ABSTRACT

CFRP attachment demonstrated the great potential of this approach in fatigue crack repair. Wu et al. (2012) selected four different retrofitting materials, including high-modulus CFRP plate (HM-CFRP), high-strength CFRP plate (HSCFRP), Steel-Wire Basalt-Fibre-Reinforced Polymer plate (SW-BFRP) and welded steel plate. Test results showed that HM-CFRP exhibited the best fatigue performance while SW-BFRP was the most cost effective choice. In Hmidan et al. (2015), three dimensional finite element models were developed to calculate the Stress Intensity Factor (SIF) at the crack front of wide-flange steel girders strengthened with CFRP sheets. A broad range of variables were taken into consideration, such as flange-toweb area ratio, crack depth-to-height ratio, CFRPto-steel area ratio, CFRP-to-steel modular ratio, and CFRP-bond width. Corrections factors for SIF were derived based on the regression analysis.