American Concrete Institute, ACI Special Publication 286: Preface

Bonded concrete repairs are widely used in civil engineering applications. During the installation of these repairs, an interface is created between the concrete and the bonding agent. In the case of concrete members strengthened with fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs), the behavior of the interface and materials surrounding it often governs the structural performance of the concrete elements being repaired. The bond quality and characteristics between concrete and FRP composites have been studied using experimental, analytical, and empirical approaches. The framework of fracture mechanics has been effectively used by different research groups to characterize and predict interfacial behavior under Mode I loading, Mode II loading or mixed-mode. Both linear and nonlinear elastic fracture mechanics approaches have been explored to characterize debonding failures. The purpose of this special publication is to highlight recent developments on the use of the framework of fracture mechanics to evaluate the performance of reinforced concrete (RC) structures strengthened with FRP composites. We hope that the information provided in this publication will be useful to the researcher and practicing engineer by presenting experimental and analytical tools based on a fracture approach that can assess the shear and flexural capacity of strengthened RC members.