Experimental and FE Numerical Analysis Of RC Shear Walls Retrofitted Using CFRP and Steel Plates

Abstract

Introduction: Shear walls are recognized to be one of the main structural systems that resist lateral loads such as wind and earthquakes. This paper presents some advanced experimental and finite element FE analyses performed on five shear wall samples; four specimens were retrofitted using two different techniques. Methods: The experimental program presents five specimens retrofitted using both CFRP and an external steel plate. The debonding of CFRP was the dominant mode of failure for the first two tested shear walls retrofitted with CFRP, so adding an external steel plate was an available solution that was conducted to increase the load capacity of the remaining specimens. A 3D finite element FE model was created using the commercial software Abaqus. This paper introduces a new and original hybrid strengthening of the shear walls (using CFRP and steel plates), which has not been studied before in the literature, and also shows some advanced features to simulate the CFRP attachment to the concrete layer to capture both the load capacity and the debonding failure, which was observed in the experimental results. Results: The FE results were in good agreement with the experimental results for all tested specimens. Conclusion: The retrofitted shear walls using CFRP and steel plate recovered almost 38% of the shear capacity of the control specimen.