CHARACTERISATION OF FIBRE RUPTURE FAILURE MODE OF BENT FIBRE

REINFORCED POLYMER (FRP) ANCHORS

LIM. J.1, KIM. J.2, DEL REY CASTILLO. E.3, GRIFFITH. M.4, DIZHUR. D.5 AND INGHAM, J.6
1,2,3,5,6
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Auckland
Newmarket Campus, B906
314-390 Khyber Pass Road
Auckland 1023, New Zealand
4
School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, University of Adelaide
136 Engineering North, Room 2-33
Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia.
1
jlim214@aucklanduni.ac.nz, 2jkim551@aucklanduni.ac.nz, 3edel146@aucklanduni.ac.nz,
4
griffith@adelaide.edu.au, 5ddiz001@aucklanduni.ac.nz, 6j.ingham@auckland.ac.nz

SUMMARY

The main problem when strengthening existing reinforced concrete structures using
externally bonded fibre reinforced polymers is premature FRP-to-concrete debonding. Bent
FRP anchors were introduced as a solution to improve the FRP-to-concrete bond strength,
but incomplete information on anchor behaviour and the absence of reliable design
equations triggered an on-going investigation to further analyse the characteristics of bent
FRP anchors. An ongoing experimental programme is being conducted to develop an
optimal design for bent FRP anchors exhibiting fibre rupture failure mode. A mathematical
model is proposed based on the relationship between the parameters under study and the
anchor capacity.
 INTRODUCTION

FRP composite materials consist of a polymer matrix reinforced with fibres that were initially
developed in the 1930s and have been extensively used in the last thirty years, mainly as a
method to strengthen and/or repair existing structures. The high strength to weight ratio and
corrosion resistant properties of FRP favoured the use of these products, with the Externally
Bonded Fibre Reinforced Polymer (EBR-FRP) system being one of the most commonly used
methods to strengthen and/or repair existing Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures (Bank
2006). The main drawbacks of the EBR-FRP system are the premature FRP-to-concrete
debonding, see for example (Chen & Teng 2001), and the geometrical limitation preventing
the structural element to be fully wrapped by the FRP sheets as per Figure 1 detail a. To
overcome these problems, FRP anchors were introduced in the past decade, which have
several advantages when compared to more traditional anchorage systems that are heavier
and prone to corrosion, as explained by Kalfat (2013). FRP anchors consist of a bundle of
fibres soaked in epoxy resin, with one end being splayed out in a circular or fan-like shape
and bonded to an FRP sheet, and the other end inserted into a pre-drilled hole filled with
epoxy resin. FRP anchors can be used following two different approaches, with the anchor
installed into the structural element at an insertion angle β (bent anchor) as shown in Figure
1 detail b or with the anchor introduced straight into the structure (straight anchor) as shown
in Figure 1 detail c.

(a) (a) (c)

Fully Bent Straight

wrapped anchor anchor
beam

Figure 1: Three EBR-FRP installation options for shear strengthening of an RC beam

The anchor end introduced into the hole is known as the dowel, while the end splayed and
bonded onto the FRP sheet is referred to as the fan component, with the key portion being the
point of transition between these two components as shown in Figure 2. Knowledge and
understanding of the behaviour of bent anchors is limited, and no design guidelines currently
exist for practicing engineers, limiting wide implementation of FRP anchors for EBR-FRP
systems. Previous experiments have been conducted to investigate the behaviour and
strength of bent FRP anchors, but the studies focused on the dowel (Eshwar et al. 2008;
Zhang & Smith 2012; Mahrenholtz et al. 2015), with the behaviour of the key portion and fan
component being poorly investigated to date. Three failure modes were observed by Zhang
(2012) for bent FRP anchors, being dowel pull-out, fibre rupture and fan-to-sheet debonding.
Reported herein are the results of 24
tests, which are part of on-going research FRP sheet
that is aimed at characterising the Fan component
strength and behaviour of bent FRP α
anchors when exhibiting the fibre rupture
failure mode, depending on the anchor
size and the fanning angle α. The
β
insertion angle β remained constant at
90° throughout the test programme as the
influence of the angle β has already been
investigated (Zhang & Smith 2012). The
size of the anchor is determined by the Key portion
number of bundles used to manufacture Dowel
the anchor, while the fanning angle α is
the angle between the middle of the fan
component and the furthermost fibre, as Figure 2: Bent anchor and components
per Figure 2.

