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Rehabilitation of continuous reinforced concrete beams in shear by external

bonding of carbon fiber reinforced polymer strips for sustainable construction

Conference Paper · May 2016

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M.s. Abdul Aziz Abdul Aziz Abdul Samad

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 Rehabilitation of continuous reinforced concrete beams in shear
by external bonding of carbon fiber reinforced polymer strips for
sustainable construction
Abdul Aziz Abdul Samad1,3,a, Noridah Mohamad1,3, Noorwirdawati Ali1, J. Jayaprakash2 and Priyan Mendis3
1
Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400 Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia
2
Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, 43500 Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia
3
Department of Infrastructure Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, 3010 Victoria, Australia

Abstract. To achieve sustainability in construction, the rehabilitation of existing concrete structures is vital in
ensuring its structural integrity and longevity. Therefore, an experimental investigation on the shear
strengthening of 2-span continuous reinforced concrete (RC) beams wrapped with carbon fiber reinforced
polymer (CFRP) strips were conducted. The beam specimens were subjected to four point bending test and
loaded incrementally until failure occurs. Different wrapping schemes and layers of CFRP strips were
externally bonded within the shear span of the beams. The failure load, modes of failure, its crack patterns,
deflection profile were recorded and presented for discussion. From observation, the experimental results
indicated good improvement as the shear strengthened beams shows enhanced failure load and shear strength
capacity. An improved stiffness and ductility behaviour was also observed compared to control beam. A
comparison with ACI theoretical shear strength capacity shows reasonably good agreement with the
experimental results. The enhanced performances of shear strengthened 2-span continuous RC beams prove the
reliability of CFRP as a strengthening material. This technique allows the rehabilitation process of existing
structural members to improve its structural integrity, longevity and sustainability of existing structural
members.

1 Introduction to 6. In the initial stage, few flexural cracks were formed

Rehabilitation of reinforced concrete members using
Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) strips as a
strengthening material is a contemporary technique that
will restore its structural integrity, increase its service
load, improve ductility and attain its sustainability.
Literature has shown that wrapping CFRP strips to RC
beams has proven to be successful [1-4]. This technique
is suitable for structures that are constructed
monolithically and highly reinforced.
CFRP material is appropriate because of its flexibility
and superior characteristics than other types of materials
such as its lightweight, high strength to weight ratio and
better corrosion resistance.
Some of the most severe types of damages is shear
failure. Generally, shear failure is a diagonal tension
failure that is brittle in nature and should be avoided [5].
It has been observed that the characteristic shear failure
of a reinforced concrete beam is influenced by the shear
span to effective depth ratio (av/d). Sinha [6] observed
that shear compression or shear tension failure occurs
when shear span to effective depth ratio (a v/d) lies within
1 to 2.5. Under this load condition, flexural cracks
develop and propagate in the compression zone, Figure
1(a). This behaviour extended towards the tension
reinforcement and propagated along the reinforcement as
shown in Figure 1(b). The eventual failure will be due to
anchorage failure of the tension reinforcement (i.e. shear
tension failure) or by crushing of the concrete in the
compression zone adjacent to the point load (i.e. shear
compression failure). For diagonal tension failure, this
occurs for shear span to effective depth ratio (a v/d) of 2.5
followed by diagonal flexural cracks propagating towards
the compression zone as shown in Figure 1(c). As load
increases, crack propagates gradually until the sudden
shear failure occurs. Before this critical failure occurs,
the bottom inclined crack will have widen, with more
cracks developing thereafter.
Shear-
(a) compression
a) failure
Shear-tension
(b) failure
Diagonal-tension
(c) failure
Figure 1. Effect of shear span to effective depth ratio, av/d (a)
Shear-compression failure, av/d = 1 to 2.5 (b) Shear-tension
failure, av/d = 1 to 2.5 (c) Diagonal-tension failure, av/d = 2.5 to
6 [6]
Previous researchers have successfully developed
empirical formulas on the strengthening of beams in
shear [8-9]. However, ACI440 [10] acknowledges that in
reality, the existing experimental findings and proposed
model has not been confirmed for shear strengthening in
areas subjected to a combination of high flexural stresses
and shear stresses or in regions of negative moment.

