Experimental and numerical investigation on the Steel reinforced Grout (SRG) composite-to-concrete bond

: In the paper, the bond between a composite strengthening system consisting of steel textiles embedded into an inorganic matrix (Steel Reinforced Grout, SRG) and the concrete substrate, is investigated. An experimental investigation was carried out on medium density SRG specimens; direct shear tests were conducted on twenty specimens to analyze the effect of the bond length, and the age of the composite strip on the SRG-to-concrete bond behavior. In particular, the tests were conducted considering five bond length (100, 200, 250, 330 and 450 mm), and the composite strip’s age 14th, 21st, and 28th day after the bonding. Test results in the form of peak load, failure modes and, bond-slip diagrams were presented and discussed. A Finite Element model developed through commercial software to replicate the behavior of SRG strips, is also proposed. The effectiveness of the proposed numerical model was validated by the comparison between its predictions and experimental results.