Study of the bond failure between carbon fibers and concrete under shear

A.C. dos Santos

Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

R. Gettu
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

T. Bittencourt
Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

ABSTRACT: In many practical situations, when FRP sheets are externally bonded to a concrete element to
increase the resistance against crack propagation, the fibers are subjected to tension while the FRP-concrete
interface is subjected to shear. However, the bond strength of the interface, which is critical for design, is
often evaluated experimentally under tension loading. The present work proposes a test configuration for the
evaluation of the interfacial shear failure, where two concrete cylinders are placed end-to-end, bonded with
FRP and pulled apart. The tensile load, which separates the cylinders, subjects the FRP-concrete interface to
shear. The results obtained indicate that the method is promising and of practical interest.

1. INTRODUCTION 2. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS

One of the most important application of fiber 2.1 Test configuration

reinforced plastics (FRP) in structural engineering Carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) laminates
is in the strengthening of cracked elements. In such were bonded on the surface of two concrete
cases, the externally-bonded FRP is subjected to cylinders placed end-to-end. Standard molded
tensile loads and the FRP-concrete interface is cylinders of 150×300 mm were used. Three CFRP
subjected to shear. Normally, the critical laminates of the desired dimensions are distributed
component of the FRP-concrete system is the at 120º to each other, as shown in Figure 1.
interface since the stresses in the fibers are usually
lower than their strength. The strength of the
interface or the bond strength is often evaluated
experimentally under tension while the interface is 150×300 mm
concrete
subjected to shear in the practical situation. cylinders
In the present study, a test configuration is CFRP laminas
proposed for the evaluation of the shear failure of
the interface between FRP sheets and concrete.
Two standard concrete cylinders are used in each
test, with the FRP sheets bonded on the surface. A
uniaxial tensile load is applied on the cylinders
tending to separate them while subjecting the FRP-
concrete interface to shear loading. The approach
is conceptually similar to the push-apart bond test
method of Dolan et al. (1998) and the tensile test
method of Takeo et al. (1998). A parametric study
of the dimensions of the bonded sheets is
performed to determine their influence on the
failure load. The results indicate that the test
Figure 1 Test configuration
method is promising.
 The cylinders bonded with CFRP were
subjected to uniaxial tension, and the load and the
separation between the two cylinders were
monitored. Three laminates were used in order to
provide a reasonable amount of symmetry at least
until the failure of the first CFRP-concrete
interface or the CFRP laminate itself. Also, each of
the laminates was bonded over a longer length on
the bottom cylinder to induce the failure in only
one of the bonded areas. Furthermore, a small area
at the cylinder-cylinder interface was left
unbonded in order to simulate a defect in the
bonded area and to induce the interfacial crack.
The different areas of the laminate are described in
Figure 2.
The tests were performed in a servohydraulic
INSTRON machine with a dynamic capacity of 1
MN (see Figure 3). The specimens were glued to
the fixed loading plattens of the machine with a
rapid hardening epoxy. This was done to avoid the
rotation of the ends during the test and to impose
symmetric displacements on the laminates. The
separation of the concrete-concrete interface or the
"slip" on the CFRP-concrete interface was Figure 3 Photograph of test configuration
measured by 3 LVDTs placed between rings
mounted on either side of the concrete-concrete
interface (see Figure 4). The tests were performed
under actuator displacement control.

300 mm
L b 1 = B o n d e d le n g th
w h ic h is e x p e c te d to
fa il

L u n b = U n b o n d e d le n g th

L b 2 = B o n d e d le n g th
300 mm w h ic h is n o t
e x p e c te d to fa il

Figure 2 Bonded and unbonded lengths

Figure 4 Measurement of separation or slip

2.2 Materials used

The CFRP laminates made up of unidirectional
carbon fiber sheets and an epoxy resin. The fiber
properties given by the manufacturer are shown in
Table 1. Cylinders made of concrete with a is reached when one of the laminates is completely
characteristic compressive strength of 35 MPa debonded, after which there is a sudden and
were used in this study. uncontrolled drop in load. The load then increases
slightly until another laminate is debonded. This
Table 1 Mechanical properties of the fibers process repeated until the last laminate is
Thickness of fiber, mm 0.117 debonded.
Elastic modulus, GPa 240
Tensile strength, GPa 3.9 20
Ultimate strain, % 1.55

Before bonding the fibers to the concrete, the 15

surface was prepared by grinding the desired area
with sandpaper. A primer resin was used to fill the

Carga (kN)
pores and to obtain an even surface. The entire
process was performed at an ambient temperature 10
of 20ºC and a relative humidity of 55%. The fiber
sheets were saturated with the prescribed epoxy
and the saturated sheet was pressed on to the 5
concrete surface. Pressure was applied using a
roller to ensure the penetration of epoxy between
the fibers and to remove any excess epoxy.
0
0 200 400 600 800 1000
3. TEST PROGRAM AND RESULTS Separation or slip (microns)

