Proceedings of the International Symposium on Bond Behaviour of FRP in Structures (BBFS 2005)

Chen and Teng (eds)

© 2005 International Institute for FRP in Construction

EFFECT OF CONCRETE COMPOSITION ON FRP/CONCRETE BOND CAPACITY

Christopher K.Y. Leung and Jinlong Pan

Department of Civil Engineering, HKUST, Clear Water Bay, HK
Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, HK Email: ckleung@ust.hk Tel: (00852) 2358-8183

ABSTRACT

In recent years, external bonding of fibre reinforced plastics (FRP) to concrete members becomes more and
more popular in strengthening and repairing of old concrete structures. For the strengthened member, failure
may occur through FRP debonding that initiates from the bottom of a major flexural crack in the concrete
member, and propagates towards the free end of the plate. This failure mechanism is often studied with the
direct shear test. Various analytical models have been established based on fracture mechanics and empirical
study. In existing models, the bond capacity is considered to be strongly dependent on the compressive (or
tensile strength) of the concrete itself. However, theoretical analysis indicates that the shear stress distribution
along the FRP/concrete interface at ultimate debonding failure is usually dominated by the frictional part, where
cracking has already occurred in the concrete, and aggregate interlocking is leading to residual stress. We
therefore suspect that other factors affects the interlocking effect, such as size and content of aggregates, will
also play important roles in determining the bond capacity.

To investigate the effect of aggregates on the bond capacity, twelve different compositions of concrete have
been used to prepare specimens for the direct shear test. The test results indicate that the bond capacity has little
correlation with either the concrete compressive or tensile strength. On the other hand, the bond capacity is
found to be related to concrete surface tensile strength, and the aggregate content. Based on the results, an
empirical expression using neural network is derived to calculate the interfacial fracture energy in the shear test.
The bond capacity can then be calculated according fracture mechanics based model. Good agreement has been
obtained between the simulation and experimental results.

KEYWORDS

FRP plates; direct shear test; concrete composition; debonding

INTRODUCTION

The bonding of FRP plate on the tensile face has been proved to be an effective method to increase both the
strength and stiffness of concrete members. For a flexural strengthened RC beam under external loading, the
beam may fail by FRP debonding from the bottom of a major flexural crack in the span, as shown in Figure 1.
This failure mode can also be found in FRP strengthened RC one-way slabs, as shown Figure 2. Debonding
failure is induced by the presence of high shear stress concentration at the interface around the bottom of the
flexural cracks. It is usually observed that the failure occurs in the concrete and a thin layer of concrete is
attached on the surface of the debonded FRP plate. Hence, for concrete members strengthened with externally
bonded FRP, the concrete/FRP interfacial behavior should be an important focus of investigation.

Figure 1 FRP debonding from the bottom of a major Figure 2 FRP debonding from a major flexural crack
flexural crack in the RC beam in a one-way slab

This kind of crack-induced debonding failure is often studied with the direct shear test, which involves a FRP
plate bonded on a concrete prism. By pulling the FRP plate along the direction of its length, the bond capacity at
debodning failure can be obtained. Due to the shear lag phenomenon, the bond capacity approaches a plateau
value with increasing bond length. Recently, many studies have been undertaken to study the bond behavior

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between concrete and FRP sheets. From the literature, plenty of experiments have been conducted by using
single shear tests (e.g. Taljsten 1997, Chajes et al. 1996, Bizindavyi and Neale 1999), double shear tests (e.g.
Van Gemert 1980, Neubauer and Rostásy 1997) and modified beam (e.g. Van Gemert 1980, Laura D.L. et al.
2001) to simulate the bond behavior of the FRP plates in the real RC beams. Theoretical work on the bond
behavior has also been carried out and a number of empirical models (Tanaka 1996, Maeda et al. 1997) and
analytical models (e.g. Holzenkampfer 1994, Yuan et al. 2001, Chen and Teng 2001) have been developed, as
well as some practical design proposals (Van Gemert 1980). These works have led to improved understanding
of the failure characteristics of the FRP-to-concrete joints. Based on most existing models and experimental
investigations, it is commonly considered that the effectiveness of strengthening depends on the following
aspects: (1) surface preparation of concrete; (2) the type of adhesive; (3) geometric factors, such as FRP bond
length, thickness of FRP plate, FRP width etc; (4) interfacial fracture energy. The interfacial fracture energy is
often taken to be a function of the compressive or surface tensile strength of concrete. However, this has never
been proved and is also questionable from the physical point of view because fracture energy is dependent on
the shear slip relation at concrete/FRP interface.

