High performance and cost-effective hybrid steel/CFRP joints using bi-adhesive technique for the repair of metallic infrastructures

The use of the brittle adhesives commonly adopted in construction industry do not provide the best performance for steel structures. CFRP/Steel joint bonded with extremely tough adhesive achieve much higher strength and ductility. However, tough adhesives are not developed for the construction industry and their cost may question the feasibility of this repair solution. This paper presents a new high performance and cost-effective hybrid bi-adhesive CFRP/Steel joint by using an extremely tough adhesive in critical location and the brittle adhesive in the remaining areas of the adhesive layer. The role of the tough adhesive in the proposed joint is fundamentally different from previous bi-adhesive joint proposed in the literature as it contributes mainly in shear. Experimental testing and finite element analysis are conducted. The Digital image correlation (DIC) is used to measure the strain field on the CFRP. The results revealed that the proposed CFRP/Steel hybrid joint achieve higher strength than the joints with brittle adhesive. The use of the tough adhesive in the bi-adhesive joint reduces the concentration of shear stresses significantly. As little quantities of the tough adhesive are required to manufacture the proposed bi-adhesive joint, it deemed to be as cost-effective.