Reliability analysis of intermediate crack-induced debonding failure in FRP-strengthened concrete members

Abstract

This paper presents a study on the reliability analysis of intermediate crack-induced (IC) debonding failure, which is a dominant failure mode in concrete members strengthened with externally bonded fibre-reinforced polymer composites. First, the probabilistic characteristics of the model uncertainties for several typical IC debonding models are evaluated and presented, based on a comprehensive test database that contained 217 specimens that experienced IC debonding failure. Second, a Monte Carlo simulation analysis is performed to examine the variability in the IC debonding resistance considering the scatterness of different design variables. Subsequently, the reliability index is estimated by utilising the reliability analysis method, first-order reliability method, for each design case. The effect of each design variable on the average reliability index is examined. Finally, reduction factors for the investigated IC debonding models are calibrated based on the reliability analysis with the aim of meeting a target reliability index of 3.5.

Keywords::

• IC debonding
• FRP
• strengthening
• concrete
• reliability analysis

Notes

^1. Email: [email protected]

^2. Email: [email protected]

^3. Email: [email protected]

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) [grant number 2012CB026200] and Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China [grant number BK2010015].