Strengthening of RC Beams Combinedly Using Side Near Surface Mounted FRP Bars and Externally Bonded FRP Sheets

Abstract

Reinforced concrete (RC) structures deteriorate over time when subjected to external loads such as earthquakes, traffic, blasts, and vibrations. As a result, they require repairs to restore stiffness and improve performance. Some repair procedures continue to rely on traditional methods of adding new structural elements or steel sections, which are time-consuming and costly, necessitate specialized equipment and labour, and disrupt the use of RC structures. In recent years, the use of fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) in civil construction applications has grown in popularity around the world which is easy to use and can produce reliable strengthening and repairing systems for existing concrete structures. The response of reinforced concrete beams rehabilitated with FRP using the externally bonded (EB) method, the near surface mounted (NSM) method, the side near surface mounted (SNSM) method, has been well documented in the literature. Both the strengthening techniques EB & NSM have certain limitations. Here’s came an idea to strengthen RC beam with both EB & NSM (EB-NSM) technique known as hybrid bonded FRP technique which complement each other and possibly mutually overcome their limitations. But, there are very few studies present in the literature that predicted the performance of combined externally bonded with near surface mounted (EB-NSM) method. In this research numerical model of numerical model is developed for RC beams strengthened with different strengthening techniques such as externally bonded (EB) FRP, side near surface mounted (SNSM) FRP for validation with the existing literature. A hybrid (EB-SNSM) FRP strengthened RC beam using FE based software ABAQUS is developed by performing a parametric study to find out the best configuration to effectively use FRP material, which will improve both load carrying capacity and ductility of the RC beam