Structural Concrete, Vol. 8, no. 1, December 2007
Prestressed CFRP laminates for flexural strengthening of reinforced concrete beams
P. França, IST University, Lisbon, Portugal
A. Costa, IST University, Lisbon, Portugal
J. Appleton, IST University, Lisbon, Portugal
Significant research on strengthening reinforced concrete (RC) structures with carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates has been done in recent years. The interest in prestressing this material and the evaluation of the behaviour of the strengthened RC structures is the focus of this paper. A technique of strengthening RC slabs with prestressed CFRP laminates was tested on several T cross-section large-scale RC beams. Comparisons are established between the reference RC beam and the strengthened beams with prestressed and non-prestressed CFRP laminates. To simulate the behaviour of the beams, a non-linear numerical model was used and validated by experimental results. This strengthening technique with prestressed CFRP laminates revealed a substantial improvement, both at serviceability and ultimate states, when compared with the reference beam and with the non-prestressed CFRP laminate strengthened beam.
