International Journal of Research and Innovation (IJRI)

International Journal of Research and Innovation (IJRI)

1401-1402

INTERFACIAL STRESS ANALYSIS OF EXTERNALLY

PLATED RC BEAMS

T.Haseena1, M.V.Seshagiri rao2, K. Mythili3

1 Research Scholar, Department Of Civil Engineering, Aurora Scientific Technological and Research Academy, Hyderabad India.
2 Professor, Department Of Civil Engineering, JNTU Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India
3 Associate professor , Department Of Civil Engineering, Aurora Scientific Technological and Research Academy, Hyderabad India.

Abstract
Strengthening reinforced concrete (RC) beams by bonding steel or fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) on its tension face
has become a popular retrofit method due to its rapid, simple and other advantages. However, debonding along the
Steel-RC beam interface can lead to premature failure of the structures. The interfacial stresses play a significant role
in understanding this premature debonding failure of such repaired structures. This paper presents a careful finite
element investigation into interfacial stresses in the adhesive layer bonding RC beam and soffit plate. Finite element modelling issues like proper selection of contact between adherents and symmetry conditions are first
discussed, with particular attention on appropriate finite element meshes for the accurate determination of interfacial
stresses. The interfacial stress behaviour at plate end has been analysed for two cases of loading taken one by applying uniformly distributed load and the other with a two point loading. Two special cases are considered in two point
loading for the cases when the plate terminates with-in the constant moment region (CMR) and for the case when
plate is extended beyond constant moment region where bending moment is minimal. The interfacial stresses are
increasing with a reduction in adhesive layer thickness where as the stresses are increasing with the increase in soffit
plate thickness. Carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) has shown a significant reduction in interfacial stresses
when compared to steel plate. The interfacial stresses for the plate restricted within the constant moment region are very
high near the plate end leading to flexural debonding compared to the case where plate is extended beyond constant
moment region where bending moment is minimal. The concentration of stresses in the adhesive layer near the plate
end explained the significance in considering their influence in flexural debonding.
Keywords-- Interfacial stresses, flexural debonding, constant moment region, soffit plate, finite element method.
*Corresponding Author:

T.Haseena,
Research Scholar,
Department Of Civil Engineering,
Aurora Scientific Technological and Research Academy,
Hyderabad India.
Published: January 02, 2015
Review Type: peer reviewed
Volume: II, Issue : I

Citation: T.Haseena, Research Scholar, (2014) "Interfacial

Stress Analysis Of Externally Plated Rc Beams".

INTRODUCTION
Reinforced concrete structures often have to face
modification and improvement of their performance
during their service life. The main contributing factors are change in their use, new design standards,
lack of maintenance practices, deterioration due to
corrosion caused by exposure to an aggressive environment and accident events such as earthquakes.
In such circumstances there are two possible
solutions: replacement or retrofitting. Full structure replacement might have determinate disadvantages such as high costs for material and labour, a
stronger environmental impact and inconvenience
due to interruption of the function of the structure
e.G. Traffic problems. When possible it is often better to repair or upgrade the structure by retrofitting.

The strengthening of reinforced concrete beams

by bonding a soffit plate has become a popular
retrofit procedure .This plate bonding technique
has numerous advantages such as increasing the stiffness and strength of an existing flexural member with minimal impact on the surrounding environment. Considerable research has
been undertaken on rc beams strengthened with a
bonded soffit plate. Tests on rc beams bonded with
either steel plates or fibre reinforced plastic plates
have revealed that debonding of the soffit plate from
the rc beam, typically with the concrete cover attached to the plate, is a common failure mode in
these beams. This debonding failure mode is brittle and prevents the full utilization of the tensile
strength of the bonded plate. It is therefore important to understand the mechanism of this debonding failure mode and develop sound design rules.
Debonding failures are majorly occurred due
to high interfacial shear or normal stresses that
are developed while transferring the tensile stresses
from the bonded plate to the rc beam near the end
of the plate. Accurate predictions of these interfacial
stresses are thus the key to understand the debonding failure phenomenon and the starting point for
developing accurate debonding strength models. Consequently, the determination of interfacial
stresses has been researched for the last decade
for beams bonded with either steel or frp plates. In
particular, several closed-form analytical solutions
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International Journal of Research and Innovation (IJRI)

have been developed.

