Flexural and shear cracking performance of strengthened RC rectangular beam with variable pattern of the BFRP strips

Nowadays, the process of strengthening structural elements is a crucial task in the field of structural engineering. The restoration of structural reinforced concrete (RC) members is appropriate a progressively significant alternative for depreciated structural elements to update the lifetime of the existing structure. The fiber-reinforced polymer composites have materialized as an efficient material for strengthening structural components. The technique of strengthening RC beams by means of basalt fiber-reinforced polymer (BFRP) sheets is widely used due to its excellent properties compared to other FRP sheets. The main intention of this research work is to analyze the effect of the stipulated orientation of the BFRP strips externally bonded on the beams for shear and flexural strengthening practice. The analytical and experimental study has been carried out on the rate of change of flexural, shear, bonding, and cracking behavior corresponding to incremental loadings on the RC beam confined with BFRP strips for different positioning. A total of nine beam specimens were tested for flexural up to the ultimate failure under single-point loading conditions. All beams were modeled in FEM software using ABACUS to simulate the flexural performance of beams up to final failure. The comparative result reveals an effective pattern of BFRP strips to enhance the structural response of the beam. It is also observed that the selection of a suitable way of BFRP strips orientation as external reinforcement is a decent substitute in process of strengthening the RC beams, because it not only enriched the flexural performance but also modified the shear cracking pattern.