Effectiveness of vacuum consolidation in bonding fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composites onto concrete surfaces

With the growing popularity of fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composites in strengthening of structures, new FRP processing methods are required to achieve reliable repairing systems. Application of vacuum resulted in production of components with sound mechanical properties, lower porosity level and accurate fibre management. While the application of automated composite processing techniques is fairly well developed in the aeronautics and marine industry for production of high performance composites, review of the literature reveals that civil infrastructure has still not been benefitted well from the advantages of these methods. This highlights the potential for a comprehensive research program to evaluate efficiency of automated processing techniques in strengthening of infrastructures. This paper will examine interface behaviour of various FRP-concrete connections processed with automated vacuum consolidated techniques as well as wet lay-up and pultrusion. Local and global interfacial characteristics of connections are investigated through series of single lap shear tests and the analytical formulation of governing equations are presented. In addition, the morphology of the composites is examined through scanning electron microscope (SEM). This research reveals the potential of automated FRP processing methods in achieving high level of bond characteristics for structural applications and provides recommendations for future research.