Experimental study on fatigue behaviour of CFRP plates externally bonded to concrete substrate

The behaviour of the bond between fibre-reinforced polymers (FRP) and concrete greatly influences the behaviour of concrete structures strengthened with FRP composites. Although numerous experimental studies have investigated this bond, experimental data concerning fatigue tests on carbon FRP plates attached to concrete blocks are still lacking. Therefore, a series of double-lap shear tests under monotonic and fatigue loadings were performed on concrete prismatic specimens reinforced with CFRP plates. First, a series of experimental investigations are summarized. Thereafter, the fatigue behaviour of CFRP plate debonding is characterized using S-N diagrams that represent the relationship of the upper-limit fatigue load with the monotonic load strength and the number of cycles to debonding on a semi-logarithmic scale.