Several reinforced-concrete (RC) structural elements are subjected to cyclic load, such those employed in highway and railroad bridges and viaducts. The durability of these elements may be reduced as a consequence of fatigue, which mainly affects the steel reinforcement. The use of externally bonded (EB) fiber-reinforced cementitious matrix (FRCM) composites allows the moment capacity to be shared by the internal reinforcement and the EB composite, thus increasing the fatigue life of the strengthened RC member. The effectiveness of EB FRCM composites is related to the composite bond properties. However, limited research is currently available on the effect of fatigue on the bond behavior of FRCM-substrate joints. This study provides first the state of the art on the fatigue behavior of different FRCM composites bonded to a concrete substrate. Then, the fatigue bond behavior of a polyparaphenylene benzo-bisoxazole (PBO) FRCM is experimentally investigated using a modified beam test set-up. The use of this set-up provided information on the effect of fiber-matrix interface shear and normal stresses on the specimen fatigue bond behavior. The results showed that fatigue loading may induce premature debonding at the matrix-fiber interface and that stresses normal to the interface reduce the specimen fatigue life.
Keywords: bond; fatigue; fiber-reinforced cementitious matrix (FRCM); modified beam test.