Bond Strength of SRG Composite Systems Applied to Concrete

Steel reinforced grouts (SRGs) are currently innovative and alternative materials to FRPs to limit some of the shortcomings brought by epoxy resins. The effectiveness of the SRGs strengthening technique applied on concrete structures is affected by several parameters, among which surface roughness and anchoring length play an important role. Considering these two factors, the paper deals with single lap shear tests on concrete prisms strengthened using SRGs. Strengthened specimens were tested varying surface roughness (sand blasting, bush hammering and grinding), anchored lengths and number of reinforcement layers. An effective bond length was obtained, and the correlation between bond strength tests, failure modes, number of reinforcement layers and surface roughness is herein discussed.