Evaluation of debonding failure of reinforced concrete girders strengthened in flexure with FRP laminates using finite element modeling

The use of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) materials dates back to the early 1940s when they were used in aerospace and naval applications. During the 1970s and early 1980s, FRP started being used in civil engineering applications for new construction, but more importantly for repair and strengthening of existing structures. However, experimental research showed that the typical failure mode of reinforced concrete (RC) structures strengthened with FRP composite materials is due to the debonding that occurs at the interface between concrete and FRP. The bond between FRP and concrete is therefore the key factor controlling the behavior of these structures since it limits the full use of the FRP strength. The paper evaluates the effect of the debonding failure on the response of FRP-strengthened RC beams. A nonlinear RC beam element with bond-slip between the concrete and the FRP laminates is developed and used to analyze several test specimens and to investigate their corresponding failure mode. The model was also used to study the reduction factor of FRP tensile strength of simply supported strengthened RC girders due to debonding failure. This reduction factor proved to be affected by several parameters: (a) the bond strength between FRP and concrete interface; (b) the concrete strength; (c) the thickness of FRP; (d) the modulus of FRP; (e) the width of FRP laminate; and (f) the development length of the FRP sheet. A large number of beam specimens were analyzed in order to conduct a thorough evaluation of debonding failure of RC beams strengthened with FRP laminates. Based on these studies, new equations that account for the aforementioned parameters were proposed to address the reduction in FRP strength due to debonding failure.