Strengthening Cracked Steel Plates with Shape Memory Alloy Patches: Numerical and Experimental Investigations.

To investigate the retarding effect of bonding the shape memory alloy (SMA) patches on crack propagation in steel plates, both numerical and experimental analyses were conducted in the present study. A compact tension (CT) model was developed to clarify the feasibility of bonding the SMA patch to the reinforcement of the mode Ⅰ, mode Ⅱ, and mode Ⅲ cracks. On this basis, parametric analysis was conducted to investigate the strengthening parameters, i.e., the bonding area, the thickness, and the strengthening angle of the SMA patch. Subsequently, fatigue tests on the unreinforced steel plate and cracked steel plate strengthened by the SMA patches were conducted. The monitored stress variation, crack propagation behavior, and fatigue fracture surfaces were analyzed. Findings are meaningful to the application of the SMA reinforcement method in practical engineering.