Experimental analysis of continuous beams made of self‐compacting concrete (Scc) strengthened with fiber reinforced polymer (frp) materials

Abstract

Strengthening of concrete structures is applied as a solution for various deterioration problems in civil engineering practice. This also refers to the structures made of self‐compacting concrete (SCC), which is increasingly in use, but there is a lack of research in this field. This paper presents an experimental analysis of flexural behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) continuous beams made of SCC, strengthened with fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) materials (glass (GFRP) and carbon (CFRP) bars, CFRP laminates), by the use of near surface mounted (NSM) and externally bonded (EB) methods. Six two‐span continuous beams of a total length of 3200 mm, with the span between supports of 1500 mm and 120/200 mm cross section, were subjected to short‐term load and tested. The displacements of beams and the strains in concrete, steel reinforcement, FRP bars and tapes were recorded until failure under a monotonically increasing load. The ultimate load capacities of the strengthened beams were enhanced by 22% to 82% compared to the unstrengthened control beam. The ductility of beams strengthened with GFRP bars was satisfactory, while the ductility of beams strengthened with CFRP bars and tapes was very small, so the failure modes of these beams were brittle.