Bond between GFRP Plates and Structural Steel Members - An Experimental Investigation

摘要

Fibre reinforced polymer materials (FRPs) in the form of sheets and plates have been used for strengthening structural elements. Due to the high stiffness of steel, limited FRP applications for steel structures have been envisioned until just recently. Most of the research has been focused on increasing fatigue behaviour of such structures using these advanced materials. A campaign of research has been started recently to study the potential of using pultruded FRP profiles in splicing steel beams. Limited strength of the bond between FRP material and the original structure has been shown to be the main cause of failure for such applications. This is more dominant for the applications to steel structures. Thus, knowing the interfacial - both normal (peeling) and shear - stress distribution and comparing that to the specific strength of the adhesive used for the bond consists one of the main design criteria in this regard. Limited data is available for the behaviour of the adhesive bond between steel and FRP. Almost all the research on this subject has dealt with carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) and steel. Pultruded FRP sections available on the market are only made of GFRP. Due to limited data being available on the behaviour of the adhesive bond between steel and GFRP, the afore-mentioned study required, in its first stage, to explore this subject. This paper presents the results for two different adhesives, namely Spabond 345 and Weld-on SS620, between the above-mentioned adherends in a series of double-lap splice shear tests.