Embedded Connector in Severe Optimization of Steel Plate for Shear Strengthening of RC Beam: Experimental and Numerical Investigations

Abstract

Environmental impact has become one of the major factors taken into consideration for recent civil engineering studies and projects. us, researchers have been concentrating on shear strengthening of existing reinforced concrete structure as an upgrade method instead of demolishing and reconstructing. In general, shear strengthening of RC beams using externally bonded steel plate has gained huge popularity. However, premature debonding of plates is the main drawback of the system, which could be mitigated using embedded connector; thus, the dimension of steel plate could be reduced significantly. Furthermore, numerical analysis on shear strengthening of beams using embedded connector would provide a great insight on the structural behavior. e aim of this research is to severely reduce the dimension of the steel plate using embedded connector for shear strengthening of RC beams and to investigate the performances of optimized shear-strengthened beams through experimental and numerical investigations. e results showed that the dimension of plate was reduced without debonding of the plate if the beam was designed for shear strengthening with the consideration of yield strength of steel plate and shear link. Experimental results showed a maximum increase in failure of 24%. e numerical results predicted accurately the structural performance of beams. e embedded connector had a great effect in deferring and minimizing the debonding failure and accordingly increasing the maximum load of shear failure between 14.5% and 24% compared to control beam.

Structural glass beams with embedded GFRP, CFRP or steel reinforcement rods: Comparative experimental, analytical and numerical investigations

“…Regarding the SG-to-rods mechanical interaction, the "embedded" constraint option was used, so that each rod could be physically hosted by the volume of the surrounding SG layers. The "embedded" constraint, conventionally used to model rebar reinforcements within a solid structural component (see [46][47][48], etc. ), assumes that the hosted elements can accommodate the deformations of the hosting region, and no bond-slip phenomena are allowed at their interface.…”