9th International Conference on Fibre-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) Composites

Paris
July 17-19, 2018 in Civil Engineering (CICE 2018), PARIS 17-19 JULY 2018

EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF STRENGTHENED SHORT

REINFORCED CONCRETE CORBEL BONDED BY CFRP1 UNDER CYCLIC
LOADS
J. Assih1, I. Ivanova1,2, V. Stankov1,2, D. Dontchev2
1
University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne, Department of Civil Engineering, France, jules.assih@univ-reims.fr
2
University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy, Department of Applied Mechanic, Sofia, Bulgaria.

ABSTRACT
This paper focuses on experimental and numerical modelling of strengthened reinforced concrete corbels with
carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) under fatigue test. In fact, fatigue is a process in which the action of
stresses or strains in varying time changes the local properties of the materials and can lead to the cracking and
eventually the collapse of structure. Experimentally, four reinforced concrete (RC) corbels are made and two of
them are strengthened by wrapping with CFRP. One unstrengthened RC corbel and another strengthened one are
subjected to a single bending load and the other two are cyclically loaded in fatigue test to one million cycles.
The load values corresponded from 20 % to 40 % of ultimate tensile strength. The shape of applied load was a
triangular wave. The bounds of repeated loads were 71 kN to 130 kN for unstrengthened corbel, respectively and
143 kN to 260 kN for strengthened corbel. The examined effects were the damage development, the ultimate
loads, the influence of fatigue, the state of cracking and the types of failures. In fact, the results showed that the
cyclic loading of one million cycles modified the cracking state of the structures. Additionally, the strengthening
by wrapping delays the cracks appearance with a reduction of ultimate loads from 10% to 15%. The numerical
simulations described in this paper, using Finite element method of ABAQUS software, model the behaviour of
fatigue. Of course, a bending crack was introduced in the model before a series of repeated loadings up to one
million cycles. The numerical model response is compared with experimental test results and yielded good
agreement at all stages of loading. The objective of numerical investigation was to contribute to increase the
lifetime of reinforced concrete structures, to reduce the expensive cost and the difficult implementation of
experimental tests.

KEYWORDS
Strengthening, Repair, Fatigue, Finite Elements, Modelling, Experimental study, CFRP, Reinforced concrete
Corbel

INTRODUCTION
The strengthening of civil engineering structures using carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) is widely met for
the last ten years, due to the mastery of the mechanical properties and the industrial applicability of composite
fibre materials (Vassilopoulos and Keller, 2011). In particular, this includes the insensitivity to corrosion, the
excellent ratio of mechanical strength to mass, the longitudinal rigidity, the flexibility of CFRP and the pultruded
dishes allowing a conditioning adapted to the handling. In fact, the rapidness and facility of implementation of
the composite materials causes a little disturbance of the traffic on the repair site. The examples of this technical
application of bonded composite materials with adhesive are in perpetual growing in civil engineering and
engineering works areas such as bridges (Mander and all, 1988), retaining structures, tanks, collectors, air-
cooling towers, platforms forms, or building as well as historical monuments. In the last years, many researchers
are increasingly using the numerical modelling but less in reinforced concrete corbel (Ivanova 2013; Rafati and
Razavi, 2016). Also, the uses of the method of finite elements saves valuable time in civil engineering (Razaei
and all, 2010). In the same time, the infrastructure is aging and requires adequate maintenance. Optimizing this
maintenance in the logic of sustainable development is a major societal challenge. The strengthening of structure
by bonding composite materials is part of the longevity as it leads to generate a remarkable increase in ultimate
capacity of infrastructures. The rigidity of the structures also enhances and can cause a brittle failure mode
(Ivanova and Assih, 2016). Another advantage for the exterior reinforcement technique by bonded CFRP is the
ease of implementation, the resistance to corrosion and minimum additional weight of the strengthened structure.

1
Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer
This paper presents experimental and numerical results of the strengthened reinforced concrete corbels with
bonded CFRP tested under simple and fatigue loadings. Generally, the simple tests are carried out as a periodical
strength, constant load magnitude which fluctuates around an average set value and a number of cycles at which
the first crack is observed. Knowing the load-strain curve, an average value of load is defined. Before the
numerical study of the reinforced concrete, an experimental investigation is carried out by comparing the
ultimate loads, strains and cracking states of unstrengthened short reinforced concrete corbel and strengthened
reinforced concrete corbel. The objective of this experimental investigation was to highlight the effect of fatigue
on these structures after one million cycles. In addition, the numerical approach using Abaqus software aims at
proposing a model faithful to the experimental results in order to reduce the costs of the tests. Of course, fatigue
is a process in which, action of stresses or strains in varying time, changes the local properties of the materials
and can lead to the cracking and eventually the collapse of corbels. The paper provides a comparison of
numerical to experimental results which is attained by investigation of the ultimate load, the crack patterns,
structure cracking and stressing strain distribution. A finite element (FE) model based on ABAQUS is developed
and validated by the experimental results for the numerical investigation of the fatigue behavior of strengthened
reinforced concrete corbel with carbon fiber fabrics under cyclic loading. The numerical model response is
compared with experimental test results and yielded good agreement at different stages of loading.

