Shear peeling of steel plates adhesively bonded to the sides of reinforcedconcrete beams

A convenient and efficient method for strengthening and stiffening existing reinforced concrete beams is to adhesively bond steel plates to their surf aces. However, tests have shown that adhesively bonded plates tend to peel away prematurely due to flexure and shear, Flexural peeling can be prevente d by terminating the plate at a region of zero moment, in which case the pl ate is prone to shear peeling which is the subject of this paper. Eight tes ts on the shear peeling of side-plated beams are described, and design proc edures are developed for predicting the shear peeling resistance. These pro cedures can be used to ensure that reinforced concrete beams that are retro fitted by adhesive bonding steel plates to their sides do not debond premat urely.