TEST SET-UP

When the testing set-up was designed two important factors were considered, being the
need to replicate the behaviour of the RC and FRP materials in a real structural application
and to minimise induced moment or shear stresses in the FRP materials that could trigger
premature failure. Taking these factors into account, the experimental set-up was prepared
similarly to the anchor configuration shown in Figure 1 detail b, but with a 180-degree
rotation to facilitate the construction and testing of the specimens. An RC H-beam and RC
block were used to replicate the RC slab and RC beam respectively, as shown in Figure 3.

The RC H-beam and the RC block had to be disconnected to transfer the tensile load from
the RC block to the bent FRP anchors, with the FRP anchors being the only connection
between the RC H-beam and RC block. A bar protruding out of the RC block was attached to
a steel plate connector with a nut and with a layer of plaster positioned between the steel
plate connector and the RC block to further enhance rigidity. The tensile load was applied
onto a loading bar screwed into the steel plate connector that transferred loads from the bar
into the RC block and into the bent FRP anchor through the FRP sheet. A steel frame
designed specifically for these experiments was used as a reaction frame, with the loading
bar passing through a hollow hydraulic jack and the load being recorded using a load cell,
see Figure 3. The Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technique was used to measure
displacements and strains during the experiments, but only the load results are reported
herein.
 Steel Frame

Loading bar

Steel plate connector

RC block

FRP Sheet

FRP Anchor

RC H-Beam

Figure 3: Test set-up

SPECIMEN ASSEMBLY PROCESS

The surfaces of the RC blocks were grinded to ensure that no loose aggregates could
compromise the FRP-to-concrete bond, and to expose the concrete pores. Holes were drilled
deep enough into the RC H-beam to prevent pull-out failure and dust particles were then
blown out of the hole using compressed air. Plastic sheets were laid over the H-beam to
prevent the RC block from bonding onto the RC H-beam before placing the RC block on top
of the RC H-beam, with the protruding bar aligned with the drilled hole to prevent rotation of
the RC block. The epoxy resin was mixed with the curing agent before soaking the FRP
sheets into the epoxy resin, making sure that each tow was soaked before installing the
sheets with the bottom of the sheet placed above the hole for the bent FRP anchors to be
fanned upon. The FRP anchors were also soaked in the epoxy resin and then inserted into
the hole using a steel rod. After the anchor was fully inserted the free end was fanned onto
the FRP sheet and the steel wire was carefully removed out of the hole. The epoxy resin was
allowed to cure for at least three days before the tests were undertaken. Consistency in the
experiments, besides the two parameters under investigation, was important for the reliability
of the results. Properly filling the hole with epoxy resin, without air voids trapped inside, was
crucial in order to prevent dowel debonding. Even partial debonding would have induced
moment in the dowel and the key portion, triggering premature failure. After several iterations,
this problem was solved by injecting epoxy resin into the hole with a syringe before inserting
the saturated FRP anchor and blocking the hole with thickened resin immediately after the
insertion to prevent the resin from flowing outside.
MATERIALS PROPERTIES

As previously observed by del Rey Castillo et al (2015), the concrete strength did not have
an influence on the FRP anchor final strength, but stronger concrete properties were
preferable as more experiments could be performed with the same RC structures. The
concrete properties are reported in Table 1 as determined by NZS 3112-2 (1986). The FRP
anchor material used in these experiments was supplied as a bundle of fibres with a
standard fibre content, which was then combined to produce anchors of different sizes. The
net-fibre material properties of the FRP sheets and anchors as specified by the manufacturer
are reported in Table 2.
Table 1: Concrete material properties
Standard Coefficient of
Strength
Deviation Variation
Characteristic ultimate compressive strength 39.0 MPa 1.23 MPa 0.03
Characteristic ultimate tensile strength 3.0 MPa 0.35 MPa 0.12

