Comparative Study on Flexural Strengthening of RC Beams using CFRP Laminate by Different Techniques

Abstract

This paper presents a detailed study on flexural behaviour of RC beams strengthened using Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) laminate. A detailed study was made on strengthened beam using Externally Bonded Laminate (EBL) and Internally Bonded Laminate (IBL) techniques. In IBL technique the laminate is sandwiched between the layers of epoxy mounted on the cover portion by the groove. The beams were designed as under-reinforced section. Totally six beams were casted, out of this two beams were control beams. Strengthened beams were divided into two sets (IBL and EBL) of two beams each. The main aim of this work is to delay the debonding failure in order to enhance the ultimate load carrying capacity for strengthened beams. Four-point bending flexural tests were conducted on specimens up to failure. The experimental results illustrate that, the strengthened beams significantly increases the cracking, working and ultimate load when compared with control beams. IBL technique shows the significant increase in the debonding strain by delaying the beam from debonding failure which in turn enhances the ultimate load by almost 73% compared with control beam and 39% with EBL technique. All the deflection values from the experiments are within the limit of codal provisions. The IBL technique was emerged as the better strengthening technique, which increases almost 41% of working load (P w) compared with strengthening codes.