Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Reinforced Concrete Beam Retrofitted by CFRP Sheets

Currently, extensive studies are carried out on polymers reinforced with FRP sheets as reinforcement of structures both internally and externally. One of the conventional retrofitting methods for reinforced concrete beams is flexural strengthening of beams with CFRP materials. In this study, a full scale reinforced concrete beam was constructed and evaluated under four-point flexural test. Afterward, a same beam was retrofitted in flexural region by monolayer of CFRP. These experimental tests were carried out to be the basis of verification for numerical specimens. For numerical study, ABAQUS software was used for modeling and analysis of totally five retrofitted reinforced concrete beams. The results show that the fully retrofitted beam with CFRP laminate and U-shape wraps has the best performance in terms of capacity and delay for emergence of cracks. Its worth to say, flexural strengthening in the middle of beam has not notable result in capacity, though, could convey the failure mechanism to out of pure bending region.