The objectives of this study are: (1) to investigate the failure mechanism of interfacial debonding of FRP plate
from concrete prisms; (2) To investigate the effect of material properties, such as concrete compressive strength,
splitting tensile strength, and concrete surface strength on the bond capacity. (3) To study the distribution of the
stress or strain at different load values for the specimen from different concrete compositions; (4) To investigate
the effect of aggregate content on the bond capacity. To achieve these objectives, ten different compositions of
concrete with crushed aggregate have been used to prepare specimens for the direct shear tests. Based on the
experimental results, the correlations between the material mechanical parameters and the ultimate bond
capacity are evaluated, as well as the contents of aggregates. Then, neural network is employed to develop an
empirical approach to predict the interfacial fracture energy at debonding based on the test results.

EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM
Specimen Preparation and Material Properties

To investigate the concrete composition on the bond capacity in direct shear test, ten batches of concrete with
different mixing proportions were cast to prepare the concrete prisms. The mixing proportions for each batch of
specimens are listed in Table 1. The size of the concrete prisms was 100mm (width) x100mm (depth) x500mm
(length), as shown in Figure 3. After casting, the specimens were placed in curing room for 28 days. After the
concrete prisms were cured for 28 days, application of the FRP sheets could be performed. Before applying the
FRP sheets on the concrete prism, the surfaces of concrete prisms should be roughened with a needle-gun to
expose the aggregate to achieve a good bond between FRP plate and concrete. After the surface preparation of
the concrete prisms, epoxy primer, which was a cohesive liquid at atmosphere temperature, was applied to
improve the bond performance. After the primer was hardened, two layers of FRP sheets were bonded to
concrete prisms layer by layer using the epoxy resin. The bonded FRP plate bonded was 300mm in extent,
starting from a location 50mm from the edge of concrete prism (Figure 3). The initial 50mm was left unbonded
to avoid wedge failure of concrete due to shear stress. To ensure full hardening of epoxy, the specimens should
be cured for 7 days before testing. In order to record the strain variation along the FRP plate during the loading
process, nine strain gauges were placed on the FRP plate with a center-to-center space of 30mm, as shown in
Figure 3. Finally, the bonded strain gauges were connected to an automatic data logger with a cable.

Figure 3 Dimensional information about the tested specimens

To study the correlations between the concrete material properties and the bond capacity, the mechanical
properties of concrete, such as compressive strength, tensile strength, surface tensile strength and mode I
fracture energy, were measured together with the ultimate bond capacity. Three small concrete cylinders
(100mm in diameter and 200mm in height) from each batch of concrete were used to obtain the compressive
strength, and another three concrete cylinders with larger size (150mm in diameter and 300mm in height) were
used to perform splitting test. To determine the fracture energy for the plain concrete beam (100mm x 100mm x
500mm), three concrete beams with a notch at the mid-span were tested under three-point loading according to

70
ASTM, as shown in Figure 4a. To measure surface tensile strength, a steel plate with dimension of
100mmx100mm was bonded on one surface of the concrete prism and placed on the MTS for the pull-out test,
as shown in Figure 4b. The concrete prism was from the same batch as that for direct shear test. The surface
tensile strength is then calculated as the ultimate load divided by the total area of the steel plate. The mechanical
properties of the concrete are summarized in Table 1. The FRP used in the tests is the Reno composite material
system, whose tensile strength is up to 4200MPa in fiber direction. However, the strength in transverse direction
should be neglected for strengthening purpose. The Young’s modulus of the FRP is about 235GPa. The FRP
thickness is about 0.11mm per ply according to the production specifications. In the present experiments, an
epoxy-based adhesive was used. According to the manufacturer, the tensile strength of the resin for FRP is about
30MPa, the tensile modulus is about 3.3GPa and shear strength is over 10MPa after curing for 7 days.

