Flexural behaviour of steel beams reinforced by carbon fibre reinforced polymer: Experimental and numerical study

The paper presents the results of an experimental and numerical programme to characterize the behaviour of steel beams reinforcement by composite plates. Important failure mode of such plated beams is the debonding of the composite plates from the steel beam due to high level of stress concentration in the adhesive at the ends of the composite plate. In this new research, an experimental and numerical finite element study is presented to calculate the stresses in the sika carbodur and sika wrap reinforced steel beam under mechanical loading. The main objective of the experimental program was the evaluation of the force transfer mechanism, the increase of the load capacity of the steel beam and the flexural stiffness. It also validated different analytical and numerical models for the analysis of sika carbodur and sika wrap reinforced steel beams. In particular, a finite element model validated with respect to the experimental data and in relation to the analytical approach is presented. Experimental and numerical results from the present analysis are presented in order to show the advantages of the present solution over existing ones and to reconcile debonding stresses with strengthening quality.