Nonuniformity in stress transfer across FRP width of FRP-concrete interface

The nonuniformity of stress and strain analysis is an important consideration that describes the bond behavior between concrete and externally bonded fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) laminates. The interfacial stress transfer between FRP and concrete generates a longitudinal strain gradient in the longitudinal (or FRP fiber) direction. Most of the available studies in this area have focused on nonuniformity in the longitudinal direction. In this paper, the nonuniformity in the FRP width direction is investigated by studying the strain distribution using digital image correlation (DIC) full-field optical techniques. In the direction along the FRP width, there is an area in the middle that has consistent strain and stress, while the edge regions have strain and stress gradients. During the complete debonding process, the width of the central area is found to be insignificantly affected by the concrete strength but significantly affected by the FRP stiffness. The fracture characteristics below the central region are purely Mode II fracture. However, the complex curved cracks and high in-plane shear strains at the interface near the FRP edge regions show a mixed mode with Modes II and III. This boundary effect results in a significant difference in the bond–slip characteristics of FRP along the width direction. The maximum bond stress of the central region is higher than that of the edge region. However, for FRP with higher stiffness, the inhomogeneity of the stress distribution is weakened. Moreover, it is reasonable to find that calculating the sum of the bearing capacity of the single FRP strips along the width direction is close to the experimental bond strength. Based on the research findings in this study, it is qualitatively recommended that the width factor model in calculating FRP-concrete bond strength should include the significant effect of FRP stiffness.