PHYSICAL MODELLING OF TIME DEPENDENT PULLOUT BEHAVIOR ASSOCIATED WITH GFRP ANCHOR

The GFRP anchors have advantages over the steel anchors in terms of better corrosion resistance, higher strength-to-weight ratio and so forth, in recent years, they have been gradually utilized to stabilize slopes and other geo-structures. However, stability condition of these geo-structures may be significantly affected by the time-dependent mechanical characteristics of GFRP anchors. According to the pullout mechanism of GFRP anchors, a visco-elastic model which is based on the Merchant rheological model, is proposed to describe the time dependent pullout behavior of GFRP anchors. The finite difference method is used to solve the third-order partial governing equation derived from the proposed model. The distributions of tensile force, shear stress, and displacement and their variations with time are calculated. Furthermore, a parametric study is conducted to study the influence of model parameters on the time-dependent pullout behavior of GFRP anchors. Conclusions relevant to the reinforcement mechanism of GFRP anchor are drawn subsequently.