There is significant concern in the engineering community regarding the safety and effectiveness of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) strengthening of RC structures because of the potential for brittle debonding failures. In this paper, previous research programs conducted by other researchers were reviewed in terms of the debonding failure of FRP laminates externally attached to concrete. This review article also discusses the influences on bond strength and failure modes as well as the existing experimental research and developed equations. Based on the review, several important conclusions were re-emphasized, including the finding that the bond transfer strength is proportional to the concrete compressive strength; that there is a certain bond development length that has to be exceeded; and that thinner adhesive layers in fact lower the chances of a concrete-adhesive interface failure. It is also found that there exist uncertainty and inaccuracy in the available models when compared with the experimental data and inconsistency among the models. This demonstrates the need for continuing research and compilation of data on the topic of FRP's bond strength.

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Predicting the damage to a concrete panel under impact loading is difficult due to the complexity of the impact mechanism of concrete. Based on the experimental results obtained by various researchers, the energies involved in the impact mechanism are classified into seven categories: Kinetic energy, deformed energy of a projectile, elastic penetration resistance energy of the panel, overall deformed energy of the panel, spalling-resistant energy, tunneling-resistant energy, and scabbing-resistant energy. Using these impact mechanisms and the energy conservation law, a new energy-based penetration depth formula is proposed to predict the penetration depth. This is validated using 402 impact test results, which include those with high-strength concrete, ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC), or steel fiber-reinforced concrete, those under very high-velocity impact, and those with a very low ratio of target panel thickness to projectile diameter. It is found that the new impact formula predicts the penetration depth quite well.

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This paper presents a numerical study examining the dynamic response and resistance mechanism of reinforced concrete (RC) columns strengthened with or without carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) wraps under lateral impact loading by using the software LS-DYNA. First, the information of eight column models was briefly introduced as part of the laboratory experimental program from the literature. Secondly, finite element (FE) models were established in terms of the geometries of impact tests. Then, a detailed comparison between numerical results and experimental results was made, and FE models showed a relatively high simulation accuracy. Subsequently, a series of parametric analyses were carried out with a focus on the effects of axial compression ratio, the boundary condition at the column top, the layer number of CFRP wraps, and the impact velocity and impact height on the dynamic responses of plain and strengthened columns. The results demonstrated that the CFRP retrofit mechanism was not activated during the initial Stage-I when the impact force rapidly increased to the first peak and then decreased to zero. CFRP strengthening came into play in the second stage, Stage-II, and affected the response of the shear force and moment along the column height, as well as had a great influence on the control of shear damage. The dynamic response of RC columns was more sensitive to the impact velocity than to other parameters, regardless of whether CFRP wrapping was applied. The axial compression ratio would have a different influence on the column failure mode if the impact velocity was varied. The variation in impact height and boundary condition at the column top had little influence on the damage mode of strengthened columns.