RETROFITTING SFRC BEAMS BY USING CFRP

Abstract

The use of structural members made of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) hasbeen increasing since it has been shown through numerous researches that steelfibers promotes the mechanical properties of concrete beyond cracking andimprove the crack control characteristics of concrete significantly. Aparticular use of steel fibers aims to enhance the behavior of reinforcedconcrete (RC) beams without web reinforcement. Even thouh there have beennumerous researches focused on the contribution of steel fibers to the behaviorof  reinforced concrete (RC) beamswithout web reinforcement, the studies on retrofitting of SFRC beams is verylimited. An advantegous retrofitting method is to use carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) due to the fact thatit has relatively high tensile strength and low weight, and it can be appliedeasily and rapidly. In this study, RC beams with a shear span-to-effectivedepth ratio of 4.5 were loaded up to their load-carrying capacities and thentested again after retrofitting with CFRP. The experimental results wereexamined in the context of strength, stiffness and ductility.