Shear Strengthening of Continuous Reinforced Concrete Beams Using Externally Bonded Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Sheets

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation on the response of continuous reinforced concrete (RC) beams with shear deficiencies, strengthened with externally bonded carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets. The experimental program consisted of nine full-scale, two-span, continuous beams with rectangular cross section. The tested beams were grouped into three series. Three beams, one from each series, were not strengthened and taken as reference beams, whereas, six beams were strengthened using different schemes. The variables investigated in this study included the amount of steel shear reinforcement, amount of CFRP, wrapping schemes, and ply combination. The experimental results indicated that the contribution of externally bonded CFRP to the shear capacity of continuous RC beams is significant and is dependent on the tested variables. In addition, the test results were used to validate shear design algorithms. The proposed algorithms show good correlation with the test results and provided conservative estimates.