Localized effects in walls strengthened with externally bonded composite materials

Dvir Elmalich, Oded Rabinovitch

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The localized effects and, particularly, the stress and deformation concentrations near edges, mortar joints, and irregular points in walls strengthened with externally bonded composite materials are studied. To quantify the structural behavior and to cope with the coupling of large-scale and localized-scale effects, a substructuring procedure that uses a specially tailored high-order finite element is developed. The specially tailored element accounts for the bidirectional behavior of the wall and for the interfacial interaction between the adhesively bonded components. The formulation uses a first-order sheardeformation orthotropic plate theory for the independent modeling of the existing wall and the composite layers and a high-order theory for the modeling of the displacement fields of the adhesive layers. A static condensation-based substructuring procedure is used for the formulation of a superelement. The computational strength and the convergence characteristics of the highorder superelement formulation are demonstrated numerically. The superelement formulation is used to study the localized effects in a masonry assemblage strengthened with composite materials. This unique structural form is characterized by a vast dispersion of geometrical and elastic scales, presence of irregular regions, and concentrations of stresses. These localized three-dimensional (3D) stress fields are characterized and their sensitivity to various mechanical and geometrical properties is assessed. Conclusions regarding the impact of the localized effects are provided.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1112-1126
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume138
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2012

Keywords

  • Composite materials
  • Finite-element method
  • Masonry
  • Numerical analysis
  • Stress analysis
  • Stress concentration
  • Structural analysis

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Mechanics of Materials
  • Mechanical Engineering

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