Experimental investigation of bond-slip behavior of aluminum plates adhesively bonded to concrete

Abstract

The main objective of this investigation is to assess the feasibility of using aluminum alloy (AA) plates as externally bonded strengthening material for reinforced concrete members. Consequently, the main aim of this paper is to experimentally investigate the bond stress-slip behavior of AA plates adhesively bonded to concrete surface. In addition, the effect of different AA surface roughness on the bond stress and bond behavior of AA-concrete interface was also investigated. Twelve specimens with six different surface roughnesses were instrumented and tested under single shear. The tested specimens have two bonded lengths – long bonded lengths (75% of prism length) and short bonded length (30% of prism length). It was observed that the bond shear stress, loading capacity, and failure modes vary with AA surface roughness and bonded length. The load capacity and maximum bond stress increased by 143.6 and 342.6%, respectively, for long bonded length (75%) of randomly grinded AA surface compared with those of normal AA surface. Such increase in load capacity and bond stress demonstrated the potential of using AA as externally bonded strengthening material. In addition, the bond-slip behavior of the AA plates was predicted, with reasonable level of accuracy, using existing bond-slip models that were originally developed for fiber-reinforced polymer materials. However, a more elaborate study is warranted to develop bond stress-slip models, specifically, for AA-concrete interface.