Kyeongnam, 660-758, South Korea

Abstract: This study investigated the effectiveness of external strengthening technique. The experimental variables were the strengthening material and overlay materials using polymer mixtures. Beams considered in this study are the ones strengthened either with external steel plate or carbon fiber sheet (CFS) bonded to the overlay soffit or with reinforcing rebars in the overlay. An analytical method based on the nonlinear layered finite element method is used to simulate the load–deflection behavior of strengthened beam. The theoretically obtained load–deflection relationships and strains of the strengthened beams are compared to the corresponding experimental values. Efficiencies of the repairing techniques are evaluated by comparing the approximate measures on the cumulative slips. Parametric studies are then obtained using the developed model to investigate the effects of design variables on the overall flexural behavior of the strengthened beam. Simply supported beams under monotonically increasing symmetrical loads are considered exclusively.

Keywords: Carbon fiber sheet; nonlinear layered finite element method; polymer mixture structural strengthening.