Table 1 Experimental results of material properties of the concrete

Concrete Mixing Aggregate content Compr. Strength Tensile Strength Surface tensile strength Fracture Energy in Mode I
composition proportion (%) (MPa) (MPa) (MPa) (MPamm)
M1 1:0.5:1.5:2.6 46.4 43.1 4.18 2.85 0.129
M2 1:0.6:1.5:2.6 45.6 35.2 3.17 2.15 0.115
M3 1:0.5:1.5:1.5 33.3 57.5 3.69 3.04 0.134
M4 1:0.6:1.5:1.5 32.6 38.6 3.38 1.63 0.157
M5 1:0.4:1.5:2.6 47.3 61.5 4.48 2.78 0.174
M6 1:0.5:1.5:0.5 14.3 47.4 3.76 2.26 0.119
M7 1:0.54:2.55:1 19.6 47.1 3.68 2.04 0.077
M8 1:0.5:2.25:1.25 25.0 44.7 3.26 2.23 0.117
M9 1:0.5:2:1.5 30.0 52.4 3.99 2.73 0.121
M10 1:0.5:1.5:2 40.0 57.9 4.49 2.47 0.156
Remarks 1: C:W:S:A is the ratio of cement to water to sand to aggregate
2: The aggregate size for other concrete compositions are from 4.75mm to 20mm

Steel plate
(a) (b)
Concrete Adhesive
Notch
Concrete

LVDT

Figure 4 Test setups for (a) three-point bending test (b) and pull-out test

Test Setup and Test Procedure

As for the setup of the direct shear test, a steel frame which could hold the concrete specimen tightly in the
vertical direction was designed, as shown in Figure 5. The frame should be vertically installed in the Material
Testing System which applied a pulling force on the top of the FRP plate. The pulling force should be along
vertical direction to prevent any horizontal force component, which could cause peeling effect on the debonding
failure of the FRP plate. During the testing process, a LVDT was used to measure the global displacement of the
FRP plate bonded on concrete. The test was conducted under displacement control with loading rate of
0.1mm/min. An automatic data logger was employed to collect the strains along the FRP plate and the
displacement from the LVDT, as well as load and stroke data from the MTS machine.

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

In the experimental program, a total of 30 specimens were tested to investigate the effect of concrete
composition on the bond behavior between the FRP plate and concrete. Correlations between the mechanical
properties of concrete and the bond capacity are then investigated.

Failure Characterization

In the present experiments, debonding of the FRP plate from concrete has been observed to be the failure mode
for all specimens. With an unbonded zone of 50mm at the pulled end of the FRP, wedge failure of concrete can
be avoided. With increasing load, debonding of the FRP plate starts to occur from the loaded end. After final
failure is reached, the FRP plate is fully separated from the concrete prism with a thin layer of concrete attached
on its surface, indicating that the interfacial debonding failure depends on properties of concrete. To illustrate
the behavior during the test, a typical curve of load versus global displacement for the specimen M8-2 is shown
in Figure 6. The global displacement represents the total displacement of the part of FRP plate which is bonded

71
to the surface of the concrete prism. During the test, the external load increases linearly with the global
displacement of the bonded FRP plate before initial debonding occurs at the loaded end. After the external load
reaches around 7kN, initial debonding failure appears in the concrete at the pulled end. After that, the external
load continues to increase with the debonded zone due to the presence of interfacial friction and interlocking
between the debonded surfaces. The debonded zone grows stably with the increase of the external load until the
load reaches 11.7KN. At this load value, the debonded zone has grown to a certain distance from the pulled end.
After that, the global displacement increase significantly, but the external load stays approximately constant.
Meanwhile, the propagation of the interfacial crack becomes unstably, indicating that the ultimate stage is
reached. Similar observations have also been obtained for the other specimens during the loading process.

14
M8-2

12

LVDT 10

Load (KN)
Specimen 8

Steel frame 4

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Steel plate Global displacement (mm)

Figure 6 Load versus global displacement

Figure 5 Test setup for the direct shear test of the specimen M8-2

Strain Distributions along the FRP Plate

5000
1KN 17 1KN 2KN 3KN 4KN 5KN 6KN
4500 2KN
3KN 7KN 8KN 9KN 10KN 11KN 10.93KN
4000 4KN 14 11.14KN 10.94KN 11.14KN 11.21KN 11.67KN
5KN
Strain in FRP (10^-6)

3500
Shear Stress (MPa)

6KN
11
7KN
3000
8KN
9KN 8
2500
10KN
2000 11KN
10.93KN 5
1500 11.14KN
10.94KN
2
1000 11.14KN
11.21KN
500 11.67KN -1 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
11.7KN
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 -4
Distance to the pulled end (mm) Distance from the loaded end (mm)

