Abstract:
The flexural performance of heavily cracked reinforced concrete (RC) beams strengthened with different carbon fibrereinforcedpolymer(CFRP) arrangements was investigated. In total twelve CFRP-strengthened and non-strengthened RC beams with a span of 1900 mm were tested. : Initially, a transient load was applied to the non- strengthened beams until 3 mm wide cracks appeared. Load versus deflection was monitored. The wide cracks were filled using a high-pressure epoxy injection prior to strengthening. CFRP sheets were epoxy bonded to the tension face of the beams and CFRP U-strap anchors were introduced at discrete locations to mitigate both end and intermediate span debonding. All specimens were tested using a four point 1 bending configuration. On average, an 80% to 118% increase in flexural capacity was noted for
| the pre-cracked and repaired strengthened beams and the average strength gain noted for noncracked beams strengthened with CFRP was 37%. Cracked beams strengthened with CFRP with polymer U-shaped anchors showed optimum performance. De-bonding was the dominant failure mode in most tested specimens.
