Strengthening of ferritic stainless steel tubular structural members using FRP subjected to Two-Flange-Loading

Cold-formed stainless steel tubular structural members which may experience web crippling failure due to localise concentrated loads or reactions are investigated. A series of tests on fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) strengthening of cold-formed stainless steel tubular structural members subjected to End-Two-Flange and Interior-Two-Flange loading conditions is presented. The strengthening only applied to a localise area of the members under concentrated load. A total of 58 web crippling tests were conducted. The investigation mainly focused on the effects of different surface treatment, different adhesive, and FRP for strengthening of stainless steel tubular sections against web crippling. The behaviour of stainless steel members strengthened by different widths of FRP plate against web crippling has been also investigated in this study. The test specimens consisted of ferritic stainless steel EN 1.4003 square and rectangular hollow sections. Two different surface treatments were considered. Furthermore, six different adhesives and six different FRPs were also considered in this study. The properties of adhesive and FRP as well as the bonding between the FRP and stainless steel tube have significant influence on the effectiveness of the strengthening. Most of the strengthened specimens were failed by debonding of FRP plates form the stainless steel tubes. Six different failure modes were observed in the tests, namely the adhesion, cohesion, combination of adhesion and cohesion, interlaminar failure of FRP plate, FRP delaminating failure and web crippling failure. The failure loads, failure modes, and the load-web deformation behaviour of the ferritic stainless steel sections are presented in this study. It was found that the web crippling capacity of ferritic stainless steel tubular sections may increase up to 51% using FRP strengthening. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.