a
Corresponding author: azizs@uthm.edu.my
 MATEC Web of Conferences

2 Experimental work
2.1 Specimen Details and Material Properties
Therefore, this study involves fabricating, casting and
testing five reinforced concrete 2-span continuous beams
with a cross sectional area of 150mm wide by 350mm
deep beam and 2630mm in effective length for each span.
All beam specimens were design to fail in shear. Hence,
the choice of 4T20 bars at mid-support (negative
moment) and 2T20 at mid-span (positive moment) were
selected to ensure that the beam will have sufficient
negative and positive bending moment capacity. Shear
failure of the beam was define by providing nominal
stirrups at R6-200mm c/c along the entire length of the
beam. Figure 2 clearly illustrates the reinforcement
details for the 2-span continuous beam. As clearly shown
in Table 1, the control beam, Beam 1-0, was not
strengthened with CFRP strips. Beam 1-1, Beam 1-2,
Beam 1-3 and Beam 1-4 were strengthened with 4 or 3
sides wrapping schemes and 1 or 2 layers of CFRP strips.
The CFRP strips for all beams were wrapped within the
shear span of the continuous beams at an orientation of
0°/90°. For the strengthened beams and prior to the
application of the CFRP strips, the concrete surface was
cleaned. This was followed by placing a layer of epoxy at
the effective areas. Upon placing the CFRP strips to the
epoxy, the beams were then allowed to set for at least 7
days to allow proper curing.
Table 1. Details of beam specimens.
Specimen av/d Wrapping No. of Orientation of
Scheme Layer CFRP Strips
Beam 1-0 2.5 - - - Table 2. Concrete compressive strength
(a)
(b) 4 sides wrap (c) 3 sides wrap
Figure 3. (a) Wrapping schemes for 2-span continuous RC
beam at shear span of av/d=2.5 (b) 4 sides wrap (c) 3 sides wrap
All specimens were cast using ready mix concrete.
From each batch, six concrete cube of size
150x150x150mm were prepared for its compressive test.
The cubes were tested at 7 days and 28 days and Table 2
shows the compressive test results. The mechanical
properties of the steel reinforcement were also conducted
in order to determine its yield strength and Young’s
modulus. Three bars of main reinforcement and two bars
of stirrups with length of 600 mm were tested under
uniaxial tension using the Universal Testing Machine at
the Material Engineering Laboratory, Universiti Tun
Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM). Table 3 highlights the
properties of the steel reinforcements. As mentioned,
high yield steel reinforcement at 20mm diameter were
used as the main steel reinforcement, whilst 6mm
diameter mild yield steel reinforcement bars were used as
stirrups.

Beam 1-1 2.5 4 sides 1 90° Concrete Days Average Compressive

Batch Strength
Beam 1-2 2.5 3 sides 1 90°
7 35.36
Beam 1-3 2.5 4 sides 2 90° 1
28 40.99
Beam 1-4 2.5 3 sides 2 90°
7 36.86
2
28 41.21

Table 3. Steel reinforcement

Average Average yield

Type Diameter strength
(mm) (N/mm²)
20mm Ø
19.81 545.96
High Yield
6mm Ø
5.85 265.06
Figure 2. Reinforcement details Mild Steel

