Abstract
The present paper proposes a useful closed-form solution for a wide class of mechanical problems, among which one of the most relevant and debated is the deboning process of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) strips glued to generic materials and possibly intended as a mode-II fracture process. Specifically, after outlining well-known equations, a novel piecewise analytical formulation based on a cascading solution process is proposed with the aim of keeping the mathematical expressions of the relevant mechanical quantities as simple as possible. Although other analytical solutions and numerical procedures are already available in the literature, the present one is capable of handling the softening or snap-back response deriving from the full-range simulation of the depending process with no need for complex numerical techniques. This is obtained by considering the slip at the free end of the strip as the main displacement control parameter. After some comparisons between the proposed closed-form solution and experimental results available in the literature, some mechanical considerations are highlighted by elaborating on the results of a parametric study considering the variation of the main geometric and mechanical quantities. The numerical code implemented as part of the present study is available to readers in Open Access.
Highlights
The present paper proposes a useful closed-form solution for a wide class of mechanical problems, among which one of the most relevant and debated is the deboning process of FiberReinforced Polymer (FRP) strips glued to generic materials and possibly intended as a mode-II fracture process
Debonding develops in pure mode II, and only relative slips are relevant to describing the displacement field of the FRP strip; The FRP strip responds elastically with a Young modulus Ef ; Interface slips are uniform throughout the generic transversal chord of the FRP strip; The interface is described by a bilinear elastic-softening bond-slip law; The substrate material is supposed to be stiff
This paper presented a novel solution scheme for obtaining closed-form expressions capable of simulating the response of FRP-to-concrete joints subjected to pull-out actions
Summary
Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) systems are well-established nowadays among the possible technical solutions available on the market for strengthening structural members in existing civil engineering constructions [1]. Several models have been proposed with the aim of simulating the full-range behavior of FRP-strengthened members [13,14]; they often assume that debonding develops as pure mode-II fracture propagation process In other words, they are based on assuming an interface interaction law between relative axial displacements (often referred to as “interface slips”) and the corresponding shear bond stresses; possible relative displacements in the normal direction of the interface (“uplifts”) are neglected, and the corresponding normal stresses not considered in defining debonding conditions. Inverse identification procedures are based upon theoretical models (and their analytical or numerical solutions) that are employed to simulate the mechanical response of the structural system under consideration (namely, a FRP-to-concrete joint subjected to a pull-out test) with the aim of quantifying the difference between the simulated and experimental results and of reducing them (through automated constrained optimization procedures) by looking for the “best” values for the material parameters; in the case under consideration, the latter are the mechanical quantities describing bond-slip laws [18].
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