Comparative study of Flexural behavior of CFRP strengthened beams using different techniques.

Abstract

This research studies the flexural behavior of Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strengthened beams. Two different strengthening methods are used in this work and mainly deal with how the strip is applied. All the beams in this study were designed for under-reinforced section. For testing, six beams were used consisting of two control beams. Remaining four beams were classified into two groups having two beams each. One set was strengthened by applying carbon fiber-reinforced polymers strip on the external tension soffit of the beam using adhesive and the second set was strengthened by applying carbon fiber-reinforced polymers strip inside an already made 10mm slit in the tension soffit of beam and filling the remaining portion by epoxy. This study was mainly focused on the improvement of flexural strength of beams and ultimate load carrying capacity. The experimental testing of beams was based on Four-Point loading condition. The experimental results show a considerable improvement in the flexural behavior of beams and ultimate load carrying capacity of the strengthened beams with reference to control beams. The beams strengthened by using carbon fiber-reinforced polymer inside the slit technique show maximum improvement in flexural behavior and in ultimate load, i.e., 128.7% as compared to control beams.