Nonlinear behavior of shear deficient RC beams strengthened with near surface mounted glass fiber reinforcement under cyclic loading

• RC shear deficient beams strengthened with NSM GFRP bars.
• Both the load carrying capacity and ductility has been enhanced.
• A finite element model is developed.
• The model predicted the behavior of tested specimens.

The aim of this investigation is to evaluate experimentally and numerically the cyclic loading response of reinforced concrete (RC) beams strengthened in shear with Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) rods using the near surface mounted (NSM) technique. The experimental results indicated that the use of GFRP rods as NSM strengthening systems can significantly enhance the overall capacity and ductility of shear deficient RC members when subjected to cyclic loading. In particular, the increase in the load-carrying capacity of the strengthened specimens over the unstrengthened control specimen was in the range of 49–66%. Furthermore, the increase in the displacement over the control specimen ranged between 112% and 172%. A 3D finite element (FE) model was also developed to simulate the response of the tested specimens. The developed FE model integrates multiple simulation techniques, nonlinear material properties and corresponding constitutive laws. The models incorporate concrete cracking, yielding of steel reinforcement, bond–slip behavior between NSM reinforcement and adhesive material and between steel reinforcement and adjacent concrete material, respectively. The load–deflection response envelopes and the load–deflection hysteresis loops of the experimentally tested beams and those simulated by the FE models were compared. Good matching was observed between the predicted and measured results at all stages of cyclic loading.