EXPERIMENTAL MODEL
Fatigue is a process (series of mechanisms) under which the action of stresses or deformations in varying time
changes the local properties of the material and can lead to the beginning of cracking and eventually the failure
of structure (Ivanova 2013; Ivanova and Assih 2015, 2016; Vassilopoulos and Keller, 2011).
Materials
Normal strength concrete materials are rolled gravel, dried sand and ordinary Portland cement. The
cement:sand:gravel proportions in the concrete mix were 1:1.73:2.93 by weight and the water/cement ratio was
0.50. Portland cement type CEM II was used and the maximum size of the aggregate was 16 mm. Steel bars,
S500, of different diameters of 6, 10, 14 mm were used. The steel specimens are characterized by simple tensile
tests. The stresses fc, fu and the modulus of elasticity Es values are presented in Table 1. The high elongation at
failure achieved to 0.8% for the unidirectional CFRP. The other characteristic properties of composite materials
can be found in Table 1.

Table 1: Material properties

Material Young’s modulus Strength Poisson ratio
[GPa] [MPa]
Concrete 30 33 [fc] 0.25
Steel bar 200 610 [fu] 0.30
Adhesive 4 36 [fu] 0.41
CFRP 86 1035 [fu] 0.45

Parameters study and reinforcement of concrete corbels

The column supporting the two short trapezoidal corbels, cantilevering on either side, was 150 by 300 (mm²) in
cross section and 1000 mm long, see Figure 1. So, reinforced concrete corbels had cantilever projection length of
200 mm, with thicknesses of 150 mm at both faces of column and the free end. All reinforced concrete corbel
specimens had the same dimensions and were reinforced in the same way, as illustrated in Figure 1.
In fact, to highlight the effect of fatigue on unstrengthened and strengthened corbels, four reinforced concrete
corbels were made as shown in Table 2. This approach would study the influence of the strengthening. However,
the strain gauges are used to measure locally the strains of steel bar (G1) and composite CFRP, (GC1). The
position of these gauges in the embedding section, are shown in Table 2.
 Figure 1: Reinforcement of concrete corbel

Table 2: Parameters study and strain gauge position

Unstrengthened RC corbel Strengthened RC corbel
Specimen

Bending test Fatigue test Bending test Fatigue test

Strain gauge position

G1 – strain in steel bar

G1 – strain in steel bar
GC1 – strain in CFRP
Parameter
studies

Ultimate load, steel and CFRP strains in cross section, cracking states

Conditions of loading test

In this study, bending machine of 1000 kN is used with a 200 mm cylinder stroke (Figure 2). Knowing the
ultimate strength Fu of the unstrengthened RC corbel, the amplitude of the cyclic load is defined. Of course, this
amplitude varied in minimum value Fmin and in maximum value Fmax, between 20% to 40% of the ultimate load.
The values of different loading conditions are given in the Table 3. The frequency was set to 0.5s. The shape of
applied load is a triangular waveform. The magnitude and number of fatigue of the repeated loads are fixed to
one million cycles. In fact, with a cyclic load in this range, the development of crack can be followed.
 Table 3: Conditions of fatigue loads
Fu (kN) Fmin(kN) 20% Fmax(kN) 40%
Unstrengthened reinforced concrete corbel: C0 357 71.4 142.8
Strengthened reinforced concrete corbel: CB3u 651 130.2 260.4