Interaction

FINITE ELEMENT MODELLING

The full interaction between adherents can be assigned by using tie constraint. For creating tie constraint the concrete beam surface should be considered as master surface and the adhesive surface
should be considered as slave surface. The slave
surface should have finer mesh size than the master surface.

Geometric modelling of RC beam, Adhesive layer

and soffit plate has been done separately using
the part module. The material behaviour was assumed to be homogeneous and isotropic. The material properties such as elastic properties were assigned using the property module. Only a quarter
model is prepared to analyze due to constraints in
computational resources. The externally plated RC
beam model is discretised into a mesh consisting of
C3D8R element An 8-node linear brick Element
with Reduced integration. Each node has six degrees of freedom.
Boundary condition
Simply supported boundary condition is considered
for the analysis. That is, one end of the RC beam attached with hinge and other end with roller. In hinged
support, all the three displacements (U1=U2=U3=0)
along x, y and z directions are arrested. In roller
support, two displacements (U1=U2=0) along y and
x directions are
arrested and other one (U3=0) along z direction is
free
to move along its axis. Since, a quarter model is only
formed symmetry conditions were given at all the
necessary nodes in both x direction and z direction.
This helps to make the model work like a complete
structure.
Loading conditions
In the present study the plated rc beam is analysed
under uniformly distributed loading condition and
two- point loading condition. The load is applied
along the span of the beam as pressure over the top
surface for udl and two-point loading is given like
total load on two extruded surfaces over the beam
where loading has to be done. Three cases are considered and models are created accordingly.
Case-1:
externally plated rc beam subjected to
uniformly distributed load.
Case-2: externally plated rc beam subjected to twopoint loading with plate terminated within the constant moment region.
Case-3: externally plated rc beam subjected to twoPoint loading with plate extended beyond the constant moment region to a point where bending moment is minimal.

VALIDATION
In order to develop the finite element model, reference beam model is selected from literature and
used J.G.Teng, J.W.Zhang, S.T.Smith (2001) have
carried out a numerical investigation on the interfacial stresses in the adhesive layer through computational approach comparing with a closed form
solution developed by Smith and Teng. The influence of various material and geometric properties
on interfacial stresses has been studied.
Poissons
ratio

Component

Width,
mm

Depth,
mm

Length,
mm

Youngs
modulus,
MPa

Concrete

100

150

2400

20000

0.17

Adhesive

100

1800

2000

0.25

Steel
Plate

100

1800

200000

0.3

table.1. Material properties of adherents

The geometric and the material properties of the
beam model is taken for validation from their study.
The boundary conditions adopted for the plated
beam is simply supported. It is subjected to a uniformly distributed load of 15N/mm. The material
properties of validating model are given in table.1.

Element type

Finite Element model for present study

Eight-node brick element with reduced integration

(C3D8R) was used throughout in modelling all components of beam. The C3D8R element is a general
purpose linear brick element, with reduced integration (1 integration point). Due to the reduced integration, the locking phenomena observed in the
C3D8 element do not show in C3D8R.

The behaviour of interfacial stresses has been investigated by considering the effect of various geometric and mechanical properties of the adherents.
Major two cases considered in the present study are
the behaviour and influence of interfacial stresses
near the plate end for the cause of failure when the
beam is subjected to uniformly distributed load and
two-point loading. Further, two cases are consid117

International Journal of Research and Innovation (IJRI)

ered in two-point loading, for the plate when terminated within the constant moment region and the
plate extended beyond the constant moment region
where the bending moment is minimal.

comprehensive assessment of the performance of

the plated beams. The beam of Figure 3.6 was taken
as the reference beam.
The parameters varied in the present study include The adhesive layer thickness

The adhesive layer elastic modulus

The soffit plate thickness

The soffit plate material

Loading
Two loading conditions are considered in the present study-

Finite element model of externally plated RC beam

is developed in ABAQUS to study the interfacial
stress behaviour in the adhesive layer near the plate
end. All the elements are modeled with C3D8R linear brick element. The typical finite element model
of the plated beam is shown in the figure 3.