Figure 7 Strain variations at different loading Figure 8 Shear stress distributions along the
values for the specimen M8-2 concrete-to-adhesive interface for M8-2

In the experiments, the strains along the FRP plate at different load values have been measured. To study the
debonding behavior for the specimen under direct shear force, the experimental data of the specimen M8-2 is
used as an example. Figure 7 shows the strain distributions along the FRP plate at different load values. Each
curve corresponds to the strain distribution along the FRP at a particular load. When the load is lower than 8kN,
the strains in the FRP plate decrease quickly with distance from the loaded end, which can be ascribed to the
much smaller axial stiffness of the bonded FRP plate with respect to that of the concrete prism. Before initial
debonding, increase of the applied load will cause the curve to shift upward. However, when the load values are
beyond 8kN, the shape of the curve starts to change and the slope of the curve near the loaded end tends to
decrease due to interfacial debonding failure starting. Since the slope of the curve reflects the rate of strain
change in the FRP plate, the decrease of the slope represents shear softening at the debonded interface. As the
load increases, the interfacial debonding tends to propagate to the free end of the FRP plate. This is indicated by
the shifting of strain distribution curves towards the free end of the FRP plate. Interestingly, it is found that the
maximum strain in the FRP plate seems to stay approximately constant when the debonded zone has extended to
a certain distance from the pulled end. This corresponds to the situation when a fully developed debonding zone
propagates along the interface. Figure 8 shows the approximate shear stress distributions along the
concrete/adhesive interface at different load values. The shear stress at each location can be approximately
calculated as the difference between the tensile stress at previous and back points divided by the distance
between the two points. The shear stress is found to decrease quickly with the distance from the loaded end

72
when the applied load is smaller than 8kN. The maximum shear stress at the loaded end is about 15.8MPa
before initial debonding. After the applied load reaches 8kN, the debonding of the FRP plate from the loaded
end occurs and the shear stress in the debonded zone drops quickly. However, during the propagation of the
interfacial crack along the concrete/adhesive interface, the maximum shear stress in the elastic zone stays at a
similar value of around 11MPa according to the calculation results. The maximum shear stress after debonding
is smaller than that before debonding is initiated, which may be due to fact that the shear stress distributions at
different load values are only a rough estimate from a number of discrete points. It can also been seen that the
shear stress in the debonded zone decreases with the distance from the interfacial crack tip, indicating that the
occurrence of shear softening in that zone.

Effects of concrete properties on the bond capacity

From the test results, the compressive strength for various batches of concrete varies from 35.2MPa to 61.5MPa.
Figure 9 shows the relationship between the ultimate bond capacities and concrete compressive strengths. The
tensile strength of each batch of concrete has been obtained through the splitting tension test. With the measured
splitting load (P), the tensile strength can be calculated as the value σ=2P/(πLD). The tensile strength values of
the concrete are between 3.17MPa and 4.49MPa. It is found that there seems to be no sound correlations
between concrete compressive strength or splitting tensile strength and the bond capacity (Figures 9 and 10).
Although interfacial debonding and compressive failure in cylinders both involve the cracking of concrete, the
failure mechanisms are very different from each other. For compression test or splitting tensile test, a uniform
stress field generates along the cracking interface. However, Debonding failure is initiated by the high shear
stress at the concrete/adhesive interface and the failure zone is under highly non-uniform stress fields. Moreover,
debonding failure is actually a local failure in concrete at the pulled end, while compression or tension failure
involves more global failure of the concrete cylinder.

19.0 19
Ultimate Bond Capacity (KN)

Ultimate Bond Capacity (kN)

18.0 18

17.0 17

16.0 16

15.0 15

14.0 14

13.0 13

12.0 12
30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 3 3.2 3.4 3.6 3.8 4 4.2 4.4
Compressive strength (MPa) Splitting Tensile Strength (MPa)

Figure 9 Correlation between concrete compressive Figure 10 Correlation between concrete splitting tensile
strength and the bond capacity strength and the bond capacity

20 20
Ultimate Bond Capacity (kN)

19 19
Ultimate Bond Capacity (KN)

18 18
17 17

16 16

15 15

14 14
13
13
12
12
11
11
1.5 1.7 1.9 2.1 2.3 2.5 2.7 2.9 3.1
0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18
Surface Tensile Strength (MPa) Fracture Energy in Mode I (N/mm)

Figure 11 Correlation between concrete surface tensile Figure 12 Correlation between Mode I fracture
strength and the bond capacity energy and the bond capacity

In the present experiments, the surface tensile strength of each concrete composition is measured by the pull-out
test. The surface tensile strength values for all specimens range from 1.625MPa to 3.04MPa. Figure 11 shows
the correlation between the surface tensile strength and the bond capacity for all concrete compositions.
Phenomenologically, the bond capacity of the specimens increases with the concrete surface tensile strength.
For the concrete prism bonded with the FRP plate under direct pulling, the concrete at the concrete/adhesive
interface is under shear. The locally damage of concrete is most related to the surface tensile strength.

