Bending behavior of concrete beams wrapped with carbon fabric

Reinforced concrete structures deteriorate over time due to environmental aging, fatigue, and other reasons. Strengthening and rehabilitating those concrete structures by wrapping them with carbon fabric is one of several economical engineering solutions. The intent of this study is to evaluate the increase in flexural strength of reinforced concrete beams after wrapping them with carbon fabrics. In this study, 24 reinforced concrete beams strengthened with carbon fiber wraps were experimentally evaluated to determine improvements in flexural strength. In addition, bending test results from the wrapped beams were compared with those of other identical concrete beams strengthened with bonded steel plates. Four different carbon wrap configurations were used for strengthening beams and for evaluation and comparison of experimental data. Static responses of all the concrete beams were evaluated in terms of strength, stiffness, compositeness between wrap and concrete, and associated failure modes. Factors governing the percentage increase in the ultimate strength are discussed. Wrapped beams were analyzed considering conventional force equilibrium equations and compared with the experimental results.