Bond failure performances between near-surface mounted FRP bars and concrete for flexural strengthening concrete structures

Near-surface mounted (NSM) fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) has been established as an effective technique for strengthening concrete member. In preview literatures, bond failure was observed usually in the strengthened beam test for increasing flexural capacity. Bond behavior is of primary importance for the transfer of stress between the concrete and the FRP reinforcement to develop composite action. In this paper, a total of 22 tests were conducted to study the bond failure performance between NSM FRP bars and concrete besides only one test as a comparison. Failure modes, load–deflection curves, strain distribution of FRP bars, and local bond stresses at the FRP-epoxy adhesive interface from the tests were analyzed in detail. Some of the factors expected to affect bond performance were presented, namely: diameter of FRP bars, type to FRP material, concrete compressive strength and bonded length. The test results reported in this paper should be useful for further establishing local bond–slip constitute relationship and further verification of numerical simulation models, in addition to gaining a better understanding of bond failures for flexural strengthening concrete structures with NSM FRP bars.