Post-Repair Performance of Corroded Bond Critical RC Beams Repaired with CFRP

Abstract

Synopsis: Presented in this paper is an investigation on the ability of externally applied fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) laminates to maintain bond of steel reinforcement in concrete members subjected to corrosion. Specimens were transversely confined with CFRP laminates in the bond zone after being subjected to various degrees of corrosion ranging from 2 to 10% theoretical mass loss. Some specimens were further corroded after repair to assess the effects of further structural deterioration. Control beams were subjected to minor amounts of corrosion and tested to failure without repair. Test results showed that CFRP wrapping was able to confine the corrosion cracking resulting in an overall flexural failure for all repaired specimens unlike the brittle bond splitting failures of the control specimens. CFRP confinement proved less effective at higher levels of pre-repair corrosion. Initial amounts of post-repair corrosion enhanced the performance of the CFRP repair by increasing the confining pressure; however the concrete rapidly deteriorated as the corrosion increased. In general, CFRP confinement was found to provide superior bond performance with respect to the unrepaired members indicating the potential future use in field applications of bond repair.