Shear behavior of reinforced concrete beams strengthened in flexure with bonded carbon fibre reinforced polymers laminates

The aim of this paper is to clarify the structural performance of reinforced concrete (RC) beams with weak or without any internal shear reinforcement and externally strengthened in flexure with carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates, when subjected to a shear-dominant-loading regime. Seven RC beams were specifically designed, without and with an external anchorage system, which was carefully detailed to enhance the benefits of the strengthening laminate and counteract the destructive effects of shear forces. All the beams were identical in terms of their geometry, longitudinal internal reinforcement, and concrete strength but varied, to highlight the role of shear behavior, in terms of their internal and external shear reinforcement as well as in their loading test regime. The beams were tested under four-point bending and extensively instrumented to monitor strains, deflection, cracking, load carrying capacity, and failure modes. The structural response of the tested beams has, then, been critically analyzed in terms of deformability, strength, and failure processes that occur under a shear-dominant loading regime. It is shown that with a carefully designed anchorage system, a brittle behavior without yielding of tension steel reinforcement of a flexural strengthened beam can be transformed to a less brittle behavior with yielding of tension steel reinforcement and a well-defined enhancement of structural performance in terms of both deformation and strength. The results presented in this paper should enable engineers to counteract shear failure of externally strengthened beams with little or even no internal shear reinforcement.