Extensive research work has been performed on shear strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) beams retrofitted with externally bonded carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) in form of strips. However, most of this research work is experimental and very scarce studies are available on numerical modelling of such beams due to truly challenging nature of modelling concrete shear cracking and interfacial interaction between components of such beams. This paper presents an appropriate model for RC beam and to simulate its cracking without numerical computational difficulties, convergence and solution degradation problems. Modelling of steel and CFRP and their interfacial interaction with concrete are discussed. Finally, commercially available non-linear finite element software ABAQUS is used to validate the developed finite element model with key tests performed on full scale T-beams with and without CFRP retrofitting, taken from previous extensive research work. The modelling parameters for bonding behavior of CFRP with special anchors are also proposed. The results presented in this research work illustrate that appropriate modelling of bond behavior of all the three types of interfaces is important in order to correctly simulate the shear behavior of RC beams strengthened with CFRP.
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