Hugo C. Biscaia

It is supposed that the adhesively bonded structures would perform well during their lifetime, but the action of high temperatures may affect the initial integrity of the joints, as recognized by some researchers. Still, there are few studies proposing a model to locally predict the interfacial bond behaviour of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymers (CFRP) bonded to a steel substrate when subjected to temperature changes. The influence of temperature on CFRP-to-steel bonded joints is, therefore, not very well understood yet and more studies are needed to better understand how these joints behave under such circumstances. The present work aims to contribute to the mitigation of the existing lack of knowledge on the performance of CFRP-to-steel bonded joints under high temperatures. Therefore, an experimental program was considered and specimens were tested at different temperatures: 20 °C, 35 °C, 50 °C, 65 °C, 80 °C, and 95 °C. To help the interpretation of the results, an analytical model is proposed to predict the load capacity of the CFRP-to-steel joints. The local bond-slip behaviour of the tested specimens is also analyzed and, based on a literature review, a temperature-dependent bond-slip model with a bi-linear shape is proposed and implemented into a commercial software based on the Finite Element Method (FEM). © 2019 Elsevier Ltd

The effective stress transfer between the fiber reinforced polymers (FRP) and the steel substrate is crucial for the successful retrofit of existing steel structures with FRP composites. However, there are no standard tests for FRP-to-steel interfaces, wherefore different test configurations have been used in recent years to assess the bond behaviour in these interfaces. The present study shows that the choice of test configuration is highly important and leads to different transfer stresses between the FRP and steel composites and consequently, has a direct influence on the strength of the bonded joint. Therefore, it is important to understand the debonding process that occurs in each test and avoid misinterpretations, erroneous analyses and dangerous characterizations of the interfacial behaviour of these interfaces. The current study presents a new analytical approach for the prediction of the debonding of FRP-to-steel interfaces when double-lap pull or double-strap tests are used. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd

The use of optic measurements such as digital image correlation to take strain measurements of fibre-reinforced polymers bonded to a substrate has been on the increase recently. This technique has proven to be useful to fully characterize the bond behaviour between two materials. Although modern digital cameras can take high-definition photos, this task is far from simple due to the tiny displacements that need to be measured. Consequently, digital image correlation measurements lead to relative errors that, at an initial stage of the debonding process, are higher than those calculated close to the debonding of the fibre-reinforced polymer from the substrate. This study aims to evaluate and analyse the use of the digital image correlation technique on the bond between carbon fibre-reinforced polymer laminates and timber when subjected to a pull-out load consistent with fracture Mode II. To allow the quantification of the relative errors obtained from the digital image correlation measurements during the full debonding process, several strain gauges were used to measure the strains in the carbon fibre-reinforced polymer composite. The accuracy of the digital image correlation measurements is analysed by comparing it with those obtained from the strain gauges, which is a very well-established measuring technique. Another contribution of this study is to check the versatility of the digital image correlation measurements on a broader range of situations. To that end, several timber prisms were bonded with seven different bonding techniques with and without the installation of a mechanical anchorage at the carbon fibre-reinforced polymer unpulled end. The results showed that the digital image correlation technique was able to track the slips calculated from the strain gauge measurements until the debonding load, but after that, some difficulties to measure the displacements of the anchored carbon fibre-reinforced polymer-to-timber joints were detected. The digital image correlation technique also over predicted bond stresses when compared with those taken from the strain gauges, which led to bond–slip relationships with higher bond stresses. © The Author(s) 2021.

Carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite systems are widely used to strengthen reinforced concrete (RC) structures through bonding strips/sheets on the concrete surface – externally bonded reinforcement (EBR) technique, or through strips/rods bonded inside slits in the concrete cover – near-surface mounted (NSM) technique. Although both techniques provide high strength increases, it is usually not possible to use the CFRPs’ full strength due to premature debonding, especially with EBR. This limitation can be overcome when using CREatE (continuous reinforcement embedded at ends) technique (developed by the last three authors), which consists of (i) bonding the central part of the CFRP strip (as in EBR), or the CFRP rod (as in NSM), and (ii) anchoring both ends of the strip/rod inside the concrete section, after a transition curve, enhancing its anchorage capacity. However, all these techniques are susceptible to fire, due to the polymeric nature of CFRP materials and epoxy adhesives. This paper presents the results of an experimental study regarding the fire behaviour of RC slab strips strengthened with EBR, NSM and CREatE techniques, in which the influence of applying different fire protection systems was investigated. The specimens were strengthened with those systems and simultaneously subjected to a service load and the ISO 834 fire curve. The following main results were obtained: (i) without fire protection, the CREatE technique presented the highest fire resistance due to the better anchorage of the CFRP; (ii) when protected, the NSM technique presented higher fire resistance compared to EBR and CREatE techniques; and (iii) “critical” temperatures were proposed for each technique, 1.0Tg, 2.5Tg, and 3.0Tg for EBR, NSM and CREatE techniques, respectively. © Fédération Internationale du Béton (fib) – International Federation for Structural Concrete.