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Abstract
Fibre reinforced Polymers (FRPs) are being used increasingly in enhancing reinforced
concrete structures in civil constructions due to their superior characteristics. A large
number of experimental and numerical studies have been carried out on FRP strengthened RC beams in recent decades. However, the majority of numerical studies focus on structural behavior of FRP strengthened RC beams under static load. Very few finite element models for analysis of FRP-RC beam have been developed under cyclic load, and also the degradation of material properties of concrete, steel and FRP with number of cycles have been neglected in the existing few models. Most of the developed finite element models also neglected the bond-slip between FRP-adhesive-concrete interfaces in FRP strengthened RC beams. Furthermore, components such as adhesive and stirrup, which may play significant roles in structural behaviour of FRP strengthened RC beam, have been neglected in most of the developed finite element models.
In this thesis, simple 3D finite element model are developed for efficient and accurate
prediction of structural behaviour of FRP strengthened RC beams using ANSYS. At first,
a finite element model assuming perfect bond between FRP-adhesive-concrete interfaces is proposed, and it is then further developed to include bond-slip between FRP-adhesiveconcrete interfaces under static load. In this finite element model, both geometric and material nonlinearity are considered. A finite element model is also proposed for analysis of FRP-RC beams under cyclic load. Material property degradation of components along with bond behaviour degradation of FRP-adhesive-concrete interface with number of cycles is included. The developed finite element models are also validated by available experiments in literature. It is found that the computed results from the developed finite element models agree well with those from experiment, and hence can be used for the structural analysis of FRP strengthened RC beams. In addition to this, the developed finite element models are also used to investigate the parametric effect on structural behaviour of FRP-RC beams. The effect of types, thickness and length of FRP on structural behaviour of FRP strengthened RC beams are investigated which can provide reference for structural analysis and design.