73
To investigate mode I facture energy on the debonding behavior, Mode I fracture failure was calculated for all
specimens based on three-point bending test. For Mode I fracture failure, the crack appears at the top of the
notch and propagates upwards until the beam broke completely into two pieces. Since debonding failure can be
considered as failure due to the Mode II propagation of an interfacial crack, it is of interest to see if it is affected
by the Mode I fracture energy as well. However, the test results show there is no obvious correlation between
the fracture energy and the ultimate bond capacity (Figure 12).

Effects of Aggregate Content

Figure 13 shows that the ultimate bond capacity increases with the aggregate content of the concrete
compositions. In the concrete, the amount of aggregate on the failed surface increase with the aggregate content,
and bond between the aggregate and the FRP plate is stronger than that between the paste and the FRP plate.
Also, the interfacial friction in the debonded region depends on interlocking and abrasion effects along the
damaged interface. Increasing the aggregate content can significantly slow down the softening behavior in the
debonded zone, which leads to improvement of the ultimate bond capacity. Thus, the proportion of aggregate in
specimens is an important parameter affecting the bond capacity.

19

18
Ultimate Bond Capacity (kN)

Small aggregate content

17

16
y = 11.952x + 11.787
2
R = 0.4933
15

14
Large aggregate content
13

12
10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Aggregate Content (%)

Figure 13 The correlation between aggregate Figure 14 Damaged interface between concrete and
content and the bond capacity adhesive for the cases with different aggregate contents

AN EMPIRICAL APPROACH USING NEURAL NETWORK

From most existing models, the bond capacity of concrete-to-FRP joint depends on the interfacial fracture
energy as well as FRP stiffness, thickness and length. Since all specimens were bonded with the same FRP, the
bond capacity is mostly related to the concrete surface tensile strength and aggregate content, indicating that the
interfacial fracture energy is significantly affected by the two parameters. The interfacial fracture energy for
each specimen can be calculated according to the following bond strength model (Taljsten 1996). To obtain an
empirical relation between the interfacial fracture energy and the two parameters, an approach using neural
network is proposed in this section.
Pu = b p 2 E p t p G f /(1 + α ) , where α = E p t p b p /( Ec t c bc ) (1)
In mathematical terms, the neural network is a ‘vector mapper’ that can map an input vector to an output vector.
With the combinations of input and output data, the neural network is able to extract the underlying
characteristics and relationships from the data and generate a solution process through a training process. When
a separate set of input data is fed to the network, an approximate result will be produced. The details of the
neural network theory can be found in many textbooks (e.g. Flood & kartam 1994, Rafiq et al. 2001).

Description of the Experimental Data and Input Parameters

In the present research work, the neural network approach is employed to study the interfacial fracture energy in
the direct shear test. A database of twenty test results on debonding failure of concrete prisms with externally
bonded FRP is compiled to train and verify the neural network. In the experimental study, the same FRP
materials and geometric dimensions have been used for all specimens. The specimens are prepared with
different concrete compositions. The major target of this research is hence to find the correlations between the
concrete composition or the material properties of concrete and the interfacial fracture energy. From the test
results discussed above, it is found that the surface tensile strength of concrete and the aggregate content have
the best correlation with the bond behavior between the concrete and the FRP plate. Hence, in this study, the
concrete surface tensile strength and the aggregate content are selected as the input data in the neural network.

74
The interfacial fracture energy of each specimen from different compositions will be selected as output data for
the neural network analysis.

The range for each of the input and output parameters covered by the ten test results for the training set is given
in Table 2. In the analysis using the neural network, ten test results are used for training while the remaining ten
results are used for verification.

