Experimental studies on flexural behavior of CFRP retrofitted concrete members

The flexural behavior of rectangular concrete beams strengthened with externally bonded Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) laminates was studied by varying the number of plates bonded to their bottom tensile face. The increases in strength and stiffness of the beams provided by the bonded plates, over control beam without CFRP plates, were evaluated. Failure loads of the beams were determined by the ACI strain compatibility method using a FORTRAN software developed for this purpose. The predicted collapsed load agrees reasonably well with the actual failure load. Precracked solid and voided slab bridge models retrofitted with varying number of CFRP laminates were used to evaluate their contribution to the flexural resistance. The increases in strength and stiffness of the retrofitted slabs were based on the deflections, strains and crack patterns at ultimate load. Theoretical analyses to predict the load-deflection behavior of the precracked sections were performed using PCFRAME software. The predicted values agree reasonably well with the experimental results.