of CFRP rod (spirally wound or sand coated) and the prestressing force (non-prestressed or prestressed). Twenty eight beams were strengthened with non-prestressed CFRP rods; fifteen beams without internal steel reinforcement and thirteen beams with internal steel. Ten beams with internal steel were strengthened with prestressed CFRP rods. The beams were tested in four point bending. In each group, one beam was loaded monotonically. The remaining beams were loaded under different fatigue load levels. The minimum load was kept constant for all beams at 10% of their monotonic capacity and the peak load was varied from one beam to another (denoted as a percentage of the peak load level).
Twenty eight beams were strengthened with non-prestressed CFRP rods. Bond failures for the beams with and without internal steel, strengthened with CFRP rods and tested under monotonic or fatigue loads was by debonding between the CFRP rod and the epoxy that started at the loading point and as the load was increased or cycled, the debonding spread towards the support until failure occurred. A comparison of the fatigue life curves for the beams with and without steel, strengthened with CFRP rods revealed that the sand coated rod had better bond characteristics than the spirally wound rod (at the same load range the beam strengthened with sand coated rod had a longer life than the beam strengthened with spirally wound rod). Beams with internal steel, strengthened with CFRP rods and tested under fatigue loading failed in bond at high load levels (short fatigue lives) and by rupture of the steel rebar at low load levels (long fatigue lives).
Ten beams with internal steel were strengthened with prestressed CFRP rods. The CFRP rods were prestressed to a force of 62 kN which corresponds to 45% and 40% of the monotonic capacity of the spirally wounded and sand coated rods, respectively. Almost all the beams with internal steel that were strengthened with prestressed CFRP rods failed by slipping between the CFRP rod and the epoxy that started at the support and propagated inwards towards the loading point. The exception to this was the beam strengthened with prestressed sand coated rod and tested under monotonic loading that failed by debonding between the CFRP rod and the epoxy that started at the loading point and propagated towards the support. Comparing the load range (kN) versus life curve for the beams with steel, strengthened with prestressed spirally wound and sand coated rods that failed in bond, shows that the beam strengthened with sand coated rod has longer fatigue lives than beam strengthened with spirally wound rod.
A model was used to describe the progress of the debonding crack until excessive slipping occurred. The model predicted the number of cycles until excessive slipping between the CFRP rod and the epoxy occurred and the forces in the CFRP rod at all locations in the shear span at the onset of failure with reasonable accuracy. | en |