Figure 2: Bending and position of reinforced concrete (RC) corbel devices

FINITE ELEMENT MODEL WITH ABAQUS

The purpose of this work is to develop a numerical model for the design and dimensioning of short reinforced
concrete corbel. The short RC corbel is modelled in 3D using ABAQUS software, taking into account the
suitable behavioral material models (Razaei and all, 2010; Rafati and Razavi, 2016). The selection of behavior
models has great impact on the outcomes which should be close to reality.
Geometry
Different elements of various parts are selected based on elements performance. For concrete modeling, C3D8R
element of solid type with eight nodes and three degrees of freedom in each node are applied. This element can
apply plastic deflections and big deflections and can model cracking in three orthogonal directions in all eight
integrating points. To model steel bars inside corbel and concrete column, T3D2 element of beam elements with
two end nodes is used. This element is a 3-D first order linear element. To model composite coverage CFRP,
shell element S4R with four nodes and six degrees of freedom in each node (three translational degrees of
freedom and three rotational degrees of freedom). The above shell element can have one-layer isotropic section
and single-layer or multi-layer orthotropic section with various angular orientation of layers. Mesh sensitivity
analysis is applied to achieve suitable mesh for analysis and appropriate answer. Based on required outputs,
meshing dimensions are reduced as the output parameter changes are ignored in both meshing. Partitioning
operation is used in order to apply regular meshing on models, at the connection site of corbel to column. The
meshes are shown in Figure 3.

a) Reinforced concrete corbel b) Strengthened reinforced concrete corbel by wrapping

Figure 3: Mesh of corbels.
Materials interaction
As in modeling, to show the boundary between the materials and correct performance of analysis, different
materials are used. In fact, these materials can define the interaction. So, among the terms in ABAQUS software,
embedded region is used as interaction between the steel bar and the concrete. To define interaction between
CFRP and concrete surface, there is a difference in the interaction between the steel bar and the concrete.

Definition of boundary conditions and loading

A joint support is created, by creating reference points in two ends of the column, the joint support being
dedicated to these points. An axial strength Nu (horizontal strength) and shear strength Vu (vertical strength) are
applied on RC corbel. As the beam is placed directly on corbel, beam support is provided for the free horizontal
movement of the beam. Thus, Nu equal to 0 and based on specimen test method (corbel) in lab, vertical strength
Vu is imposed as extended to corbel loading plane. Two ways can be considered for applying load on corbel.
Loading can either be done as strength control or by strain control in the embedding section of corbel. All
models are loaded based on controlled maximum displacement of 1cm.
Material modelling
Concrete
In fact, in simulating, concrete behavior is a synthesis of the plasticity and damaged models. There is a
combination of isotropic behavior of elastic damage with the plastic isotropic behavior under compression and
tensile conditions. The compressive behavior of concrete (Figure 4) is considered as elastic-plastic work-
hardening model followed by a perfectly plastic response, which terminate at the onset of crushing. Concrete is a
material having complex non-linear behaviors even at low-level stresses. The underlying causes of the concrete's
non-linear responses of the concrete are not only linked to its material characteristics, but arise from the
environmental factors, cracking, bi-axial stiffness and softening of strains (Hanson and all, 2001; Mander and all,
1988).

a) Concrete behavior in uniaxial compression load b) Concrete behavior in uniaxial tensile load (Plastic
(Plastic strain and non-elastic strain in concrete strain and non-elastic strain in concrete response
response curve) curve)
Figure 4: Concrete behavior (Abaqus, 2013).

Two principal theories of plasticity and damage mechanism are highly consistent with real behaviour of concrete.
The plausible way in simulating concrete behaviour is a synthesis of the plasticity and damage models. Such
model combines the isotropic behaviour of elastic damage with the plastic isotropic behaviour under
compression as in Figure 4a and tensile conditions as in Figure 4b.
Steel reinforcement
Steel bar behaviour is idealized and the tensile and compressive behaviour of this matter is equal without having
specific effect on the results. Two-linear ideal curves are used for modelling in order to reduce analysis time and
avoid the problems of non-convergence of elastic-fully plastic models, (Taqieddin, 2008). The volume mass for
steel materials was 7850 kg/m3, elasticity model was 200 GPa, Poisson coefficient was 0.3 and yield stress was
360 MPa. The behaviour curve of steel bar was bi-linear with slope 0.01. Elastic perfectly plastic is the
behaviour of the material in both tension and compression in Abaqus simulation as in Figure 5a. In this study,
steel bar was assumed to behave as an elastic perfectly plastic material in both tensile and compression loading.
Composite fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP)
Carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) mechanical features are different in various directions. In this study, of
course, only unidirectional CFRP are used. Yet, it is a brittle material and it is not necessary to define damage
evolution like Hashin Damage (Hanson and all, 2001; Dowlings, 1993). The Figure 5b shows the mechanical
characteristics obtained during a tensile test carried out on the used carbon fibre reinforced polymer. On the
other hand, for simplification of the calculations, the Abaqus data was used to perform the calculations.
1000
800

Strength(MPa)
600
sfu = 940 MPa
400
efu = 0.78%
200 Ef = 12000
0
0,00 0,20 0,40 0,60 0,80
Strain(%)

a) Bi-linear curve of steel bar b) Linear curve of CFRP

Figure 5: steel and CFRP material mechanical behaviors

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Experimental results and discussions
Ultimate load
Table 4 presents the experimental results of RC corbels in static and dynamic tests according to the ultimate
loads. The results showed that the strengthened technique by bonding composite materials appears as a good
alternative in the field of reinforced concrete structures. The ultimate load of strengthened RC corbel was
increased by 82% and 66%, respectively, considering the last case by taking into account the damage by fatigue.

