Comparison of Three Flexural Retrofit Systems under Monotonic and Fatigue Loads

J. Bridge Engrg. Volume 10, Issue 6, pp. 731-740 (November/December 2005) Issue Date: November/December 2005

Joshua B. Quattlebaum,1 Kent A. Harries,2 and Michael F. Petrou3

1 2

Structural Engineer, Stevens and Wilkinson, Columbia, SC. Assistant Professor, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of Pittsburgh, Associate Professor, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of Cyprus,

Pittsburgh, PA.
3

Nicosia, Cyprus.

The majority of experimental work involving the flexural retrofit of concrete bridge girders has been conducted on beam specimens with adhesive-applied, soffit-mounted, fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite systems, referred to in this study as conventional adhesive application (CAA). It has been observed that the performance of such girders is often controlled by the quality of the bond between the FRP and the concrete substrate and the substrate's ability to transfer stress from the steel to the FRP. With the goal of improving the performance of bonded FRP in mind, two additional soffitmounted retrofit schemes are investigated: near-surface mounted (NSM), where the FRP strips are embedded in adhesive within slots cut into the substrate concrete, and, powder-actuated fastenerapplied (PAF) FRP, which uses a powder-actuated nail gun to install mechanical fasteners through predrilled holes in the FRP into the concrete substrate, nailing the FRP in place. The PAF application is a recent development, and little work has been done on it other than

by the proprietors of the system. This study reports on acomparative study of the static and fatigue performance of reinforced concrete beams retrofitted with CAA, NSM, and PAF FRP retrofit systems. Ten medium-scale beams were tested: six strengthened specimens, two per retrofit method, were tested under cyclic loading conditions, and four specimens, one per retrofit method and one control specimen, were tested monotonically to failure. The results of this study indicate that although all three methods of FRP application result in significant strength increases over the control specimen under monotonic loading conditions, the CAA method is outperformed by the other methods under cyclic conditions. A number of other relevant detailed conclusions with respect to performance and practical application issues arepresented for each of the methods of retrofit examined in this study. Significantly, clear evidence of FRP debonding in the midspan region prior to specimen failure is presented.

History:Received 29 January 2004; accepted 25 January 2005Permalink:http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)1084-0702(2005)10:6(731)

Embedded Through-Section FRP Rod Method for Shear Strengthening of RC Beams: Performance and Comparison with Existing Techniques
Journal of Composites for Construction Posted ahead of print 18 September 2010 O. Chaallal,1 A. Mofidi,2 B. Benmokrane,3 and K. Neale4
1

Professor of Structural Engineering, University of Quebec, cole de Technologie

Suprieure, 1100 Notre-Dame St. West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3C 1K3 (E-mail: omar.chaallal@etsmtl.ca).
2

PhD Candidate, Department of Construction Engineering, University of Quebec, cole

de Technologie Suprieure, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3C 1K3. E-mail: amir.mofidi.1@ens.etsmtl.ca.

3

Professor of Structural Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Sherbrooke

University, Quebec, Canada, Email: Brahim.benmokrane@USherbrooke.ca; Kenneth.Neale@USherbrooke.ca.

4

Professor of Structural Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Sherbrooke

University, Quebec, Canada, Email: Kenneth.Neale@USherbrooke.ca.

Embedded through-section technique (ETS) is a recently developed method to increasethe shear capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) using fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) rods. The ETS method presents many advantages over existing methods such as externally bonded FRP sheets (EB FRP) and near surface mounted FRP rods (NSM FRP). Unlike EB and NSM methods where the FRP relies on the concrete cover of RC beams, in the ETS method the FRP relies on the concrete core of the RC beam which offers a greater confinement

and hence improves bonding performance. Additionally, the ETS method requires less concrete preparation compared to EB and NSM methods. The objective of this paper is to present results of an experimental investigation which studies the effectiveness of the ETS method and compares the performance of the ETS method with both EB and NSM methods. In total, 12 tests are performed on 4520 mmlong T-beams. The parameters investigated are as follows: 1) the effectiveness of the ETS method, compared to EB FRP sheet and NSM FRP rod methods; 2) the presence of the internal steel and 3) the internal transverse steel reinforcement ratio (i.e., spacing). The testresults confirm the feasibility of the ETS method and reveal that the performance of the beams strengthened in shear using this method is significantly superior compared with that of the beams strengthened with EB and NSM methods

Behavior of RC Beams Shear Strengthened with Bonded or Unbonded FRP Wraps

J. Compos. for Constr. Volume 13, Issue 5, pp. 394-404 (September/October 2009) Issue Date: September/October 2009

J. G. Teng,1 G. M. Chen,2 J. F. Chen,3 O. A. Rosenboom,4 and L. Lam5

1

Chair Professor of Structural Engineering, Dept. of Civil and Structural Engineering, The

Hong Kong Polytechnic Univ., Hong Kong, China (corresponding author). E-mail: cejgteng@polyu.edu.hk
2

Ph.D. Candidate, Dept. of Civil and Structural Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic Reader, Institute for Infrastructure and Environment, The Univ. of Edinburgh, Research Associate, Dept. of Civil and Structural Engineering, The Hong Kong Senior Research Fellow, Dept. of Civil and Structural Engineering, The Hong Kong

Univ., Hong Kong, China.

3

Edinburgh, U.K.
4

Polytechnic Univ., Hong Kong, China.

5

Polytechnic Univ., Hong Kong, China.

Reinforced concrete (RC) beams shear-strengthened with fiberreinforced polymer (FRP) fully wrapped around the member usually fail due to rupture of FRP, commonly preceded by gradual debonding of the FRP from the beam sides. To gain a better understanding of the shear resistance mechanism of such beams, particularly the interaction between theFRP, concrete, and internal steel stirrups, nine beams were tested in the present study: three as control specimens, three with bonded FRP full wraps, and three with FRP full wraps left unbonded to the beam sides. The use of unbonded wraps was aimed at a reliable estimation of the FRP contribution to shear

resistance of the beam and how bonding affects this contribution. The test results show that the unbonded FRP wraps have a slightly higher shear strength contribution than the bonded FRP wraps, and that for both types of FRP wraps, the strain distributions along the critical shear crack are close to parabolic at the ultimate state. FRP rupture of the strengthened beams occurred at a value of maximum FRP strain considerably lower than the rupture strain found from tensile tests of flat coupons, which may be attributed to the effects of the dynamic debonding process and deformation of the FRP wraps due to the relative movements between the two sides of the critical shear crack. Test results also suggest that while the internal steel stirrups are fully used at beam shear failure by FRP rupture, the contribution of the concrete to the shear capacity may be adversely affected at high values of tensile strain in FRP wraps