Analysis of mechanical performance of continuous steel beams with variable section bonded by a prestressed composite plate

In this paper, a closed-form rigorous solution for interfacial stress in continuous steel beam with variable section strengthened with bonded prestressed FRP plates and subjected to a uniformly distributed load is developed using linear elastic theory and including the variation of fiber volume fractions with a longitudinal orientation of the fibers of the FRP plates. The results show that there exists a high concentration of both shear and normal stress at the ends of the laminate, which might result in premature failure of the strengthening scheme at these locations. The theoretical predictions are compared with other existing solutions. Overall, the predictions of the different solutions agree closely with each other. A parametric study has been conducted to investigate the sensitivity of interface behavior to parameters such as laminate and adhesive stiffness, the thickness of the laminate and the fiber volume fractions where all were found to have a marked effect on the magnitude of maximum shear and normal stress in the composite member. This research gives a numerical precision in relating to the others studies which neglect the effect of prestressed plate and the shear lag impact. The physical and geometric properties of materials are taken into account, and that may play an important role in reducing the interfacial stresses magnitude.