Abstract

The present thesis concerns the flexural strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) beams by placing a new concrete layer on their compressive or tensile side. The main objective of the thesis is to evaluate interface slip. The first chapter is a literature review on concrete interfaces. Theoretical models, suggested by design codes or other researchers, for the calculation of the shear resistance and the relationship between the shear stress and the slip at the interface are presented. Moreover, experimental results for the shear stress against slip relationship at the concrete interface are given. The second chapter presents a literature review on the shear stress and slip distribution at concrete to steel or concrete to fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) interfaces. Theoretical and experimental results for the value of shear stress at the interface of concrete beams strengthened with steel or FRP plates and shear stress and slip distribution at the interface of composite steel and concrete beams are presented. The third chapter concerns an experimental investigation of RC beams strengthened with concrete layers. Two types of specimens are examined. The first group are prismatic RC specimens strengthened with a concrete layer and tested by three point bending. The second group contains 10 RC beams. Five are strengthened with a concrete layer on their compressive or tensile side, four are respective monolithic specimens and the final one is a control beam without any strengthening. These beams are tested under four point bending. In all tests, for both groups of specimens, load against deflection curves are determined and the slip along the interface is measured. An analytical evaluation of the slip at the interface of RC beams strengthened with concrete layers and the verification of the method comparing the analytical results with respective experimental results presented in Chapters one and three is presented in Chapter four. The shrinkage effect on interface slip and shear stress is examined in Chapter five. Experimental measurements of shrinkage strains and slip on specimens of both experimental groups presented in Chapter three are presented. An analytical evaluation of the extra slip and shear stress at the interface caused by shrinkage effect is also suggested. Finally, all results of the thesis and suggestions for future work are given.

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