Effective Bond Length of FRP Sheets Externally Bonded to Concrete

Strengthening and repair of concrete structures using externally bonded fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite sheets has been popular around the world during the last two decades. However, premature failure due to debonding of the FRP is one of the important issues still to be resolved. Numerous research studies have dealt with the debonding problem in terms of Effective Bond Length (EBL), however, determination of this length has not yet been completely assessed. This paper summarizes previous works on the EBL and proposes a new relationship of the EBL with the FRP stiffness based on the existing experimental data collected in this study.