EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE FLEXURAL AND SHEAR CAPACITIES OF REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAMS ENHANCED WITH CARBON FIBRE REINFORCED POLYMER (CFRP) LAMINATES

📄 Project Abstract

In this research, experimental research was carried out to assess the flexural and shear capacities of RC beams strengthened with different amount of carbon fibre reinforced polymer laminates at the tension face and U-strips. Twelve rectangular RC beams of cross-sectional dimension 150x150x750mm were cast and three were un-strengthened and used as reference beams and the remaining nine were strengthened with different amount of CFRP varying from single to triple layers and all were tested to failure under three point bending test. The increase of ultimate strength provided by the bonded CFRP laminates was assessed and failure modes identified and compared to the un-strengthened RC beams. The results indicated that the flexural capacity of the beams were significantly improved as the amount of the laminates increases. The increment ranges from 20% to 52% for single to triple layers laminates and also the shear capacity of the strengthened beam increased as compared to the un-strengthene...