Theoretical solutions on interfacial stress transfer of externally bonded steel/composite laminates.

To effectively and efficiently utilize steel/FRP plates or sheets in strengthening civil infrastructures, a design strategy integrating the FRP properties and composite structural behavior needs to be adopted. The interfacial stress transfer behavior including debonding should be considered to be one of the most important effects on the composite structural behavior. In this paper, varieties of nonlinear interfacial constitutive laws, describing the pre- and post-cracking behaviour of FRP-concrete interface are introduced to solve the nonlinear interfacial stress transfer problems. Expressions for bonding capacity, interfacial shear stress distribution, initiation and propagation of interfacial crack are derived analytically.