Simulation of concrete cover separation failure in FRP plated RC beams

The flexural strength of a reinforced concrete beam can be increased by bonding a FRP sheet to the tension face. Nevertheless, this type of reinforcement may cause a premature debonding failure. This paper is concerned with the failure by concrete cover separation; in other words by peeling-off. Four series of FRP plated RC beams and one group of control beams were tested in a four-point bending setup where each group consisted of three beams. All strengthened beams failed by peeling-off. As a part of this study numerical analyses using the commercial program; Abaqus have been carried out in order to predict this type of failure. Comparisons between the predictions of the numerical model and test results show a very good agreement indicating that the ultimate load, the beam behavior and the failure mode can be closely predicted by using the proposed model.