Behaviour of Reinforced Concrete Beams Strengthened by CFRP Wraps with and without End Anchorages

Use of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) strips as externally bonded reinforcement, is a technically sound and practically efficient method of strengthening and upgrading reinforced concrete (RC) members. Externally bonded CFRP strips help in improving the structure performance by reducing deflections and/or cracking and increasing ultimate strength. The ultimate capacity of the strengthened beam is controlled by either compression crushing of concrete, rupture of CFRP and flexural shear cracking induced de-bonding atconcrete-CFRP interface. Present study deals with the use of externally bonded CFRP wraps instead of strips to strengthen RC beams in flexure with and without end anchorages. Six beams strengthened with CFRP wraps at bottom with and without anchorages, were tested with different a/d ratios. It was observed that use of CFRP wraps resulted in significantly increasing the stiffness and ductility of the RC beams along with increasing load carrying capacities of the strengthened RC beams with end anchorages.