Fatigue tests on steel plates with longitudinal weld attachment strengthened by ultra high modulus carbon fibre reinforced polymer plate

Abstract

ABSTRACTWelded steel connections of infrastructures are susceptible to fatigue failure. Advanced carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) has been demonstrated promising for fatigue strengthening of steel structures. Limited research was conducted on CFRP strengthening of welded connections. This paper focuses on the application of ultra high modulus (UHM) CFRP plates with a modulus of 460 GPa to strengthen steel plates with longitudinal fillet weld attachment using five CFRP strengthening configurations. A series of fatigue tension tests were carried out with constant amplitude fatigue loading. Beach marking technique was adopted to record the crack propagation process. Effects of CFRP bond length, bond width and bond locations on fatigue performance of welded steel joints were investigated. The experimental results showed that UHM CFRP plates could generally increase the fatigue life of the welded steel joints. It seems better to apply CFRP on the welding side of the specimen to achieve longer fatigue life. Then, the effects of weld and weld attachment on the CFRP strengthening efficiency was further studied by comparing experimental results of non‐welded steel plates with single side UHM CFRP plate strengthening. Finally, the classification method was adopted to assess the strengthening efficiency of the UHM CFRP plate to the steel plates with longitudinal weld attachment.