Shear strengthening of reinforced concrete beams with minimum CFRP and GFRP strips using different wrapping technics without anchoring application

In this study, the performance of shear deficient reinforced concrete (RC) beams with rectangular cross-sections, which were externally bonded reinforced (EBR) with high strength CFRP and GFRP strips composite along shear spans, has been experimentally and analytically investigated under vertical load. In the study, the minimum CFRP and GFRP strips width over spacing were considered. The shear beam with turned end to a bending beam was investigated by applying different composite strips. Therefore various arising in each of strength, ductility, rigidity, and energy dissipation capacity were obtained. A total of 12 small-scaled experimental programs have been performed. Beam dimensions have been taken as 100x150x1000 mm. Four beams have been tested as unstrengthened samples. This paper focuses on the effect of minimum CFRP and GFRP strip width on behaviours of RC beams shear-strengthened with full-wrapping, U-wrapping, and U-wrapping+longitudinal bonding strips. Strengthened beams showed significant increments for flexural ductility, energy dissipation, and inelastic performance. The full wrapping strips applied against shear failure have increased the load-carrying capacity of samples 53%-63% interval rate. Although full wrapping is the best strengthening choice, the U-wrapping and U-wrapping+longitudinal strips of both CFRP and GFRP bonding increased the shear capacity by 53%~75% compared to the S2 sample. In terms of ductility, the best result has been obtained by the type of strengthening where the S5 beam was completely GFRP wrapped. The experimental results were also compared with the analytically given by ACI440.2R-17, TBEC-2019 and FIB-2001. Especially in U-wrapped beams, the estimation of FIB was determined to be 81%. The estimates of the other codes are far from meeting the experimental results; therefore, essential improvements should be applied to the codes, especially regarding CFRP and GFRP deformation and approaches for longitudinal strip connections. According to the test results, it is suggested that GFRP, which is at least as effective but cheaper than CFRP, may be preferred for strengthening applications. Copyright © 2022 Techno-Press, Ltd.