Bond Behavior of FRP Strips Glued on Concrete: a Novel Zero-Thickness Interface Model

Abstract

This paper presents an innovative approach for simulating the bond interaction of Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) strips glued to a concrete substrate. It is actually based on employing zerothickness interface elements for connecting the FRP strip to the concrete substrate. The mechanical formulation of those elements, which have been already adopted in various fields of computational mechanics, is firstly outlined in the paper. Then, their application for simulating the behaviour observed in pull-out tests on FRP strips glued to concrete is proposed. The key mechanical parameters which define the relevant aspects of interface elements are calibrated by means of relevant experimental results currently available in the scientific literature. Finally, a series of numerical analyses carried out are proposed.
They are intended at pointing out the potential of the proposed model which is formulated within a more general mechanical framework, without assuming any “a priori” bond-slip relationship, as usual in the scientific literature on this subject. Finally, the possible extension of the model for simulating more general load conditions (e.g., cyclic actions) is among the very next developments of the present research.