Interfacial stresses in damaged RC beams strengthened by externally bonded prestressed GFRP laminate plate: Analytical and numerical study

) Abstract. In this study, the interfacial stresses in RC beams strengthened by externally bonded prestressed GFRP laminate are evaluated using an analytical approach, based on the equilibrium equations and boundary conditions. A comparison of the interfacial stresses obtained from the present analytical model and other existing models is undertaken. Otherwise, a parametric study is conducted to investigate the effects of geometrical and material properties on the variation of interfacial stresses in damaged RC beams strengthened by externally bonded prestressed GFRP laminate. The results obtained indicate that the damage degree has little effect on the maximum shear stress, with a variation less than 5% between the damaged and undamaged RC beams. However, the results also reveal that the prestressing level has a significant effect on the interfacial stresses; hence the damaged RC beam strengthened with an initial prestressing force of 100 kN gives 110% higher maximum shear stress than the damaged RC beam strengthened with an initial prestressing force of 50 kN. The values of shear stress obtained by the analytical approach are approximately equal to 44% of those obtained from the numerical solution, while the interfacial normal stresses predicted by the numerical study are approximately 26% higher than those calculated by the analytical