Table 2 Summary of input and output parameters and reference values

Parameters fctm (Mpa) Aggregate content “a” Pulti (kN) Gf (N/mm)
Minimum 1.625 0.143 11.7 0.534
maximum 3.040 0.473 19.43 1.473
Mean 2.417 0.339 15.91 1.007
SD 0.437 0.110 2.341 0.283
Cov (%) 18.062 32.325 28.094 28.094
Reference 2.400 0.340 - -

Results of the Neural Network Analysis

In this study, a program using Matlab 6.1’s built-in neural network Toolbox was developed to conduct the
analysis. A network with an input layer and one hidden tansigmoid layer with seven neurons and linear output
layer are prescribed. Figure 15 shows the comparisons between the simulated bond capacity from the neural
network and the experimental results. It is found that the simulated Pulti are very close to the experimental results
since all points in Figure 15 lie close to the 45-degreee line. This indicates that the network has generalized
underlying information well.

20 1.40
10% 5%
15%
18
1.30
Interfacial fracture energy (N/mm)

-5%
16
Simulated bond capacity (kN)

1.20
14
-10% 1.10
12 y = 0.4245x - 0.0163

10 1.00

8 0.90

6
0.80
4
0.70
2

0 0.60
1.5 1.7 1.9 2.1 2.3 2.5 2.7 2.9 3.1 3.3
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Experimental bond capacity (kN) Surface Tensile strength (MPa)

Figure 15 Comparison between the network Figure 16 Relationship between Gf and the surface
simulated Pulti and experimental results tensile strength fctm when “a” staying at reference value

Empirical Model

To develop an empirical approach for calculating the ultimate FRP strain, the neural network is used to generate
an empirical equation for use in design. Reference values for the two parameters are first set to be close to the
mean values of the test results. Simulations are then performed with the neural network. The aggregate content
(a) is first fixed at its reference value, and the variation of Gf with fctm is simulated. The results are shown in
Figure 16. With linear fitting, the interfacial fracture energy can be expressed by
G = 0 . 4245 f − 0 . 0163
(2)
f ctm

To consider the effect of the aggregate content, a correlation function needs to be derived. Simulation is again
performed by fixing fctm at its reference value and calculating Gf with different values of “a”. The ratio of the
simulated value and the value obtained from eqn. (2) for the reference value of “a” gives the aggregate content
factor. The results are shown in Figure 17. Again, using linear fitting, a correlation factor can be obtained as:
C a = − 1 . 0053 a + 1 . 3432 (3)
The interfacial fracture energy Gf can then be calculated by
G = ( − 1 . 0053 a + 1 . 3432 )( 0 . 4245 f ctm − 0 . 0163 )
(4)
f
The above expression provides a simple empirical approach to predict the interfacial fracture energy Gf. The
calculated bond capacities from the empirical approach and Equ (1) are compared to the experimental results in

75
Figure 18 and good agreement can be obtained. At the part, only a small amount of data is available for training
the network. However, the feasibility of generating a design equation with the neural network is illustrated.

1.25 20.00

15% 10% 5%
1.2 18.00

Simulated bond capacity (kN)

-5%
16.00 -10%
1.15 -15%
Correlation factor, Ca

14.00
1.1
12.00 -20%
1.05
10.00
1
y = -1.0053x + 1.3432 8.00
0.95
6.00
0.9 4.00 Training set
0.85 2.00 Validating set

0.8 0.00
0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.00 2.00 4.00 6.00 8.00 10.00 12.00 14.00 16.00 18.00 20.00
Aggregate Content Experimental bond capacity (kN)

Figure 17 Effect of the aggregate content Figure 18 Comparison between the bond capacity
on the bond capacity from empirical and experimental results

CONCLUSIONS

In this paper, experimental investigations have been conducted to study the effect of the concrete composition,
and properties on FRP debonding behavior in the direct shear test. It is found that the bond capacities of the
specimens are mostly dependent on the concrete surface tensile strength, aggregate content. Although other
material properties (such as compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and fracture energy) may have some
effect on the debonding behavior, the test results do not reveal clear correlations between the bond capacity and
these mentioned parameters. The neural network is employed to derive an empirical expression for obtaining the
interfacial fracture energy Gf in terms of surface tensile strength and aggregate content. The bond capacity can
then be calculated according to the fracture mechanics based model. Good agreement has been obtained
between the simulated results using the empirical expression and the experimental results. With more data
available in the future, the empirical expression can be further refined and improved through additional training
with the neural network approach.

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