Anchorage of Perfobond Leiste shaped shear connector composite dowel with carbon fibre reinforced polymer

Abstract This study focuses on the pullout behaviour of composite structures having closed shape geometry Perfobond Leiste (PBL) shear connectors wrapped with carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP). Eight test specimens having PBL connectors with and without CFRP were used to perform the pullout tests. These tests were performed under static loading, and the concrete thickness and the embedment depth were the parameters used to evaluate the effects of CFRP jacketing on the pullout strength. The responses, that is, the initial cracking load, the ultimate pullout capacity and the displacement, were investigated. Failure modes were analysed, and a new model was proposed because of the unavailability of suitable models for PBL shear connectors with CFRP. The diagonally bonded CFRP jackets significantly delayed the onset of cracking and showed superior performance in terms of deformation capacity and ultimate pullout strength. A strength model was proposed to predict the ultimate pullout capacity of CFRP-confined PBL composite dowels. Overall, the study demonstrated that it is more efficient to use the proposed CFRP-confined PBL shear connectors than other connectors in practical engineering applications, given the improved deformation capacity and the ultimate shear strength.