Interfacial stresses in RC beam bonded with a functionally graded material plate

Functionally graded material (FGM) plates can be bonded to the soffit of a beam as a means of retrofitting the RC beam. In such plated beams, tensile forces develop in the bonded plate and these have to be transferred to the original beam via interfacial shear and normal stresses. In this paper, an interfacial stress analysis is presented for simply supported concrete beam bonded with a functionally graded material FGM plate. This new solution is intended for application to beams made of all kinds of materials bonded with a thin plate, while all existing solutions have been developed focusing on the strengthening of reinforced concrete beams, which allowed the omission of certain terms. It is shown that both the normal and shear stresses at the interface are influenced by the material and geometry parameters of the composite beam. This research is helpful for the understanding on mechanical behavior of the interface and design of the FGM-RC hybrid structures.