Abstract
Carbon fiber reinforcement polymer CFRP laminates are widely used nowadays in civil engineering applications to externally strengthen structural concrete elements against deficiencies in flexure and shear. These deficiencies could be due to increase in loading, earthquake damage or even design and/or construction defects. The current state of the art technique used in flexural strengthening of reinforced concrete RC beams is by externally bonding CFRP sheets or plates to the beam’s soffit. However, from a practical perspective, certain beam soffits could be obstructed and hence inaccessible on site. This study aims to evaluate the performance of RC beams externally strengthened in flexure with side-bonded CFRP sheets. A pilot experimental study on five beams was conducted to examine the effectiveness of the proposed strengthening technique with side-bonded reinforcement. It has been concluded that the performance of the proposed strengthening system is comparable to that with bottom-bonded CFRP reinforcement.
