• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.171-183
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• 2017

Strengthening reinforced concrete (RC) beams with openings by using aramid fiber reinforcement polymers (AFRP) on the beams' surfaces offers a useful solution for upgrading concrete structures to carry heavy loads. This paper presents a repairing technique of the AFRP sheets that effectively strengthens RC beams, controls both the failure modes and the stress distribution around the beam chords and enhances the serviceability (deflection produced under working loads be sufficiently small and cracking be controlled) of pre-cracked RC beams with openings. To investigate the possible damage that was caused by the service load and to simulate the structure behavior in the site, a comprehensive experimental study was performed. Two unstrengthened control beams, four beams that were pre-cracked before the application of the AFRP sheets and one beam that was strengthened without pre-cracking were tested. Cracking was first induced, followed by repair using various orientations of AFRP sheets, and then the beams were tested to failure. This load was kept constant during the strengthening process. The results show that both the preexisting damage level and the FRP orientation have a significant effect on strengthening effectiveness and failure mode. All of the strengthened specimens exhibited higher capacities with capacity enhancements ranging from 21.8 to 66.4%, and the crack width reduced by 25.6-82.7% at failure load compared to the control beam. Finally, the authors present a comparison between the experimental results and the predictions using the ACI 440.2R-08 guidelines.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.65 no.6
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• pp.679-687
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• 2018

In composite materials technology, the fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP) have opened up new horizons in infrastructural engineering field for strengthening existing structures and components of structure. The Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets are well suited for RC columns to this application because of their high strength to weight ratio, good fatigue properties and excellent resistance to corrosion. The main focus of present experimental work is to investigate effect of shapes on axial behavior of CFRP wrapped RC columns having same cross-sectional area and slenderness ratio. The CFRP volumetric ratio and percentage of steel are also adopted constant for all the test specimens. A total of 18 RC columns with slenderness ratio four were cast. Nine columns were control and the rest of nine columns were strengthened with one layer of CFRP wrap having 35 mm of corner radius. Columns confined with CFRP wrap were designed using IS: 456:2000 and ACI 440.2R.08 provisions. All the test specimens were loaded for axial compression up to failure and failure pattern for each shaped column was investigated. All the experimental results were compared with analytical values calculated as per the ACI-440.2R-08 code. The test results clearly demonstrated that the axial behavior of CFRP confined RC columns is affected with the change in shapes. The axial deformation is higher in CFRP wrapped RC circular column as compared to square and rectangular columns. Stress-strain behaviour revealed that the yield strength gained from CFRP confinement was significant for circular columns as compare to square and rectangular columns. This behaviour may be credited due to effect of shape on lateral deformation in case of CFRP wrapped circular columns at effective confinement action.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.803-810
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• 2007

An analytical method capable of predicting various stress-strain responses in axially loaded concrete confined with FRP (fiber reinforced polymers) composites in a rational manner is presented. Its underlying idea is that the volumetric expansion due to progressive microcracking in mechanically loaded concrete is an important measure of the extent of damage in the material microstructure, and can be utilized to estimate the load-carrying capacity of concrete by considering the corresponding accumulated damage. Following from this, an elastic modulus expressed as a function of area strain and concrete porosity, the energy-balance equation relating the dilating concrete to the confining device interactively, the varying confining pressure, and an incremental calculation algorithm are included in the solution procedure. The proposed method enables the evaluation of lateral strains consecutively according to the related mechanical model and the energy-balance equation, rather than using an empirically derived equation for Poisson's ratio or dilation rate as in other analytical methods. Several existing analytical methods that can predict the overall response were also examined and discussed, particularly focusing on the way of considering the volumetric expansion. The results predicted by the proposed and Samaan's bilinear equation models correlated with observed results with a reasonable degree, however it can be judged that the latter is not capable of predicting the response of lateral strains correctly due to incorporating the initial Poisson's ratio and the final converged dilation rate only. Further, the proposed method seems to have greater benefits in other applications by the use of the fundamental principles of mechanics.