Shear Transfer across Cracks in FRP Strengthened

RC Members
M. S. Mohamed Ali1; D. J. Oehlers2; and M. C. Griffith3
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Abstract: The shear capacity of unplated reinforced concrete 共RC兲 beams depends on the transverse shear to form the critical diagonal
crack 共CDC兲 as well as the transverse shear capacity across the CDC. The latter depends on the reinforcing bars crossing the CDC as they
provide forces normal to the CDC that allow the shear to be transferred by aggregate interlock. For steel reinforcing bars, these normal
forces can be assumed to depend on the ductile yield capacity of the reinforcing bar. However, the problem is more complicated when
dealing with fiber reinforced polymer 共FRP兲 plated RC beams, as the normal force now depends on the brittle intermediate crack
debonding resistance of the plate as well as the brittle nature of the FRP material. In this paper, eight push tests have been used to directly
determine the contribution of externally bonded 共EB兲 and near surface mounted 共NSM兲 FRP plates to the shear capacity, and these are
compared with further six EB and NSM steel plated members. It is shown that plate reinforcement can substantially increase the shear
capacity and, surprisingly, that the brittle FRP plates can provide a more ductile shear mechanism than the ductile steel plates.
DOI: 10.1061/共ASCE兲1090-0268共2008兲12:4共416兲
CE Database subject headings: Concrete, reinforced; Fiber reinforced polymers; Bonding; Shear strength; Cracking.

Introduction ciency of a number of carbon fiber reinforced polymer 共FRP兲

Zhang 共1997兲 has shown that the transverse shear capacity of an
reinforced concrete 共RC兲 member, as in Fig. 1, depends on the
transverse shear to cause the critical diagonal crack 共CDC兲 to
form and, after the CDC has formed, the shear capacity along the
CDC 共Oehlers and Seracino 2004兲. In the latter case, the shear
force causes the crack faces to slip relative to each other, and this
shear distortion is resisted along the line of the crack by a com-
bination of dowel action, interface interlock, and friction 共Mat-
tock and Hawkins 1972; Mattock 1974兲. The shear transfer
strength of initially cracked concrete with moderate amounts of
reinforcement is developed primarily by the aggregate interlock
or shear friction resistance to sliding between the faces of the
crack and by dowel action of the reinforcement crossing the
crack.
From the preceding discussion, it can be stated that the trans-
verse reinforcement plays a crucial role in the shear transfer of
initially cracked reinforced concrete elements by contributing
substantially to both the dowel action and interface interlock.
Saenz and Pantelides 共2005兲 reported a study in which 36 un-
cracked push-off specimens were tested to investigate the effi-
1
Senior Research Associate, School of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, Univ. of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia. E-mail: mmsadakk@
civeng.adelaide.edu.au
2
Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of
Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia. E-mail: doehlers@civeng.adelaide.edu.au
3
Associate Professor and Head, School of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, Univ. of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia. E-mail: mcgrif@
civeng.adelaide.edu.au
Note. Discussion open until January 1, 2009. Separate discussions
must be submitted for individual papers. To extend the closing date by one
month, a written request must be filed with the ASCE Managing Editor.
The manuscript for this paper was submitted for review and possible
publication on May 3, 2007; approved on September 6, 2007. This paper
is part of the Journal of Composites for Construction, Vol. 12, No. 4,
August 1, 2008. ©ASCE, ISSN 1090-0268/2008/4-416–424/$25.00.
共CFRP兲 wrapping scheme configurations in enhancing the shear
friction capacity and analytical models were developed from
these test results 共Saenz et al. 2004兲. However, no systematic
studies have been reported in the literature for determining the
contribution of the external reinforcements in the form of exter-
nally bonded or near surface mounted steel and FRP plates to the
shear friction capacity of initially cracked shear blocks. To fill this
gap, the present study investigates the shear transfer behavior of
initially cracked plated RC shear blocks using 14 push-off tests.
Both externally bonded 共EB兲 and near surface mounted 共NSM兲
plated specimens were tested with CFRP, mild steel, or high yield
steel plates placed at different inclinations to the CDC. The aim
was to determine whether Mattock’s classic behavior 共Mattock
and Hawkins 1972; Mattock 1974兲 with ductile steel bars with
ductile bond could be applied to brittle FRP plates with brittle
bond.
Test Specimens
A line diagram of the test rig and the specimen is shown in Fig. 2.
The supports were designed to impart pure shear across section
A-A in a similar fashion to Mattock’s specimens Mattock and
Hawkins 共1972兲. The cross-sectional and the reinforcement de-
tails of the concrete block are shown in Fig. 3. It is worth noting
that all the specimens were precracked 共Fig. 2兲 before strength-
ening by applying a vertical concentrated load along the middle
of the block so that the splitting action induced the precrack.
Details of all the specimens are summarized in Table 1 where dtop
is the distance between the top of the block and the top fiber of
the plate and sstrip is the effective spacing between the NSM
strips, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5. In Table 1, the only specimen
in Group 1 is the unplated control specimen shown in Fig. 3;
the specimens in Group 2 had EB plates perpendicular to the
equivalent critical diagonal crack as shown in Fig. 4; Group 3
specimens had NSM strips also perpendicular to the CDC, as

