Enhancement of stiffness and load bearing capacity of damaged mortar beams with CFRP patches

Abstract

This paper presents experimental and numerical results on a repaired mortar beam under bending with thin bonded carbon-epoxy patches. The influence of the patch length on the stiffness and ultimate load was analysed, comparatively to undamaged and damaged beam configurations. Numerical analyses were executed employing a developed mixed-mode I + II cohesive damage model with realistic parameters obtained experimentally in previous studies. Accurate predictions of damage propagation in bulk mortar and within adhesive were ac- complished for homothetic structures with different sizes. Stress profiles were obtained along both adhesive interface and in mortar to assess the failure modes observed experimentally. Important conclusions have been drawn about appropriate strategies to be followed in order to guarantee remarkable recover of initial stiffness and strength on damaged mortar beams submitted to bending.