Analysis of the nonlinear creep behavior of concrete/FRP-bonded assemblies

This paper investigates the creep behavior of adhesively bonded concrete/fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) joints, through experimental and modeling approaches. The first part proposes a methodology for predicting the long-term creep response of the bulk epoxy adhesive; such a procedure consists of (1) performing short-term tensile creep experiments at various temperatures and stress levels, (2) building the creep compliance master curves according to the time–temperature superposition principle in order to assess the long-term evolution for each stress level, and (3) developing a rheological model whose parameters are identified by fitting the previous master curves. In our case, it was found that master curves (and, consequently, parameters of the rheological model) are dependent on the applied stress level, highlighting the nonlinear creep behavior of the bulk epoxy adhesive. Therefore, evolution laws of the model parameters were established to account for this stress dependence. The second part focuses on the creep response of the concrete/FRP assembly in the framework of a double lap joint shear test configuration. Experiments showed that creep of the adhesive layer leads to a progressive evolution of the strain profile along the lap joint, after only one month of sustained load at 30% of the ultimate strength. Besides, a finite element approach involving the abovementioned rheological model was used to predict the nonlinear creep behavior of the bonded assembly. It confirmed that creep modifies the stress distribution along the lap joint, especially the stress value at the loaded end, and leads to a slight increase in the effective load transfer length. This result is of paramount interest since the transfer length is a key parameter in the design of FRP-bonded strengthening systems. Moreover, instantaneous and long-term calculated strain profiles were found in fair agreement with experimental data, validating the modeling approach.