Predicting the Optimum Shear Capacity of Reinforced Concrete Beams Externally Strengthened With CFRP Composites

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to develop an analytical model to predict the shear strength of reinforced concrete (RC) beams externally strengthened with CFRP composites. The proposed model gives consistently good correlation with test data with an acceptable COV that can be expected for the behavior of RC beams. The results of the study show that the ACI model has a much wider range of experimental/theoretical failure load ratios of 0.16 to 10.08. The Triantafillou models also give an acceptable range of experimental/theoretical mean values of 0.27 to 2.78. On the contrary, the Colotti model gives a much smaller range of experimental/theoretical mean values of 0.20 to 1.78. Therefore, the proposed model is thus applicable to all externally bonded beams irrespective of whether the bonded reinforcement is made of steel or CFRP.