Simulation of crack growth in FRP reinforced concrete.pdf

Simulation of Crack Growth in FRP Reinforced Concrete Yunyi Zou, Ph.D., P.E.1; and Arthur Huckelbridge, P.E.2 Abstract: Experimental results show that the crack growth of fiber-reinforced polymer
FRP reinforced concrete flexural elements experience a crack development stage followed by crack stabilization. The crack length and elastic crack mouth opening displacement
CMOD increase during the crack development stage until reaching the crack stabilization stage. A finite-element representation was proposed to predict the initial CMOD. A debonded length was specified to account for the bond-slip between FRP bar and concrete. It was assumed that there was no tangential displacement between the reinforcement and concrete outside of the debonded length. A fatigue model was created using the Paris equation to simulate the growth of elastic CMOD. The model displayed good agreement with the test results. A size effect was also observed for the exponential parameter in the Paris equation. DOI: 10.1061/
ASCE1084-0702
200712:2
237 CE Database subject headings: Fiber reinforced polymers; Cracking; Fatigue; Concrete, reinforced.Introduction Fiber-reinforced polymer
FRP reinforcement has been known for its high ratio of strength to mass, excellent fatigue character- istics, excellent corrosion resistance, electromagnetic neutrality, and low axial coefficient of thermal expansion. There is signifi- cant potential for applying FRP RC in bridge engineering for structural elements in corrosive environments with low ductility demand. Due to the high strength of FRP, serviceability becomes a critical issue. The main serviceability requirements are maxi- mum deflection and crack width control. For quasi-brittle materi- als such as concrete, there exists an inelastic zone at the tip of a crack, which is called the fracture process zone. Shah
1995 summarized the interaction within the fracture process zone as microcracking, crack deflection, aggregate bridging, crack face fricti