Prediction of shear strength of CFRP-strengthened reinforced recycled aggregate concrete beams using various strengthening methods

Abstract

Fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) strengthening is a possible option when the load carrying capacity of a structure needs to be increased for various reasons. On the other hand, the focus nowadays aims to save the environment by reducing the waste material. A suggestion was made to use waste concrete as an aggregate. If this new material was used more, it would be possible to use recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) and carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) to strengthen reinforced concrete (RC) structures and make them more environmentally friendly. An experimental investigation study on the shear behaviour of RC beams strengthened with CFRP strips was carried out. Tests were conducted on six reinforced concrete beams, with variations in the replacement ratio of RCA and strengthened by different configurations of CFRP under four-point loading. The results indicated that the load carrying capacity was increased, on average, by 18.09 and 35.04% for beams strengthened with CFRP with an inclined strip (IS) and continuous strip (CS) configurations respectively. The results also indicated that the increases in the stiffness were 21.08 and 37.31 for beams strengthened with CFRP in the IS and CS configurations, respectively. In addition the ductility of the beams increased after strengthening.