Experimental Investigation on Interfacial Defect Criticality of FRP-Confined Concrete Columns

Defects between fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) and repaired concrete components may easily come out due to misoperation during manufacturing, environmental deterioration, or impact from external load during service life. The defects may cause a degraded structure performance and even the unexpected structural failure. Different non-destructive techniques (NDTs) and sensors have been developed to assess the defects in FRP bonded system. The information of linking up the detected defects by NDTs and repair schemes is needed by assessing the criticality of detected defects. In this study, FRP confined concrete columns with interfacial defects were experimentally tested to determine the interfacial defect criticality on structural performance. It is found that interfacial defect can reduce the FRP confinement effectiveness, and ultimate strength and its corresponding strain of column deteriorate significantly if the interfacial defect area is larger than 50% of total confinement area. Meanwhile, proposed analytical model considering the defect ratio is validated for the prediction of stress–strain behavior of FRP confined columns. The evaluation of defect criticality could be made by comparing predicted stress–strain behavior with the original design to determine corresponding maintenance strategies.