Effect of modulus of elasticity and thickness of the CFRP plate on the performance of a novel anchor for structural retrofitting and rehabilitation applications

This article presents the effect of the thickness, the modulus of elasticity and the strength of the carbon fibre-reinforced-polymer (CFRP) plate on the CFRP-metal couples for the structural rehabilitation and retrofitting applications. This article illustrates the development and assessment of a novel prestressing anchor to grip the commercially available 50 mm × 1.4 mm CFRP plates. This is a high-modulus CFRP plate with a modulus of elasticity of 210,000 MPa and an ultimate tensile strength of 2900 MPa. The new anchor was made of 22-gauge (0.71 mm thick) annealed copper and heat-treated H13 steel. An ABAQUS-based finite element advanced simulation model of the bolted anchor was developed to analyze, optimize and design the new anchor. A detailed manufacturability study was conducted. An experimental investigation was carried out to authenticate the numerical simulation results. The average failure load of this new anchor was 231 ± 6 kN, which was more than 100% of the guaranteed ultimate tensile strength of the high-modulus CFRP plate (203 kN). The failure mode was the sudden tensile failure of the CFRP plate outside of the anchor.