Experimental and numerical investigation on the tensile behavior of PBO FRCM composites with textile lap splice

Fiber-reinforced cementitious matrix (FRCM) composites are comprised of high strength textiles embedded within inorganic matrices. Due to their peculiar mechanical and physical properties, they represent a valid alternative to fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites for strengthening existing reinforced concrete and masonry members. Depending on the textile and matrix adopted, FRCM composites provide a peculiar mechanical behavior, which shall be assessed to obtain the mechanical properties to be used in the design of FRCM-strengthened members. Since FRCM can be applied to large surfaces, reinforcing textile lap splice is needed to guarantee the continuity of the composite mechanical performance. Thus, the behavior of FRCM with textile lap splice should be properly investigated. In this paper, the tensile behavior of a polyparaphenilene benzobisoxazole (PBO) FRCM with continuous and overlapped textiles is studied using clevis-grip tensile tests. The experimental results are modeled using two finite element approaches, which accounted for the non-linear behavior of materials and for the interface between matrix and textile fiber. The results obtained showed that clevis-grip tests can be used to determine the minimum lap splice length needed to obtain the full composite load-carrying capacity and confirmed the validity of the method previously proposed by the authors to estimate such lap splice length.