ABSTRACT
Employing advanced material such as Carbon-fiber-reinforced-polymer (CFRP) in tension fatigue strengthening of aged bridges shows a great capability of arresting or delaying the crack propagation in steel structures. Extending the current knowledge of the CFRP strengthening to the case of the multiaxial cyclic loading will broaden its application in Civil Engineering. The aim of this paper is to investigate the fatigue behavior of the CFRP strengthening of central-cracked steel plates subjected to the combined action of tensile (mode-I) and shear (mode-II) loading with a focus on the effect of the CFRP properties. The key parameters in this study are the mixed-mode ratio (crack angle), the crack length ratio (crack length to the plate width), patching configurations, and mechanical properties of the composite material. A comparative study was conducted on steel plates strengthened with different composite properties (thickness, Young’s modulus) and types (plates vs. sheets).