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 Fig. 1. Near surface mounted plated reinforced concrete beam
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shown in Fig. 5; and Group 4 specimens had NSM strips at 45° to
the CDC as shown in Figs. 6 and 7.
Surface preparation for the concrete and the external plate
were carried out as per the laminate and adhesive manufacturer’s
instructions. In the case of specimens with NSM strips, grooves
were cut in the concrete using a wet masonry saw and then were
allowed to dry. After drying, the loose particles in the groove
were blown out with compressed air. In the case of EB plated
specimens, a needle gun was used to roughen the surface and the
concrete was wire brushed to remove the loose particles and then
was vacuum cleaned to remove the dust. The steel plates and
strips were grit blasted to remove the rust before bonding. After
the bonding of the plates, the adhesive was allowed to cure for at
least 7 days at 23° C before testing.
Material Properties
At the time of testing, the concrete had a cylindrical compressive
strength of 32 MPa, split tensile strength of 3.45 MPa, and
Young’s modulus of 35,000 MPa. The 10 mm diam. reinforcing
bars used in the shear blocks had a yield strength of 389 MPa,
ultimate strength of 530 MPa, and Young’s modulus of 200 GPa.
The 3 mm thick steel plates used for external bonding had an
ultimate strength of 469 MPa and Young’s modulus of 200 GPa.
The CFRP plates and strips used for strengthening were a unidi-
rectional carbon fiber laminate material that was prefabricated
共pultruded兲 that had a volumetric fiber fraction of no less than
70%; the 1.2 mm thick laminate had a Young’s modulus of
162 GPa with an ultimate strength of 2,796 MPa. The 1.2 mm
Fig. 2. Test rig
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J. Compos. Constr., 2008, 12(4): 416-424
Fig. 3. Reinforcement details of the RC shear block
thick high strength steel strips had a Young’s modulus of 174 GPa
with an ultimate strength of 932 MPa. The adhesive used for
bonding the plates/strips had the following properties as furnished
by the manufacturer: compressive strength of 100– 120 MPa, ten-
sile bond strength at 25° C of 15– 17 MPa, flexural strength of
20– 30 MPa, and tensile strength of 30– 40 MPa.
Test Setup and Instrumentation
As mentioned earlier, the shear blocks were precracked prior to
strengthening and then tested under displacement control 共Fig. 8兲.
The crack separation 共opening兲 and crack shear displacement
共slip兲 were monitored continuously through transducers affixed to
both sides of the block as in Figs. 9共a and b兲. Similarly, the strain
magnitudes were also continuously monitored and recorded by
strain gauges bonded to the plates in the majority of the plated
specimens, also illustrated in Figs. 9共a and b兲. The test results for
all the shear blocks tested are given in Table 2, and some of the
significant features are described below.
Group 1 Test on Control Specimen
Unplated Control Specimen „CDC2…
The failed control specimen is shown in Fig. 10 where the large
shear displacement is evident. At the peak load of 349 kN, the
shear displacement was 0.54 mm 共Fig. 11兲, which increased to
23.1 mm when the load dropped to 320 kN just prior to failure;
this indicates the ductile nature of the shear deformation due to
the combined effect of dowel action by the transverse steel rein-
forcing bars and the interlocking of aggregates across the crack.
Group 2 Tests on EB Specimens
Shear Blocks Bonded with EB CFRP Plates „CDC3,
CDC4, and CDC5…
The shear-load/shear-slip behavior is shown in Fig. 12. The maxi-
mum shear load at failure ranged from 560 to 753 kN, which is a
substantial increase 共62 to 116%兲 in the shear capacity over that
of the unplated control specimen of 349 kN. The initial response
 Table 1. Test Details
Serial Plate Plate configuration dtop sstrip
number Test type 共length⫻ width⫻ thickness兲 共mm兲 共mm兲
Group 1: control specimen
1 CDC2 No plates Reference test — —
Group 2: specimens with externally bonded plates to the sides at 90°
2 CDC3 CFRP 500 mm⫻ 160 mm⫻ 1.2 mm 170 —
3 CDC4 CFRP 500 mm⫻ 240 mm⫻ 1.2 mm 130 —
4 CDC5 CFRP 500 mm⫻ 320 mm⫻ 1.2 mm 90 —
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5 CDC8 Steel 500 mm⫻ 160 mm⫻ 3 mm 170 —

