Bridges
- Publication no: ABC2017-108-17
- Published: 26 April 2017
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Carbon-fibre-reinforced-polymer (CFRP) strengthening of steel components with tensile cracks has gained significant attention in the civil engineering applications due to the advantages of the composite material in upgrading the performance level of the strengthened elements. However, there are limited researches on the strengthening performance of the CFRP composites under multiaxial fatigue loading. This paper presents an experimental study of the CFRP-strengthening of steel plates subjected to mixed-mode (I+II) fatigue loading. The mixed-mode condition at the crack tip was simulated by notching the steel plates with crack angles range between (90°-30°). A comparison study on utilising different Young’s modulus of the composite material was also carried out. Test results showed that the mixedmode crack propagation curves exhibited similar behaviour under different mechanical properties of the CFRP plates. Finally, the shifting in mixed-mode crack propagation was presented and compared for strengthening with composite materials of different stiffness.