Table 4: Comparison of ultimate load for static and dynamic tests.

Ultimate load Fu Ultimate load Fu
Specimen
Static test Dynamic test
Unstrengthened corbel (C0) 357 kN 381kN
Strengthened corbel (CB3u) 651 kN 584 kN

Local strain in the cross section

Of course, it was the same procedure to compare, like reinforced concrete corbels, the local strains of steel and
composite material in the same point G1 and GC1 of strengthened corbel. Figure 6a shows the effect of fatigue
on reinforced concrete (RC) corbel without strengthening. The results clearly showed that after one million
cycles, the existence of crack in the concrete is justified by the absence of the first slope on fatigue corbel curve.
This crack was normally created under fatigue loading.

700

600

500
Load (kN)

400

300

200

G1-CB3u
100
G1-CB3u fatigue
0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
Strain (x10-6)

a) Behavior of C0 and C0 fatigue corbels b) Behavior of CB3u and CB3u fatigue corbels
Figure 6: Influence of fatigue damage on CO and CB3u, using strain gauges on steel bar
The ultimate load for the fatigue RC corbel (C0 fatigue) has increased by 10% compared to the undamaged
corbel (C0). Therefore, the fatigue test further consolidated the reinforced concrete corbel. In the same way,
Figure 6b shows the curves of strengthened RC corbel without fatigue damage (CB3u) and strengthened RC
corbel with fatigue damage (CB3u fatigue). In fact, the results show that despite one million cycles, fatigue
damage has not significantly reduced the ultimate load of strengthened corbel, which was 10%. In addition, the
cracks are not so visible after fatigue test, see Figure 8b.

Numerical results
In Figure 7 show the damaged corbels after fatigue simulation by Abaqus software. The results of the
unstrengthened RC corbel and strengthened RC corbels are compared.

a) RC corbel after one million cycles b) Strengthened RC corbel after one million cycles
Figure 7: Evolution of strains
Cracking states
The results showed that after fatigue testing a new crack appeared in reinforced concrete corbel. The crack
propagations are different into static tests, which proved the fatigue effect with the appearance of a diagonal
crack in the reinforced concrete column, see Figure 8a.

a) Unstrengthened RC corbel b) Strengthened RC corbel

Figure 8: State of Cracking after fatigue damage

Strengthened corbel after one million cycles has no visible cracks, when the corbel is strengthened by wrapping,
see Figure 8b. After fatigue damage, RC corbels were tested by static load until damaged. The mode of cracking
changes clearly whereas the mode of collapse by a diagonal crack remains the same. So, according to this study,
the results show the same failure cracks as in the static test of specimen CB3u , collapse in shearing and splitting
failures. The results also show that when the number of cycles increase, the strains in steel develop, as well as
the shear stresses. The numerical elements used in this work seem to correspond to the observations made
experimentally. But a finer mesh would improve the results. The laws of behavior of materials used also seem to
approach the experimental results.

CONCLUSIONS
Overall, the strengthening technique known for twenty years is another solution to increase the capacity load of
reinforced structures. In this study, the structural capacity load is increased up to 66% due to externally bonded
CFRP by wrapping. This study aims at contributing to understanding the mechanical behavior of a RC corbel
under a cycle load. In addition, it highlights the effect of fatigue damage by applying a bending test to failure on
damaged corbels. The experimental program was as follows: one RC corbel and one strengthened RC corbel,
were both submitted to bending cyclic loading of one million cycles. Then, these corbels were loaded until
failure. The fatigue loading was triangular and represented 20% to 40% of ultimate load of each structure. The
numerical approach by Abaqus, aims at proposing a model of damage close to the experimental observations and
also in the long term at reducing the costs of tests and materials. The results show that the fatigue test had an
effect on the cracking of the strengthened reinforced concrete corbel and modified stresses in the specimens. But
on strengthened reinforced concrete corbel, the ultimate load was decreased by 10 % as compared to the
strengthened RC corbel without any fatigue damage. The effect of fatigue damage can be highlighted by the
appearance of crack in the structure. This crack also results in the disappearance of the elastic part of the curve of
the damaged structure.
The results showed that in general, ultimate load, crack patterns and deformation capacity were satisfactorily
represented. The Finite element model results need to be further improved as compared to the experimental
results.

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