Table 2: Manufacturer-specified FRP net-fibre material properties

Net fibre Tensile Modulus (GPa) Tensile strength (MPa) Ultimate strain
thickness Ave Design 1
Ave Design 1
Ave Design1
CFRP
0.331 mm 75.7 68.1 968 833 0.013 0.011
sheets
CFRP
28 mm2 - 230 - 2100 - 0.016
anchor
1
Design values defined as average values minus two standard deviations

RESULTS

Each test specimen is denoted by the number of bundles and the α angle measured on the
fan component as shown in the example below.

Bn- αa

Where: B-Bent anchor n-number of bundles α-fanning angle a-specimen number

The two parameters that were varied throughout the research are the anchor size and the
fanning angle α. Anchors of two sizes were used, being one-bundle anchors with a net fibre
section equal to the section of the bundle of 28 mm2 and two-bundle anchors, made by
combining together two bundles, with a net fibre section equal to 56 mm2. Three variations of
fanning angle α were investigated, being 15 degrees, 27 degrees (the anchor width is equal
to the anchor length) and 60 degrees, but due to installation errors and the difficulty of
splaying the fan component, the angles were measured to be slightly different from the
targeted angle. The angle α of 60 degrees is a large fan angle and is uncommon in real
applications, but was chosen to in order to establish how variations of the fanning angle
affected the strength of the anchor. Two sub-failure modes were observed during the test
programme, both exhibiting fibre rupture but located in different parts of the anchor: fibre
rupture occurring at the anchor key portion (Rk), see Figure 4a; and fibre rupture occurring at
the anchor mid-section (Rm), see Figure 4b. The sub-failure modes had no significant effect
on the final strength of the FRP anchor, but indicated that fan-to-sheet debonding had been
initiated at the time of failure for the Rm sub-failure mode.
 (a) Rupture at the key portion (Rk) (b) Rupture at mid-section (Rm)
Figure 4. Sub-failure modes observed during experiments
The ultimate tensile load was recorded at failure and the real strength was calculated based
on the ultimate tensile load and the net-fibre cross section area of the FRP anchors. The
efficiency was then obtained as a percentage of the manufacturer-specified strength as given
in Table 2 and the real strength calculated and reported below, with the strength of two
bundle anchors being obtained by multiplying the manufacturer-specified strength by two.
The statistical population for one and two-bundle anchors (cross section area of 28 mm2 and
56 mm2 respectively) are represented in Figure 5, with the pull-out results represented as red
dots. As can be observed, most of the pull-outs results were below the minimum load
obtained for the fibre rupture tests, but some results reached values within the fibre-rupture
results range.

Table 3: Test results

UTL σreal UTL σreal Eff
Name Eff (%) FM Name FM
(kN) (MPa) (kN) (MPa) (%)
B1- 40.1 1432 68.2 Rk B1-47c 38.3 1369 65.2 Rk
B1-13b 50.5 1805 86.0 Rk B2-13a 69.1 1234 58.8 Rk
B1-15c 40.7 1455 69.3 Rk B2-13b 74.9 1338 63.7 Rk
B1-12d 43.9 1568 74.7 Rk B2-11c 65.7 1174 55.9 Rk
B1-15e 45.6 1628 77.5 Rk B2-9c 72.2 1289 61.4 Rk
B1-27a 37.96 1356 64.6 Rm B2-22a 77.3 1381 65.7 Rk
B1-27b 44.6 1592 75.8 Rk B2-23b 70.7 1263 60.1 Rk
B1-32c 40.4 1441 68.6 Rk B2-23c 77.1 1376 65.5 Rk
B1-28d 39.5 1412 67.2 Rk B2-21d 74.3 1328 63.2 Rm
B1-30e 46.1 1646 78.4 Rk B2-35a 80.7 1440 68.6 Rk
B1-48a 43.7 1561 74.3 Rk B2-40b 62.2 1110 52.9 Rk
B1-48b 39.6 1414 67.3 Rk B2-50c 66.6 1189 56.6 Rm
Cross section area of: 1 Bundle = 28 mm , 2 Bundles = 56 mm
2

