Analytical assessment of RC beam-column connections strengthened with CFRP sheets

Past experiences from recent earthquakes indicate that shear failures of beam-column connections were one of the main reasons causing significant damages and collapses of RC structures subjected to earthquake loadings. Many researchers and engineers have conducted to propose an effective way to improve the joint shear strength of RC connections. This paper presents an analytical model for the RC exterior beam-column joints strengthened with CFRP sheets. In the analytical model, the effect of shear behavior of the RC beam-column joint, bond slip of the beam longitudinal reinforcements and CFRP sheets were considered and incorporated into the non-linear structural analysis program. Final analytical results were compared with those from the experiment of eight exterior RC beam-column specimens. The analytical results showed that the developed connection model is very useful to investigate the hysteretic joint behavior and overall load-displacement response of the RC beam-column connections strengthened with CFRP sheets.