ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: The issue of maintenance and repair of existing structures has become a major issue, particularly extending the service lifespan of reinforced concrete structures. Amongst various methods developed for strengthening and rehabilitation of Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures, external bonding of steel or Fibre Reinforced Plastic (FRP) strips to the beam has been widely accepted as an effective and convenient method. However, the development of a design method that can properly describe and predict the behaviour of a strengthened RC beam is an extremely difficult task because of the relatively large number of likely failure modes that have been reported by researchers. One of the most critical failure modes encountered in plated beams is the premature and brittle rupture of the plate to concrete bond. This debonding of the plates tends to occur when the bond strength is reached locally. Consequently, the integrity of the strengthening system does not depend solely on the plate material but also on the properties of the interfaces involved in the joint, namely, the plate-adhesive and the adhesive-concrete interfaces. In this paper, a non-linear finite element model is developed for studying the behavior of epoxy adhesive bonded concrete-steel joints. The predictions of the model have been validated with experimental test data found in the literature. The study was conducted for varying plate and adhesive thicknesses, and the behaviour of the joint was assessed in terms of load carrying capacity and the shear stress distribution at the interfaces and in the adhesive. The results show that a non-linear finite element model may reliably predict the behaviour of epoxy adhesive joints.