A uniformly distributed load of 50KN/m is applied

along the length of the beam as shown in Figure.2
and the parameters are varied in this loading condition alone.
Two-point loading of 30KN at each point is applied on the beam by maintaining the dimensions
of concrete adherent constant and by varying the
length of plate, one by terminating plate within the
constant moment region and the other by extending
plate beyond CMR where bending moment is minimal as shown in figure2.
Effect of Adhesive layer thickness
Interfacial normal and shear stresses were obtained
for four different adhesive layer thicknesses of 1,
2, 3 and 4 mm with all other properties as given
in Table.2.Both the interfacial normal and shear
stresses are shown in figures 5 and 6 respectively
for the region near the plate end.

Finite element model of plated RC beam

Poissons
ratio

Component

Width,
mm

Depth,
mm

Length,
mm

Youngs
modulus,
MPa

Concrete

130

200

2500

30000

0.2

Adhesive

130

1900

2000

0.35

Steel
Plate

130

1900

200000

0.3

CFRP

130

1900

138000

0.21

Effect of adhesive layer thickness on interfacial normal stress

Material properties of adherents in present study

COMPARISONS AND DISCUSSIONS

Parametric study
A parametric study is presented here in which finite
element interfacial normal and shear stress behaviour are compared when one of the parameters was
varied each time with all the other values as given
in Table 3.3 unless otherwise stated to give a more

Effect of adhesive layer thickness on interfacial shear stress

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International Journal of Research and Innovation (IJRI)

It can be seen that reducing the thickness of the adhesive layer leads to an increase in both the normal
stress (figure
4) And the shear stress (figure 5). The peak interfacial normal stress occurs near the end of the plate.
At the end of the plate, the interfacial shear stress
values are slightly tending towards zero. The peak
finite element shear stress occurs at a short distance from the end of the plate, rather than at the
end of the plate.
Effect of adhesive elastic modulus

Effect of soffit plate thickness on interfacial normal stress

The effect of varying the elastic modulus of the adhesive is shown in figures 6 and 7. As the elastic
modulus of the adhesive is increased, the interfacial
normal and shear stresses also increase.

Effect of soffit plate thickness on interfacial shear stress

Effect of Soffit plate material

Effect of adhesive elastic modulus on interfacial normal stress

The peak stresses are observed near the plate end

and there wasnt any significant increase in the
stress values near the plate and hence adhesive
elastic modulus does not show any significance in
its consideration for the interfacial stress behavior.

It is very important to investigate and understand

the interfacial stress behavior for different types of
plates that are used for bending. Hence, carbon
fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) plate is considered
due to the rapid growth for it as alternative to steel
plate from past few years. An increase in the elastic
modulus of the plate leads to an increase in the
interfacial stresses. This is easy to understand
as a stiff plate takes up a larger share of the total
load and this larger share has to be transferred from
the beam via higher interfacial stresses. The locations of the peak normal and shear stresses do not
vary with the plate elastic modulus.

Effect of adhesive elastic modulus on interfacial shear stress

Effect of Soffit plate thickness

An increase in the plate thickness leads to increased
interfacial normal stresses. This is as expected, as
a larger portion of the total load is resisted by the
plate with an increase in thickness. Even though
the availability of very thin plates of 1mm and
2mm thicknesses it is considered in the study
just to understand how the behaviour of stresses is
varying for very thin plates and it is observed that
the normal stresses at the plate end for 1mm and
2mm plate are compressive and the peak stresses
are formed at a distance little away from the
plate end.

Effect of soffit plate material on interfacial normal stress

Effect of soffit plate material on interfacial shear stress

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International Journal of Research and Innovation (IJRI)

Two-point loading condition

In practical approaches sometimes plates are terminated within the constant moment region assuming
that it will provide the required flexural strength but
such practise leads to high interfacial stresses near
plate end leading to failure.
A huge variation in stresses have been observed
near the plate end in the case when plate is restricted with in CMR compared to the other case where
plate is extended beyond CMR.

the present study. The present study was focused

on the behaviour of interfacial shear and normal
stresses in the adhesive layer near the plate end.
The parametric study is done when one of the parameters was varied each time with all the other values as given in table 2 unless otherwise stated to
give a more comprehensive assessment of the performance of the plated beams when they are subjected to uniformly distributed load. Another loading condition is also considered in the present study
i.E. To assess
The influence of the position of plate termination on
the interfacial stresses under two-point loading.
CONCLUSIONS
Based on the results of finite element analysis, the
following conclusions are derived.
[1] In general, it is observed that, uniform stress distributions in the adhesive layer as assumed in early
existing approximate analytical solutions are found
at a small distance away from the end of the plate.

