REINFORCED CONCRETE FLAT SLABS WITH COMMON ARRANGEMENTS OF FIBRE REINFORCED POLYMER SHEETS

Abstract

Retrofitting of reinforced concrete (RC) flat slabs using fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composites has become common in recent years. Flexural retrofitting of one-way and two-way RC flat slabs using five common arrays of carbon FRP (CFRP) strips has been investigated in this paper. A comparison of the obtained results provided optimum scheme. Finite element method has been used to conduct the study using a commercial computer program. Results from the numerical analyses suggest that the use of CFRP sheets leads to improved load bearing capacities of slabs, which depends on both the type of array and the widths of FRP strips. The most optimal array of the retrofitting material (considering the effects on both strength and deflection) is the cross-like condition, which increases the capacities for one- and two-way slabs, respectively, by thirty-four percent and thirty percent while decreasing their maximum deflection by ten percent and four percent, respectively.