UTL = Ultimate Tensile Load, σreal = Real Strength, Eff = Efficiency, FM = Failure Mode (Rk rupture in the key
portion and Rm rupture at mid-length)
 Figure 5. Statistical population

FORCE TRANSFER MECHANISM

The load path from the FRP sheets to the concrete structure through the FRP anchor is
analysed in this section, aimed to help understanding the anchor behaviour and developing
the design model for bent FRP anchors exhibiting fibre rupture failure mode. In a real
installation, the tensile force is transferred from the FRP sheets to the anchor fan component,
and through the whole depth of the anchor dowel into the RC structure in perpendicular to
the concrete surface. As a simplification, it was assumed that the load is not distributed
through the full dowel depth, but concentrated on the surface of the RC structure, and the
force on the anchor dowel (Fdowel) is thus equal to the force on the sheet (Fsheet) to maintain
equilibrium, equation 1a. To determine the ultimate tensile load the fanning component is
assumed to consist of an infinitesimal number of fibres with each fibre having its own force
(fi). Forces in the perpendicular and parallel direction to the applied force develop, as
hypothesised by Kobayashi (2001), with the total force transmitted to the dowel being equal
to the summatory of the longitudinal forces in the fibres, which are the cosines of the
corresponding angle αi multiplied by the distributed forces (fi), equation 1b. The ultimate
tensile load of the anchor (Nfr) is therefore calculated as the sum of the longitudinal forces on
the fan, which is the FRP tensile stress (σFRP) multiplied by the cross section area of the
dowel (Adowel), the efficiency coefficient (ψeff) found through the experiments and the
summatory of the cosine of the angle α of each infinitesimal fibre (∑cos(α)), equation 1c.

α0 Fsheet αi fi
F  0 Fsheet  Fdowel (1a)
fI cos (αI)

0
Fdowel   f cos  
0
i i (1b)

0
N fr  2 eff Adowel FRP  fi cos( i ) (1c)
0

Fdowel

Figure 6: Force transfer mechanism model

The sum of the cosine of α can be calculated using the integral of the cosine in radians
between zero and α0 (maximum angle α) which is the sin of α0, equation 2a. However, this
equation implies that the quantity of fibres in the anchor increases as the angle α increases,
which is incorrect as the number of fibres remains constant for a fixed cross section area -
the density of the evenly distributed fibres depends on the angle. This is accounted for by
finding an average α’ value, which is equal to sin(α0) divided by α0 in radians, as can be seen
in Figure 7, which results in equation 2b. For simplification this average value α’ can be
assumed to be equal to the cosine of 0.57α for angles between 0 and 60 degrees,
equation 2c.
0 0

 cos( )   cos( )d  sin( )

0
i 0
 sin( 0 )  sin(0) (2a)
0 0

sin( 0 ) sin( 0 )
a'   N fr   eff Adowel FRP (2b)
0 0
N fr   eff Adowel FRP cos(0.57 ) (2c)

Figure 7: Explanation for sin(α)/α

To find the efficiency coefficient for each test, the ultimate tensile load was divided by the
tensile strength of the FRP anchor (σFRP) and by the cross section area of the dowel (Adowel).
The efficiency coefficient of each test against the correspondent angle α for each anchor size
can be seen in Figure 8a and b, and their respective best fit equations are reported in
equations 3a and b. The behaviour of the anchors featuring two cross section areas and their
efficiency factors can be seen in Figure 8c and the best fit equation is reported in equation 3c.
Net cross section area (mm2) Model Equation
sin( 0 )
28  eff28  0.76 (3a)
0
sin( 0 )
56  eff56  0.63 (3b)
0
-  effarea  1.75 Adowel
0.25
(3c)