Effect on interfacial normal stresses

Stress Contours
The observation of stress contours helps to understand the interfacial stress behaviour very easily.
The most common pattern of the stress contour has
been observed in almost all the cases in the present
study with the stresses starting high near the plate
end and gradually decreasing along the length of
plate.

Stress contour of adhesive when plate is terminated in CMR

Stress contour of adhesive layer for beam subjected to UDL

Summary
A careful finite element investigation into interfacial
stresses in reinforced concrete beams strengthened with a bonded soffit plate has been dealt in

[2] To analyze externally plated rc beams for

accurate determination of the interfacial stresses, a
very fine mesh has to be used so that the effect of
any further mesh refinement is reduced to a zone
near the end of the plate.
[3] Finite element results showed that stresses
vary strongly in the adhesive layer, in particular
near the end of the plate.
[4] Under the action of uniformly distribute load,
the following conclusion are derived from the parametric study.
i.The interfacial stresses were found to increase
with a reduction in adhesive layer thickness, and
peak stress values are obtained near the plate end
then the stress distribution is almost uniform a
little away from end of the plate.
ii.The interfacial stresses were found to increase
with an increase in adhesive elastic modulus and
plate thickness.
iii.The effect of adhesive elastic modulus havent
shown any significant variation in adhesive stresses
whereas, the variation in adhesive thickness have
shown significant influence on stress distribution
particularly near the plate end.
iv. The replacement of cfrp to steel plate has shown
a considerable amount of reduction in peak stresses.
[5] Under the action of two-point loading
i.Termination of plate within the constant moment
region is resulting to very strong variation in stresses near the plate end and the peak values are high
compared to case of which plate extended beyond
cmr.
ii.It is found feasible to terminate plate at a position where bending moment is minimal for a better
performance of the beam.
iii.Further parametric studies in this case and
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International Journal of Research and Innovation (IJRI)

consideration of shear deformation effect helps for

complete assessment of stress distributions.
[6] By considering all the above conclusions
and existing design a predictive model can be prepared in practical approach which helps for better
performance of structure.
REFRENCES
[1] Tim Stratford, John Cadei (2006) Elastic analysis of adhesion stresses for the design of a
strengthening plate bonded to a beam, Construction and Building Materials 20 (2006) 3445.

(2007) Interfacial shear stress in FRP-plated RC

beams under symmetric loads, Cement & Concrete
Composites 29 (2007) 421432.
[12] Mohammed Raoof, Jamal
A, El-Rimawi,
Mahmoud A.H.
Hassanen (1998) Theoretical and experimental
study on
externally plated RC Beams, Engineering Structures 22 (2000)
85101.
AUTHOR

[2]V.Narayanamurthy,
J.F.Chen,
J.Cairns,
A.Ramaswamy (2011) Effect of shear deformation
on interfacial stresses in plated beams subjected to
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16(2002).1-4.

T.Haseena,
Research Scholar,
Department Of Civil Engineering,
Aurora Scientific Technological and Research Academy,
Hyderabad India.

[4] Abu Thomas Zachariah (2006) Finite Element

Modelling of Adhesive Interface between Steel and
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Abbas Adda Bedia (2013) Effect of shear deformation on interfacial stress analysis in plated beams
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Dr. M.V.Seshagiri rao,

Professor,
Department Of Civil Engineering,
JNTU Hyderabad
Hyderabad, India

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Premature failure of externally plated reinforced
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K. Mythili
Associate professor ,
Department Of Civil Engineering,
Aurora Scientific Technological and Research Academy,
Hyderabad India.

[9] M. Z. Jumaat, M. A. Rahman, M. A. Alam, M. M.

Rahman (2011) Premature failures in plate bonded
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