Elastic analysis of interfacial stresses for the design of a strengthened FRP plate bonded to an RC beam

In this paper, the problem of interfacial stresses in RC beams strengthened with bonded composite laminates is analyzed using linear elastic theory. It explicitly considers the interface slip effect on the structural performance by including both the effect of the adherend shear deformations and the time-dependent deformations (such as shrinkage and creep). This new method needs only one differential equation to determine both shear and normal interfacial stress whereas the others solutions need two differential equations. Closed-form solutions are derived for plated RC beams simply supported at both ends and verified through direct comparisons with existing results. A parametrical study is carried out to show the effects of some design variables, e.g., thickness of adhesive layer and FRP plate.