6 CDC9 Steel 500 mm⫻ 240 mm⫻ 3 mm 130 —
7 CDC10 Steel 500 mm⫻ 320 mm⫻ 3 mm 90 —
Group 3: specimens with near surface mounted plates to the sides at 90°
8 CDC6 CFRP strips 500 mm⫻ 20 mm⫻ 1.2 mm 167 166
共4 strips—2 on each side兲
9 CDC15 CFRP strips 500 mm⫻ 20 mm⫻ 1.2 mm 125 125
共6 strips—3 on each side兲
10 CDC7 CFRP strips 500 mm⫻ 20 mm⫻ 1.2 mm 100 100
共8 strips—4 on each side兲
11 CDC14 HSS strips 500 mm⫻ 20 mm⫻ 1.2 mm 100 100
共8 strips—4 on each side兲
12 CDC11 HSS strips 500 mm⫻ 20 mm⫻ 1.2 mm 72.5 71
共12 strips—6 on each side兲
Group 4: specimens with near surface mounted plates inclined to the sides at 45°
13 CDC12 CFRP strips 500 mm⫻ 20 mm⫻ 1.2 mm 353 150
共4 strips—2 on each side兲
14 CDC13 CFRP strips 500 mm⫻ 20 mm⫻ 1.2 mm 353 50
共8 strips—4 on each side兲

in Fig. 12 is similar to that of the unplated control specimen in
Fig. 11. However, after reaching their peak loads in Fig. 12 at a
displacement of approximately 1 mm, the EB plated sections rap-
idly debonded in a brittle fashion up to a shear displacement of
just over 2 mm, after which they behaved as the unplated speci-
men in a ductile fashion. Hence, EB CFRP plated sections fail in
a brittle fashion without any ductility. Typical debonding failure is
shown in Fig. 13共a兲, where it can be seen in Fig. 13共b兲 that the
failure zone is in the adjacent concrete. A typical variation in the
plate strain is shown in Fig. 14 where, as would be expected, the
strains rapidly reduce on debonding. The maximum magnitude of
the strain recorded in the plates bonded to the three specimens
ranged from 1,762 to 2,306 ␮s, which is only about 10– 15% that
of the rupture strain of the plate 共17,200 ␮s兲.
Shear Blocks Bonded with EB Mild Steel Plates
„CDC8–CDC10…
The EB steel plates behaved in a similar fashion as those of the
EB FRP plates. As can be seen in Fig. 15 when compared with
Fig. 13, the debonding mechanism was the same. The shear-load/
shear-slip response in Fig. 16 was brittle and there was also a
substantial increase in the shear capacity from 650 kN to 848 kN,
i.e., an increase over the unplated section from 86 to 143%; the
shear load carried by the steel plated specimens is only 15% more
than the corresponding CFRP plated specimen, although the area
of cross section of the steel plates was 2.5 times more than that of
the CFRP plates. The maximum strains recorded in the plates
varied from 720 to 906 ␮s, which was about 30 to 40% of the
plate yield strain 共2,345 ␮s兲.

