Paper number 878

CARBON FIBRE SHEAR STRENGTHENING OF REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAMS

Bryan Adey¹, and Eugene Brühwiler¹

1Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Department of Civil Engineering, ISS-MCS (Maintenance, Construction and Safety of Structures), CH 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

Summary

An experimental investigation of 7 monotonically loaded concrete beams was undertaken to evaluate the ability of carbon fibre fabric to reinforce shear deficient concrete members. Two methods of carbon fibre application were evaluated, a partial wrap and a full wrap. In addition to the experimental program, a strip model used to predict the load carrying capacity of concrete members reinforced in shear with composite materials was evaluated. The experimental program showed that partial wraps of carbon fibre fabric, where the increase of load carrying capacity is dependent on the anchorage length of the carbon fibre, give small increases in ultimate load carrying capacity. It also showed that full wraps of carbon fibre fabric, where the anchorage problems of the carbon fibre are eliminated, provide large increases in ultimate load carrying capacity. The strip model approach was found to adequately predict the load carrying capacity of partially wrapped concrete members.

Keywords

carbon fibre shear reinforcement, full wrap, partial wrap, shear deficient reinforced concrete elements, strip model method.