Figure 3(a) clearly illustrates the location of CFRP
strips for all beam specimens. The figure also indicates
the size of the CFRP strip at 80mm wide and 150mm
spacing. Figure 3(b) and Figure 3(c) shows the CFRP
wrapping schemes at 4 sides and 3 sides respectively.
Figure 4 shows the experimental set-up for testing the
beam specimens with shear span to effective depth ratio
of 2.5. The location of point loads, supports and LVDT
(Linear Variable Differential Transducer) are shown in
Figure 5.
 ICSREE 2016
Figure.4.Typical test set-up for the 2-span continuous RC beam
with av/d=2.5
Figure 5. A schematic view of the test set-up
3 Experimental Results
As describe, five 2 span continuous reinforced concrete
beams including control beam (Beam 1-0 to Beam 1-4)
will be subjected to a four point bending test (per span)
until failure in shear occurs. Beams 1-1 to 1-4 will be
shear strengthened by wrapping CFRP strips with 3 or 4
sides wrapping schemes and with 1 or 2 layers (see Table
1). Table 4 clearly shows detail experimental results of
the beams. In this section, the experimental results
obtained will be presented and discussed in terms of:
1. Failure loads
2. Modes of failure and crack patterns
3. Deflection profile
3.1 Failure Loads
Descriptions and details of beam specimens are available
in Table 1, Figure 2 and Figure 3 above. Generally, it was
observed that all beams fail in shear upon reaching its
failure load. This expected behaviour was mainly due to
the inclusion of nominal stirrups at the shear zone as
compared to the longitudinal reinforcements for flexure.
The experimental results of the beam is clearly shown in
Table 4. At failure, all beams with strengthened CFRP
strips showed higher load values then control beam
(Beam 1-0) which recorded a load of only 286.10kN.
Beam 1-1 and Beam 1-3 were both wrapped with 4 sides
and, 1 and 2 layers of CFRP strips respectively. At
failure, Beam 1-3 achieved the highest load at 439.86kN
whereas Beam 1-1 measured lower failure load of
379.68kN. The lowest failure load was recorded for
Beam 1-2 at 355.65kN where Beam 1-2 was strengthened
with 3 sides and 1 layer of CFRP strip. Beam 1-4 with 3
sides and 2 layer of CFRP strips recorded a failure load
of 414.48kN.
The shear force of the beams at failure was calculated
by determining the applied load P. This was achieve by
dividing the failure load by 4 (due to the four point
bending test – see Figure 5). From continuous beam
theory, the maximum shear force value for the 2-span
continuous beam will be equivalent to 1.31xP. As
observed, all the maximum shear force value for the
strengthened beams was higher than the control beam (at
93.70kN). Beam 1-3 again recorded the highest
maximum shear force at 144.05kN and with Beam 1-2,
having the lowest shear force value at 116.48kN.
As tabulated in Table 4, the CFRP shear contribution
of strengthened beams shows values of 50.35kN for
Beam 1-3 and 42.04kN for Beam 1-4, which is +34.95%
and +30.97% of shear enhancement from the control
beam. Likewise for Beam 1-1, CFRP shows improve
shear contribution by 30.65kN (+24.65%). However,
Beam 1-2, recorded the lowest CFRP shear contribution
at 22.78kN (+19.55%).
Table 4. Experimental results
Beam Failure Shear CFRP % of
Specimen Load Force Shear Shear
(kN) (kN) Contribu- Enhance-
tion ment
(kN)
Beam 1-0 286.10 93.70 - -
Beam 1-1 379.68 124.35 30.65 +24.65%
Beam 1-2 355.65 116.48 22.78 +19.55%
Beam 1-3 439.86 144.05 50.35 +34.95%
Beam 1-4 414.48 135.74 42.04 +30.97%
3.2 Modes of Failure and Crack Patterns
Table 5 recorded the first crack load, failure loads and
maximum deflection of the control beam and
strengthened beams. Figure 6, Figure 7 and Figure 8
further illustrate the crack patterns, critical shear crack
line and failure modes for all five beams. The crack
pattern and failure mode for Beam 1-0 are shown in
Figure 6. As expected, the shear crack lines were more
distinct as compared to flexural cracks. The beam’s first
crack was recorded at an early load of 96kN. When load
was increased incrementally, more flexural and shear
cracks were initiated until the flexural cracks ceased to
propagate compared to shear cracks within the shear
zone. Prior to failure, the shear cracks showed clear
maturity until shear failure occurs at a failure load of
286.10kN.
Figure 7(a) shows the crack pattern and failure mode
for Beam 1-1. The first crack for Beam 1-1 occurred at
load of 120kN, and from further increase in load, shear
cracks started propagating from the inner support and
extended towards the point load. Upon reaching its
failure load of 379.68kN, Beam 1-1 failed in shear.
Simultaneously at failure, the CFRP strips within the
shear zone ruptured its threads adjacent to the major
shear crack of Beam 1-1. On the other hand, Beam 1-2
fails at the failure load of 355.65kN due to shear with
rupture and de-bonding of CFRP strips occurring
simultaneously from the concrete surface as shown in
Figure 7(b). It was also observed that at failure, there
were visible signs of cracks and crushing occurring on
the top-side of the beam. For Beam 1-3 the mode of
 MATEC Web of Conferences

