Simulation durability of GFRP-SFRSC concrete adhesively bonded connection in Abaqus

In this tutorial, the Simulation durability of GFRP-SFRSC concrete adhesively bonded connection in Abaqus has been done. The GFRP beam and the steel fiber-reinforced self-compacting concrete (SFRSCC) are modeled as three-dimensional solid parts. You can see a figure of the assembled parts below

Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) materials are becoming increasingly considered as an alternative to traditional materials for civil engineering structural applications, due to their high strength, low self-weight, ease of installation, electromagnetic transparency, and good chemical and corrosion resistance. With low maintenance requirements, these materials offer a promising alternative for the development of more durable and sustainable structures. Pultruded glass-fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) profiles combine the above-mentioned advantages with moderately low manufacturing costs. However, GFRP profiles present low elasticity and shear moduli, being relatively deformable and prone to instability phenomena

To overcome those limitations, several hybrid structural solutions have been proposed, combining GFRP profiles with concrete elements. In some hybrid solutions, adhesively bonded (epoxy) connections are used to enhance the composite action, thus preventing the occurrence of interconnection slip at the GFRP-concrete interface. In some cases, adhesive bonding is complemented with mechanical connection systems, which generally provide a negligible contribution to the stiffness, but can act as a redundant (“backup”) connection in case of adhesive failure or long-term degradation. An example of such a hybrid system is the São Silvestre footbridge, which comprises two pultruded GFRP girders adhesively bonded (with epoxy) and bolted to a very thin deck made of steel-fibre reinforced self-compacting concrete (SFRSCC)

The Concrete Damage Plasticity material model is a good choice to define the non-linear behavior of the SFRSCC slab. To define GFRP, the elastic data as an engineering constant is considered. The dynamic explicit step with cohesive interaction as the behavior of the interface between concrete and GFRP is selected.  The proper boundaries and mesh are assigned to all parts

After the simulation, all results such as stress, strain, tension damage, force-displacement diagram, and others are available. You can see some figures of the results below