PSI - Issue 2_A

Stefano Bennati et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 2 (2016) 2682–2689 S. Bennati, D. Colonna and P.S. Valvo / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2016) 000–000

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Fig. 1. FRP-strengthened steel beam subjected to uniformly distributed load.

We denote with b b and h b respectively the width and height of the beam cross section, with b f and t f respectively the width and thickness of the FRP laminate, and with t a the thickness of the adhesive layer (Fig. 2). Furthermore, we indicate with A b and I b the area and moment of inertia of the cross section of the beam, respectively, and with A f = b f t f the area of the cross section of the laminate.

Fig. 2. Cross section of the strengthened beam.

Thanks to the symmetry of the problem, it is possible to limit the analysis to the left-hand half of the system, by introducing appropriate restraints on the axis of symmetry (Fig. 3). The generic cross section of the beam is identified by a curvilinear abscissa, s , measured from the anchor point of the laminate, C . Similarly, the generic cross section of the laminate is identified by a curvilinear abscissa, s *, also measured from the anchor point, C . We denote with w b ( s ) the axial displacements of points at the beam bottom surface and with w f ( s *) the axial displacements of the laminate cross sections.

Fig. 3. Mechanical model of the strengthened beam.