Influences of the bond-slip on the flexural performance of CFRP plate-strengthened damaged steel beams with intermediate debonding: A numerical study

Abstract

The interfacial intermediate debonding between the steel beam and CFRP (carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer) is a considerable issue for a CFRP plate-strengthened damaged steel beam. The interfacial bond-slip property determines the interfacial debonding and thus affects the strengthening efficiency. To comprehend the influence laws of the bond-slip behavior, this study conducted a finite element (FE) modelling to assess the strengthening efficiency of the damaged steel beam using CFRP plates. The triangular and trapezoidal cohesive zone models were considered in parametric investigations. The comparisons of FE and experimental results verify the developed FE models. The FE modelling shows that the interfacial fracture energy is the most important bond-slip parameter affecting the flexural strengthening efficiency, relative to the maximum bond stress, elastic and plastic slips. The flexural capacity, ultimate deflection, and debonding load of the damaged steel beam are significantly increased with an increase in the interfacial fracture energy. However, changing the maximum bond stress, elastic slip or plastic slip only produce a minor influence under the same interfacial fracture energy. The selection of the adhesive type is critical for strengthening the damaged steel beam using CFRP plates. In this study, the debonding load, flexural capacity, and ultimate deflection are increased by 75.0%, 51.0%, and 131.1%, respectively, when Araldite-2015 adhesive with the trapezoidal bond-slip model is used instead of Sikadur-30 adhesive with the triangular bond-slip model. Moreover, the debonding load and flexural capacity are hardly increased but the ductility can be considerably improved with an increasing CFRP plate length.