Comparison and Evaluation of Retrofitting Different Modes of Concrete Structures by FRP

Abstract

Abstract. After recent earthquakes in the majority of seismic areas around the world including our country Iran and considering the irretrievable casualties and economic lost due to these earthquakes, natural catastrophic mitigation committees, research and scientific centers that are responsible for providing structural and seismic codes presented the concept of performance design, study of lifelines and retrofit and rehabilitation of existing and vital structures and the majority of researches in the field of earthquake engineering and structural engineering is focused on retrofit of structures considering economic and feasibility problems. Considering the increasing use of concrete structures in Iran and their substituting for steel structures ( due to weaknesses, constructional problems and defects) and considering the internal defects and failure modes, these structures should be retrofitted against earthquakes or preparations should be provided to decrease and minimize failure modes. concrete frames that consist of beam, column and connection is a essential part of concrete structures. Internal defect of concrete frame results in failure modes such as debonding and delamination in beams, buckling and torsion in column, local crashing in connection. Considering the several benefits of FRP sheets and their increasing use during years, these composites can be used for compressive-tensile, shear, bending, torsional retrofitting as well as for ductility increasing. In this study different types of failure modes of concrete frames and internal defects of them that lead to collapse are investigated. In addition different cases of retrofitting by FRP sheets to prevent failure modes and exciting defect are presented and these cases are compared.