Fig. 5. Specimens with near surface mounted CFRP strips to the

Fig. 4. Details of externally bonded plated specimens sides at 90°

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Fig. 6. NSM CFRP strips to the sides inclined at 45°—CDC12

Group 3 Tests on NSM Specimens

Blocks Bonded with High Strength Steel „HSS… Strips

„CDC11 and CDC14…
Both CDC11 and CDC14 behaved in a brittle fashion as can be
seen in Fig. 17. A typical failed specimen is shown in Fig. 18
where it was found at the end of the tests that the high yield NSM
strips had fractured. The increase in the shear capacity due to Fig. 8. Test setup
the NSM plating was 54 and 70%. At the peak load for Speci-
men CDC14, the shear displacement was 0.46 mm and the crack
separation was 0.30 mm, which is similar to that of the unplated
control beam.

Blocks Bonded with CFRP Strips „CDC6, CDC7,

and CDC15…
The shear-load/shear-slip response is shown in Fig. 17. It can be
seen that all three FRP NSM specimens 共CDC6, CDC7, and
CDC15兲 had substantial ductile plateaus, which is in contrast to
the brittle behaviors of the two high yield NSM specimens
共CDC11 and CDC14兲; this was an unexpected and surprising re-
sult, as FRP is a brittle material compared with steel, which is
ductile. However, it should be noted that the ductility is still not
of the same magnitude as that of the unplated specimen in Fig. 11,
although still substantial compared to EB plate results shown in
Figs. 12 and 16. The increase in capacity due to the NSM CFRP
plating ranged from 66 to 108%. These specimens exhibited a
unique failure mechanism as can be seen in Fig. 19, where the
axial force in the NSM FRP strips induced a herringbone forma-
tion of cracks, which is a classical crack distribution associated
with shear forces in concrete. It is also worth noting in Fig. 20共a兲,
the large shear slip of the specimen, which was accommodated by
the FRP deformation, which can be clearly seen; this eventually

Fig. 7. NSM CFRP strips to the sides inclined at 45°—CDC13 Fig. 9. Test setup and instrumentation 共a兲 NSM plated; 共b兲 EB plated

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 Table 2. Test Results
Serial Vmax Slip at Vmax Separation at Maximum plate strain
number Test 共kN兲 共mm兲 Vmax 共mm兲 共␮s兲
Group 1: control specimen
1 CDC2 348.7 0.66 0.41 Control specimen
Group 2: specimens with externally bonded plates to the sides at 90°
2 CDC3 560 0.44 Not measured 1,875 共side1兲
2,331 共side2兲
3 CDC4 681.9 0.87 0.48 2,306 共side1兲
2,305 共side2兲
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4 CDC5 753.1 0.65 0.34 1,762 共side1兲

2,343 共side2兲
5 CDC8 650.3 0.19 0.29 720 共side1兲
631 共side2兲
6 CDC9 784.5 0.34 0.24 779 共side1兲
906 共side2兲
7 CDC10 848.3 1.16 0.3 820 共side1兲
609 共side2兲
Group 3: specimens with near surface mounted plates to the sides at 90°
8 CDC6 603.9 0.48 0.24 9,703 共top兲
16,801 共bottom兲
9 CDC15 579.1 1.13 0.84 Not measured
10 CDC7 725 9.0 3.84 8,710 共top兲
9,535 共bottom兲
11 CDC14 537.7 0.46 0.29 Not measured
12 CDC11 593.2 0.87 0.49 4,413 共top兲
5,078 共bottom兲
Group 4: specimens with near surface mounted plates inclined to the sides at 45°
13 CDC12 561.6 2.14 0.82 11,723
14 CDC13 680 1.04 0.57 9,909

caused some FRP fiber fracture as can be seen in Fig. 20共b兲. blocks with straight strips 共CDC6 and CDC7兲. This can be
Substantial strains were recorded as can be seen in Fig. 21 up to attributed to premature debonding along the plate ends, as shown
56% of the fracture strain. in Fig. 22.

Group 4 Tests on Specimens with Inclined CFRP Analysis of Test Results

Strips „CDC12 and CDC13…
The shear load carried by the initially cracked RC shear blocks
The maximum shear loads carried by these two blocks were 562 was increased by the various plating schemes by 54–143%. In the
and 680 kN, which were about 8% less than the corresponding case of the externally bonded 共EB兲 plated specimens, failure oc-

Fig. 10. CDC2—failure of the specimen Fig. 11. CDC2—shear load versus shear displacement