Figure 5. Typical load-separation curve (L100-w60

The specimens used to study the influence of specimen)
the dimensions of the bonded areas are described
in Table 2, where the lengths are those shown in
Figure 2 and the width of the individual laminate is The maximum load (Pmax) for each type of test
denoted as w. As can be seen, the unbonded area is and the corresponding failure load per unit
maintained constant at 40 mm and the inferior laminate width (pf) are given in Table 3. The loads
bonded length is always 1.5 times the superior are specified as mean values and standard
bonded length. The values of Lb1 and w are varied deviations. The maximum load is taken as a
in order to study the influence of the bonded length conservative estimate of 3 times the failure load of
and width on the failure load. At least 3 specimens an individual interface. The other two peaks are
were tested for each type and all the tests were run not used to calculate the failure load since the
at an actuator displacement rate of 1 micron/s. corresponding loading state is not symmetric.
Nevertheless, the values of the maximum load per
Table 2 Dimensions of the bonded areas (in mm)
laminate is similar for all the three peaks.
Type Lb1 Lb2 Lunb w
L100-w20 100 150 40 20 Table 3 Failure loads
L100-w40 100 150 40 40 Type w Pmax pf
Lb1
(kN) (N/mm)
L100-w60 100 150 40 60
L100-w20 100 20 8.7 (±0.25) 131
L100-w80 100 150 40 80
L100-w40 100 40 14.6 (±0.87) 109
L25-w40 25 37.5 40 40
L100-w60 100 60 19.2 (±1.25) 96
L50-w40 50 75 40 40
L100-w80 100 80 26.4 (±1.55) 99
L75-w40 75 112.5 40 40
L25-w40 25 40 10.2 (±0.08) 77
L50-w40 50 40 14.8 (±0.33) 111
A typical load-separation curve obtained
L75-w40 75 40 14.4 (±0.59) 108
experimentally is shown in Figure 5. The curve is
linear until a certain point, beyond which
debonding or nonlinear deformation of the Considering first the effect of the width of
interface maybe taking place. The maximum load bonded laminate (i.e., Lb1=100 mm), the maximum
load increases with an increase in width as
expected. More importantly, the value of Pmax is
not proportional to the width of the laminate (w).
This is clearer when the maximum load per unit
width of the laminate is determined (see last
column of Table 2). The value of pf decreases with
an increase in w, until a width of about 60 mm. It
appears that there is a size effect, as in other
fracture phenomena, with higher unit loads for
very small widths. This is important for the
evaluation of the bond strength and clearly
indicates that a minimum bonded width should be
used to get representative results. In the present
case, a minimum width of 60 mm should be
considered.
In terms of the bonded length, considering the
tests with w=40 mm, it can be seen that the
maximum load increases as expected for smaller
bond lengths but reaches a constant value beyond
Lb1=75 mm approximately. This is also seen in the
trend of pf, which increases and then remains
constant at about 108 N/mm. This series of tests
can be used to determine the minimum bonded
length and the bond strength of the interface in
shear.
From these tests, it is clear that the bond
strength should be considered in terms of the
maximum load per unit width of the FRP sheet or
laminate, and not in terms of a stress (calculated
using the entire bonded area).
4. CONCLUSIONS
A test method is proposed for studying the failure
of FRP-concrete interfaces under shear. Two
concrete cylinders placed end-to-end are pulled
apart in a uniaxial tensile test configuration with
three FRP laminates bonded on them. This subjects
the interface to shear stresses and results in
delamination or rupture of the FRP.
The load-separation curves exhibit pre-peak
nonlinearity, which can be attributed to the
deformation of the interface or delamination, and
the failure of each interface is followed by a
sudden drop in load. The maximum load can be
used to determine the failure load per unit width of
the interface, which depends on the dimensions of
the bonded area when they are small. Beyond a
certain laminate width and length, the failure load
per unit width is practically constant and can be
taken as a representative parameter for design.
In general, the results indicate that the test
method is promising and of practical interest.
Acknowledgements
Partial financial support for the work was provided by
Spanish CICYT Grants PB98-0928 and TAP99-1079-C03-
01, and the CICYT and European Commission project
FEDER 2FD97-1973-C02-02. A.C.dos Santos was funded by
CAPES (Brazil) during his research at the UPC. The CFRP
used in this study were provided by Bettor MBT. The tests
were performed in the Structural Technology Laboratory of
the UPC with the help of Camilo Bernad.
REFERENCES
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Adhesive characteristics of carbon sheets in CFRP
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