Development of an anchor system for thick CFRP plates: Experimental and numerical investigation

Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) has been widely used in construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of civil infrastructures. Anchor system is one of the most crucial part ensuring load transfer between CFRP and the structures. However, for CFRP plate anchors, there is a contradiction between the anchor capacity and the anchor size. In this paper, a novel cylinder shaped anchor for thick CFRP plates was developed based on a detailed experimental and numerical study. The proposed anchor weighs only 6 kg and it can develop 98 % strength of the 3 mm thickness CFRP plates. The experimental and numerical results revealed that the anchor efficiency of the proposed cylinder shaped anchor system is significantly affected by wedge shape, anchor material, tooth shape, pretightening force and magnitude of interference. The proposed anchor system can significantly promote application of thick CFRP plates.