CFRP Mechanical Anchorage for Externally Strengthened RC Beams under Flexure

De-bonding of carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) sheets and plates from the concrete substrate is one of the major reasons behind premature failures of beams that are externally strengthened with such CFRP materials. To delay or prevent de-bonding and therefore enhancing the load carrying capacity of strengthened beams, several anchorage systems were developed and used. This paper investigates the use of CFRP mechanical anchorage of CFRP sheets and plates used to externally strengthen reinforced concrete beams under flexure. The pin-and-fan shape CFRP anchor, which is custom-made from typical rolled fiber sheets and bundles of loose fiber is used. Several reinforced concrete beams were casted and tested in standard four-point bending scheme to study the effectiveness of this anchorage system. The beams were externally strengthened in flexure with bonded CFRP sheets and plates and then fastened to the soffit of the beams’ using various patterns of CFRP anchors. It is observed that the CFRP plates begins to separate from the beams as soon as de-bonding occurs in specimens without CFRP anchors, while in beams with CFRP anchors de-bonding was delayed leading to increase in the load carrying capacity over the un-anchored strengthened beams.