Dynamic aspects of the debonding failure mechanism in FRP plated beams with redundancy

The debonding failure is one of the most critical phenomena that characterize the structural behavior of FRP plated beams. This phenomenon is particularly interesting since the debonding mechanism is dynamic by nature. It is governed by an abrupt and brittle mechanism that rapidly changes the layout of the beam and drives the structure into the dynamic regime. In the context of the dynamic process, this paper looks into the effect of redundancy on the dynamic features of the debonding mechanism. The investigation adopts an analytical/numerical approach and compares three structural layouts. The first one is a simply supported beam whereas the other two are statically indeterminate clamped-supported beams. The analysis explores the effect of structural scheme on the critical debonding load and mainly on the pattern of the dynamic evolution and movement of the debonding front. The comparison reveals that providing the beam with a level of redundancy significantly changes this pattern and involves new aspects that are not observed in the simply supported beam.