Journal of Applied Sciences1812-56541812-5662Asian Network for Scientific Information10.3923/jas.2008.4383.4389JumaatM.Z. AlamA. 122008823This study presents an experimental and analytical investigation
to compare the structural behaviour of externally bonded steel plates
and Carbon Fiber Reinforceed Polymer (CFRP) laminates flexurally strengthened
r.c. beams. For the experimental investigation, three r.c. beams were
cast. One beam was tested in the un-strengthened condition to act as the
control beam. The second beam was strengthened using steel plate while
the third beam was strengthened using CFRP laminate. The strengthened
beams were designed to have the same strength with the assumption that
they would fail in a ductile manner. The test results indicated that although
both beams were designed for the same strength, the CFRP laminate strengthened
beam recorded a slightly higher failure load compared to the steel plate
strengthened beam. The steel plate strengthened beam recorded a higher
cracking load and less deflections, reinforcement bar strains, concrete
strains and crack widths compared to the CFRP laminate strengthened beam.
Results also showed that the CFRP laminate strengthened beam failed by
premature concrete cover separation failure, whereas the steel plate strengthened
beam failed by premature plate end interfacial debonding followed by concrete
cover separation. The beams were also modelled using a Finite Element
Method (FEM) package. The numerical results seemed to agree well with
the experimental results.]]>British Standard,19851985El-Mihilmy, M.T. and J.W. Tedesco,200198301314Garden, H.N. and L.C. Hollaway,199842175188Oehlers, D.J. and J.P. Moran, 1990116978995Oh, B.H., J.Y. Cho and D.G. Park,200312911911198Smith, S.T. and J.G. Teng, 200224385395Xiong, G.J., X. Jiang, J.W. Liu and L. Chen,200721402408