An Experimental Study on Concrete Flat Slabs Prestressed with Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer Sheets

Carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) is currently used to reinforce buildings in civil engineering in the common forms of sheets, while the utilization efficiency of a CFRP materials greatly decreased when the CFRP material is directly bonded to the structure because of the lack of the effect of the exertion of a prestress. A paper spool-inspired anchoring method is proposed to overcome the shearing problem in the anchoring system through the friction between layers. Anchoring and jack-up tensioning devices for CFRP sheets are also designed and produced. A prestress is successfully applied to single and multiple CFRP sheets (80% tensioning strength is achieved), thus verifying the tensioning effect of the prestress. Based on these results, prestressed concrete flat slabs were designed with pretensioned CFRP sheets. The corresponding mechanical properties of the concrete flat slabs are tested to verify the feasibility of using CFRP sheets to apply a prestress. The results show that the uniformity of the fibre stress during the tensioning of the CFRP sheet is the key to the success of the application of the prestress.