IC debonding resistance of groups of FRP NSM strips in reinforced concrete beams

The use of fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) externally bonded (EB) plates in the form of pultruded and wet lay-up plates is now generally accepted as an efficient and unobtrusive technique for retrofitting reinforced concrete structures and is applied worldwide. However, EB plates, and in particular EB pultruded plates, tend to debond at strains much lower than their fracture strains. An alternative technique of adhesively bonding pultruded plates or strips in narrow grooves sawn into the concrete cover, that is near surface mounted (NSM) plates or strips, is now gradually gaining acceptance as tests have shown that the debonding strains can be much higher than that for EB plates. However, tests have also shown that NSM plates can interact with adjacent parallel NSM plates to cause intermediate crack (IC) debonding of groups of NSM strips at reduced strengths. This paper develops a mathematical model for the IC debonding resistance of groups of NSM plates for use in the flexural and shear strengthening of reinforced concrete beams.