Advanced XFEM Simulation of Pull-out and Debonding of Steel Bars and FRP-Reinforcements in Concrete Beams

Abstract

An innovative three-dimensional model is applied to the pull-out of steel bars and the debonding of FRP plates from concrete specimens. The shearing and opening modes at the interface of debonding is fully captured. The model is based on an innovative variant of the regularized eXtended Finite Element Method (XFEM) developed by the authors. In this method, the displacement discontinuity at the debonding surface is regularized and an internal length parameter is introduced. Besides smoothing the debonding, the regularized XFEM is particularly suitable for modelling steel fiber reinforced beams.