Flexural Fracture and Fatigue Behavior of RC Beams Strengthened with CFRP Laminates under Constant Amplitude Loading

摘要

Externally bonded carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) materials are well suited to the rehabilitation and reinforcement of civil engineering structures due to their high specific strength, specific stiffness and corrosion resistance. To probe the fatigue behavior of CFRP strengthened concrete structures, three point bending experiments of reinforced concrete (RC) beams strengthened with carbon fibre laminate (CFL) under constant amplitude loading were performed. The histories of midspan flexibility and bending stiffness of strengthened beams were recorded automatically. And the linear curve between fatigue strength and the logarithm of fatigue life was obtained. The failure modes go through concrete cracking, CFL debonding from concrete and steel bars yielding and fracture with increasing cycles of fatigue loading. Bonded CFL increases the ductility of strengthened RC beam and results in dense distribution of cracks compared with normal RC beam, and it's bending stiffness at damage state as well. The fatigue damage evolvement shows three stages of nucleation, steady expansion and failure. Then the failure mechanism was studied and a cumulative damage model was proposed to describe the fatigue damage and fracture process of CFL strengthened RC beams under constant amplitude loading.