failure for this beam was shear with rupture of CFRP minor influence on the deflection profile of the
strips as shown in Figure 8(a). Prior to failure, one of the strengthened beams. The maximum deflection for all
stirrups yielded and eventually broke causing wide cracks strengthened beams recorded similar or higher then
on the side of the beam. For Beam 1-4, see Figure 8(b), deflection for Beam 1-0 with the exception for Beam 1-2.
the failure of the beam occurred at the failure load of The trend indicates that strengthened beams in shear have
414.48kN causing failure of beam in shear, rupture and the capacity to improve its stiffness and ductility
de-bonding of CFRP. From the results presented above, it behaviour of the beam.
was clear that three types of failure modes have distinctly
occurred:
1. Shear failure of the 2-span continuous RC beam
2. Shear rupture of CFRP strips
3. De-bonding of CFTP strips
Table 5. Modes of Failure

Beam First Modes of Maximum

Specimens Crack Failure Deflection
(kN) (mm)
Beam 1-0 96 Shear 10.87
Shear,
Beam 1-1 120 12.28
CFRP rupture
Shear, Figure 9. Shear Force-deflection profile
Beam 1-2 116 CFRP rupture, 8.71
de-bonding
Beam 1-3 128
Shear,
13.19 4 Shear Strength Capacity
CFRP rupture
Shear, The theoretical shear strength capacity of a strengthened
Beam 1-4 120 CFRP rupture, 11.00 reinforced concrete beam is contributed by shear
de-bonding
resistance of un-cracked concrete , shear resistance of
stirrups and CFRP contribution to shear ( . and
may be calculated by the provisions from ACI318 [9]
whilst from ACI440 [10]. The shear strength capacity
of a strengthened beam using CFRP strips is then
Figure 6. Crack patterns for Beam 1-0
calculated from Equation (1) together with Equation (2)
and (3).

(a) Beam 1-1 (b) Beam 1-2

Figure 7. Crack patterns for Beam 1-1 and Beam 1-2

Where
= Area of steel stirrups (
= Area of CFRP shear strips (
(a) Beam 1-3 (b) Beam 1-4 = Width of rectangular beam section
Figure 8. Crack patterns for Beam 1-4 and Beam 1-4
d = Effective depth of beam
= Effective depth of CFRP strip
= CFRP Modulus of elasticity
3.3 Deflection Profile
= Compressive strength of concrete
Figure 9 shows the shear force against mid-span = CFRP effective stress
deflection for all beam specimens. Details on the = Yield strength of reinforcement
maximum deflection of all beams are clearly shown in =Stirrup spacing
Table 5. All strengthened beams exhibited similar = CFRP spacing
deflection profile to Beam 1-0 but with stiffener
= Angle of orientation of CFRP strips (degree)
response. This observation indicate that with different
wrapping schemes (4 sides or 3 sides) and different
By applying Equation (1), (2) and (3), the theoretical
number of layers of CFRP strips, either 1 or 2 layers, has
values as shown in Table 6 are produced and comparison
 ICSREE 2016

with the experimental was conducted. The theoretical
shear strength capacity of all strengthened beams
underestimated the experimental results from 4% to 21%.
However, it is noticeable that beams with 2 layers of
CFRP strips produces less difference compared to beams
with 1 layer of CFRP strips.
continuous RC beam strengthened with CFRP strips
gave reasonably good agreement.
8. The improved performance of RC beams wrapped
with CFRP strips shows that the integrity, longevity
and sustainability of existing structures will be
achieved by the rehabilitation work process.

Table 6. Comparison between Theoretical Shear Strength and

Experimental Failure Load of Beam Specimens Acknowledgements
ACI ACI The author and co-authors acknowledges the funding
Theory Exp.
318-08 440 % received from the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme
Beams Diff. (FRGS) Vot. No. 1525, Ministry of Higher Education of
kN kN kN kN kN Malaysia. The author also acknowledges the financial
Beam support from Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia for
1-0
50.8 23.2 - 73.9 93.7 -21%
his academic attachment to The University of Melbourne,
Beam Victoria, Australia.
1-1
50.8 23.2 27.9 101.8 124.4 -18%
Beam
50.8 23.2 27.9 101.8 116.5 -13%
1-2 References
Beam
1-3
50.8 23.2 55.8 130.2 144.1 -10%
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2. S.J.E. Dias and J.A.O Barros, Shear Strengthening
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