Peel Test for Characterization of Polymer Composite/Concrete Interface

Abstract

A specially designed peel test was used to characterize the interfacial bond strength between polymer composite and concrete. For the carbon fiber/epoxy composite and concrete system investigated in the present study, the crack was found to propagate mainly through the adhesive at the interface. The cohesive debonding inside the concrete substrate was found to be the least possible failure mode. A finite element analysis was also performed to calculate the strain energy release rate at the peel front in a peel test specimen and the numerical results agreed well with those predicted by a closed-form solution. The effect of different crack propagation paths along the composite/concrete interface on the fracture energy was predicted using the finite element analysis. The experimental observations in the present study were explained well by the numerical modeling.