Use of steel anchors in FRP rehabilitation systems

Seismic rehabilitation using fibre reinforced polymers (FRP) has been recently extensively studied. The use of advanced composites has been applied to structural elements such as beams, columns, beam-column joints and walls. In several rehabilitation schemes there is a need to anchor the FRP sheets using steel or FRP anchors. Anchors may be needed in the confinement of beam-column joints and end column in walls. The objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of steel and FRP anchors. Experimental programs were conducted on the rehabilitation of columns, beam-column joints and structural walls using advanced composites. FRP and steel anchors were used. Steel anchors were instrumented with strain gauges to measure the tension force developed in the anchors. It was concluded that the steel and FRP anchors performed equally well under tension. However, the steel anchors were capable of resisting shear forces while the FRP anchors failed in shear resulting in abrupt failure of the rehabilitation system. Copyright © (2010) by Earthquake Engineering Research Institute.