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Fig. 12. EBP specimens with CFRP—shear load versus shear

displacement Fig. 15. Debonding of specimen CDC9 with an EB steel plate

Fig. 13. Debonding of specimen CDC3 with EB CFRP plates 共a兲 EB

plate debonding; 共b兲 failure in concrete

Fig. 16. EBP specimens with steel plates—shear load versus shear
displacement

Fig. 17. NSMP specimens with straight strips—shear load versus

Fig. 14. CDC3—shear load versus strain in EB plates shear displacement

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Fig. 18. CDC14—failure of CDC14 with NSM high yield strips 共a兲
failure of specimen; 共b兲 crack formation
curred due to the debonding of the EB plates at their peak shear
loads and the shear load dropped abruptly once the debonding
occurred. The brittle nature of the failure in the EB plated speci-
mens is indicated by the maximum magnitudes of the strain re-
corded; in the case of EB CFRP plates, it was only about 10–15%
that of the rupture strain of the CFRP while in the case of the steel
plated EBP blocks, it was about 25–40% that of the yield strain of
the steel plate. In contrast, the blocks with NSM strips with high
strength steel strips failed by rupture of the NSM steel strips
while the NSM blocks with CFRP strips exhibited a ductile be-
havior due to debonding in a controlled manner as evidenced by
the maintenance in shear load after attaining the peak shear load
and the large magnitudes of the plate strains, which varied be-
tween 55–90% of the CFRP rupture strain. It is worth noting that
the area of the NSM plate needed to increase the shear capacity
by a similar magnitude is only half that of the corresponding EB
specimen. This is due to the fact that the surface area of the NSM
strip bonded to the concrete is twice that of an EB plate of the
same configuration. Therefore, the enhanced shear capacity can
be attributed to the bond strength of the plates in the same way as
the contribution of the axial strength of the reinforcing bars to the
shear capacity.
The mean shear strength of cracked shear planes from shear
tests conducted on prisms with conventional reinforcing bars is
given by the following equation 共Mattock and Hawkins 1972;
Mattock 1974; Oehlers and Bradford 1995兲:
vu = 2.7 + 0.8pr f yr 艋 0.3f c共MPa兲 共1兲
where f c⫽compression strength of the concrete; pr f yr⫽axial
strength of the reinforcement; pr⫽area of the reinforcement cross-
ing the shear plane as a proportion of the area of the shear plane;
and f yr⫽yield strength of the reinforcement.
Now, for the specific case of shear blocks with FRP/steel
plates, the shear strength is modified by adding the plate compo-
nent p p f bond to pr f yr in Eq. 共1兲, which is the contribution of the
Fig. 19. Failure pattern in NSMP specimens with straight CFRP
strips 共a兲 CDC15; 共b兲 CDC7
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Fig. 20. Shear deformation of NSM CFRP strip 共a兲 CDC6; 共b兲
CDC6:FRP fiber fracture
intermediate crack 共IC兲 debonding resistance of the EB or NSM
plates where p p⫽area of the plate crossing the shear plan as a
proportion of the area of the shear plan, and f bond⫽IC debonding
resistance of the plate.
It is worth noting that IC debonding is a failure mechanism
that occurs in RC structures strengthened with adhesively bonded
plates 共or sheets兲 when a crack in the RC section intersects the
plate such as the precracked plated blocks tested in this study.
The IC cracks form and propagate along the plate-to-concrete
interface, usually within the concrete substrate, and if these inter-
face cracks join up and reach the end of the plate, the strain in the
plate reduces and IC debonding is said to occur 共Oehlers and
Seracino 2004兲 and this is the phenomenon observed in the
present study as can be seen in Figs. 13, 15, 19, 20, and 22.
Moreover, IC debonding can also occur when transverse plates
are used in beams to directly increase the vertical shear capacity
共Mohamed Ali et al. 2005; Sharma et al. 2008; Teng et al. 2002兲.
There are numerous good equations for estimating the IC de-
bonding strength such as proposed by Chen and Teng 共2001兲
and Sharma et al. 共2006兲. However, the following generic
model developed at the University of Adelaide 共Oehlers 2006;
Oehlers et al. 2007; Seracino et al. 2007 a,b兲 was used to esti-
mate the mean IC debonding resistances of the plated specimens
used in the present study as it is applicable to both EB and NSM
plates:
Fig. 21. CDC6—shear load versus strain in external plates
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Fig. 22. Failure pattern in NSMP specimens with inclined CFRP

