Abstract
This study aims to strengthen the flexural behavior of structural elements with external pre-stressing tendons, thereby improving their load-carrying capacity and increasing their resistance against the external load. Different techniques were used to apply external pre-stressed strengthening to RC beams and RC frames. Seven identical RC frames were analyzed: an original sample without an external tendon, two strengthened samples with external tendons at the positive bending zone, two strengthened samples with external tendons at the beam–column connection zone, a strengthened sample with external straight line tendons along the beam and, finally, a strengthened sample with external U-shape tendons along the beam of the frame. The analysis and the results were obtained using ANSYS WORKBENCH finite element (FE) program. Comparisons were performed between these techniques to determine which technique is better for strengthening. The failure mode, vertical deflection, column stress, load-carrying capacity, and ductility of the samples were listed and analyzed under four-point vertical loading. The results show that using external tendons significantly increases the load capacity and the stiffness of structural frames. Moreover, the tendon in the beam zone is more effective than the tendon in the column zone.
Highlights
The strengthening of structures enables structural elements to carry additional external loads and increase their lifetime without exceeding the allowable limits of stability
From the finite element (FE) study that was carried out on single-bay reinforced concrete (RC) frames strengthened with external pre-stressing tendons, the following conclusions can be drawn:
The results show that strengthening with external pre-stressing tendons significantly improves the ultimate loading capacity and mechanical behavior of RC beams and frames
Summary
The strengthening of structures enables structural elements to carry additional external loads and increase their lifetime without exceeding the allowable limits of stability. The problem of environmental effects (corrosions, fires, etc.) on external steel can be resolved by the use of FRP materials, which offer high resistance to corrosions, high strength, and light weight [6,7,8]. Research in this area has been conducted since the early 1970s. External pre-stressing, both for new and existing structures, has proven to be an effective technique, offering many advantages [9,10,11,12,13]: Higher utilization of small sectional areas
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