DEBONDING BEHAVIOR OF GFRP SHEET REINFORCED CONCRETE

Abstract

The fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) has been applied to many purposes for civil engineering structures not only for new structures but also for strengthening of the deteriorated structures. Many researches have been done as an effort to apply the FRP materials for strengthening, particularly due to an increase on load requirement, a change of use or due to a degradation problem or some design/construction defects. However, widely application is still questionable until a fundamental understanding of bonding behavior is clearly available. This paper is mainly focused on the study of the debonding behavior of FRP sheet patched on the tensile fiber of concrete beam. A series of GFRP sheet reinforced concrete beams with various length and width of GFRP sheet was prepared. For the purpose of purely investigation on the GFRP sheet as reinforcement, all beams were not reinforced by steel bars. The beams were loaded under four points bending test. Results indicated that debonding of GFRP sheet started on the flexural cracks and it was propagated to the sheet end.