On the Reduction of the Interfacial Stresses in a Repaired Beam with an Adhesively Bonded FRP Plate

Abstract

Severe aging and deterioration of the transportation infrastructure has motivated extensive research in developing structural repair techniques using FRP or steel plates. As a result, previous researchers have developed several analytical methods to predict the interface performance of bonded repairs. An important feature of the reinforced beam is the significant stress concentration in the adhesive at the ends of FRP plate. In this paper, a numerical solution using a finite-difference method is used to calculate the interfacial stress distribution in beams strengthened with FRP plate having a tapered ends. These latter, can significantly reduce the stress concentrations. Numerical results from the present analysis are presented to demonstrate the advantages of use the tapers in design of strengthened beams.