strips 共a兲 CDC12; 共b兲 CDC13

PIC = 0.85␸0.25
f fc
0.33冑
Lper共EA兲 p ⬍ 再 f ruptA p for FRP plates
f yA p for metallic plates
共2兲 Fig. 23. Peak experimental shear stress versus reinforcement axial
strength
where units of N and mm are used, f rupt⫽rupture strength of the
FRP plate; f y⫽yield strength of the metallic plate; f c⫽cylinder
Conclusions
strength of the concrete; ␸ f ⫽aspect ratio of the failure plane of
width and equals d f / b f . Here d f ⫽length of failure plane perpen-
It has been shown that the shear capacity across a critical diagonal
dicular to the concrete surface 共i.e., the depth into concrete cover兲
crack in a reinforced concrete element can be doubled when
and b f ⫽length of the failure plane parallel to the concrete surface.
strengthened with FRP strips or plates. The increase in the shear
In Eq. 共2兲, the perimeter of the failure plane Lper = 2d f + b f and
capacity depends on the intermediate crack debonding resistance
共EA兲 p⫽axial rigidity of the plate or strip.
of the FRP plates or strips and established techniques for de-
The analytical results are summarized in Table 3, where the
termining the increase in the shear capacity by Mattock and
bond strength f bond is equal to PIC / A p. The results are plotted in
Hawkins 共1972兲 have also been found to be applicable to FRP
Fig. 23, where the mean is given by the following equation:
strengthened specimens. Tests have also shown that critical
diagonal cracks strengthened with EB-FRP plates behave in a
vu = 2.1 + 0.85共pr f yr + p p f bond兲 共3兲 brittle fashion. In contrast, critical diagonal cracks strengthened
with NSM FRP strips behave in a ductile fashion, which bodes
which is in good agreement with Mattock’s results in Eq. 共1兲, well for using NSM FRP strips for the shear strengthening of RC
bearing in mind that the lower bound for Eq. 共1兲 can be obtained beams.
by substituting the constant 2.7 with 1.4 共Mattock 1974兲. Hence,
it can be concluded that the mathematical model developed by
Mattock and Hawkins 共1972兲 for the shear capacity across cracks Notation
reinforced with ductile steel reinforcing bars can also be applied
to cracks reinforced with brittle FRP strips. The following symbols are used in this paper:
A p ⫽ cross-sectional area of plate;
b f ⫽ length of the failure plane parallel to the concrete
surface;
Table 3. Experimental and Analytical Results
d f ⫽ length of failure plane perpendicular to the
Maximum Maximum concrete surface;
shear load shear strength dtop ⫽ distance between the top of the block and the top
共test兲 共test兲 PIC pr f yr + p p f bond
fiber of the plate;
Specimen kN MPa kN MPa
E p ⫽ Young’s modulus of the plate;
CDC1 349 2.8 — 1.47 f bond ⫽ bond stress of the concrete-plate interface;
CDC3 560 4.5 43.3 2.32 f c ⫽ concrete cylinder compressive strength;
CDC4 682 5.5 72.1 2.62 f ct ⫽ split cylinder tensile strength of concrete;
CDC5 753 6.0 89.3 2.90 f rupt ⫽ FRP rupture stress;
CDC8 650 5.2 93.5 2.96 f y ⫽ yield stress of a metallic plate;
CDC9 785 6.3 126.5 3.49 f yr ⫽ yield strength of the reinforcement;
CDC10 848 6.8 156.8 3.97 Lper ⫽ perimeter of IC debonding failure plane 共in cross
CDC6 604 4.8 216.4 3.20 section兲;
CDC15 579 4.6 324.5 4.06
PIC ⫽ maximum IC debonding resistance;
p p ⫽ area of the plate crossing the shear plane as a
CDC7 725 5.8 432.7 4.93
proportion of the area of the shear plan;
CDC14 538 4.3 127.5 2.49
pr ⫽ area of the reinforcement crossing the shear plane
CDC11 593 4.7 191.2 3.0
as a proportion of the area of the shear plan;

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 sstrip ⫽ effective spacing between the NSMP strips;
共vu兲char ⫽ characteristic shear strength of a cracked shear
plan;
␴nf ⫽ active normal stress; and
␸ f ⫽ aspect ratio.
References
Chen, J. F., and Teng, J. G. 共2001兲. “Anchorage strength models for
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