The final model is obtained by substituting the efficiency coefficient from equation 3c into
equation 2c and is reported in equation 4, while the three dimensional representation of the
equation, together with the data points, can be seen in Figure 8d. The model underestimates
the strength of the bent FRP anchor, with possible reasons being the dispersion of the
results and the simplification of the force transfer model mentioned above. While the
dispersion of the results is inherent to FRP materials and their installation process, and
similar dispersion can be found in the literature (Mahrenholtz et al. 2015), further analysis is
needed to obtain a more accurate model.

Final model Equation

N fr  1.75 eff Adowel

0.75
 FRP cos(0.57 ) (4)

28 mm2
0.95
Efficiency Coefficieny

0.9
sin( 0 )
 eff  0.76
28

0.85
0
0.8 2
R = 0.13
0.75
0.7
0.65

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2

Fanning angle  (RAD)
(a) Efficiency coefficient vs angle α for one bundle anchors
0.7
56 mm2
Efficiency Coefficieny

0.65 sin( 0 )
 eff  0.63
28

0
2
0.6 R = 0.04

0.55

0.5
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
Fanning angle  (RAD)
(b) Efficiency coefficient vs angle α for two bundle anchors
0.85
Efficiency
Efficiency Coefficieny

0.8
0.25
 eff  1.75 Adowel
area

0.75
R2 = 1
0.7

0.65

0 20 40 60 80 100
2
Cross Section Area (mm )
(c) Efficiency VS cross section area
 (d) Ultimate force from Eq 2b
Figure 8: Theoretical models for one and two bundle anchors and comparison between
model prediction and test results
CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORKS

A total of 24 tests were performed to help further understand the behaviour of bent FRP
anchors subjected to tensile forces. By investigating several angles and two anchor sizes,
the capacity of the specimens was analysed with the objective of formulating a design
equation that considers both the fanning angle and the anchor size. This research was
focused on the fibre rupture failure mode, with the dowel pull-out failure mode being
prevented by introducing the anchor dowel to a sufficient depth in the RC base and the fan-
to-sheet debonding failure mode being prevented by having a large enough fan component.
In general, anchors featuring acute fanning angles performed better than those that featured
more obtuse angles, as can be deduced by the larger ultimate tensile loads and efficiency
coefficients observed for anchors with a larger fanning angle α. The large anchors failed at
higher ultimate tensile loads, but were less efficient than the small anchors. The
displacements and resulting strains were recorded using the DIC technique but have not
been reported here.

A model to calculate the maximum load of bent FRP anchors was proposed, but several
problems need to be addressed. Large dispersion in the results was observed, with a
probable cause being the low reliability inherent to the installation of FRP materials, which
was especially significant for larger anchor size and more obtuse fanning angles. It is
recommended that the use of bent FRP anchors with large obtuse fanning angles be avoided
in the future and that fanning angles be restricted to the range between 15 and 27 degree.
The large dispersion measured in the experimental results is likely to be a contributing factor
to explain why the current model underestimates the anchor capacity, with the coefficient of
variation measured in this study having a similar value as has been reported in other studies.
However, some assumptions made regarding the force transfer mechanism may have also
influenced model accuracy. Consequently, in future further attention will be given to the force
transfer mechanism in an attempt to improve the predictive nature of the design equation.
Additionally, larger cross section areas are to be investigated to further understand the
behaviour of bent FRP anchors.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors acknowledge the support of the technical staff of the Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering at the University of Auckland, as well as Contech Limited and
Sika (NZ) for supplying the CFRP and epoxy resin used in the experimental campaign
reported here. The funding support provided by the New Zealand Earthquake Commission is
highly appreciated.

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