Flexural behaviour of notched steel beams repaired with FRP plates: Parametric studies.

The load carrying capacity in a damaged steel beam can be substantially increased through repairing by attaching Fiber-Reinforced-Polymer (FRP) plates to tension flange. Such a repaired beam is generally failed by either debonding of the FRP plates from the steel flange or FRP rupture at the damage location due to the stress concentration. In this case, the effectiveness of repair significantly depends on the repairing material properties, i.e. FRP and adhesive. This paper developed a Finite Element (FE) modeling of damaged steel beams repaired with FRP plates, and aimed to clarify the FRP and adhesive properties effects on beam recovery. The primary defect was simulated by inserting a notch through the tension flange at mid-span. To ensure the validity of the proposed numerical model, the results of numerical models were compared with those existing experimental works. A parametric study was performed to achieve a better understanding on the sensitivity of parameters which are responsible for flexural behavior of the repaired beams. Studies showed that the in fluence of the most investigated parameters on the response of the repaired beam is very notable, and considering influential parameters in choosing the material for a FRP-repair leads to promising results in design consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]