Abstract

War, terrorist attacks, explosions, progressive collapse and other unforeseen circumstances have damaged many structures, including buildings and bridges in war- torn countries such as Iraq. Most of the damaged structural members, for example, beams, columns and slabs, have not totally collapsed and can be repaired. Nowadays, carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) is widely used in strengthening and retrofitting structural members. CFRP can restore the load- carrying capacity of damaged structural members to make them serviceable. The effect of using CFRP to repair the damaged beams has not been not properly addressed in the literature. This research has the aim of providing a better understanding of the behaviour of reinforced concrete beams strengthened or repaired with CFRP strip under impact loading. Experimental and analytical work were conducted in this research to investigate the performance of RC beams strengthened or repaired using CFRP. To study the impact behaviour of the CFRP reinforced concrete beams, a new heavy drop weight impact test machine has been designed and manufactured to conduct the experimental work. Twelve RC beams were tested experimentally under impact load. The experimental work was divided into two stages; stage 1 (strengthened) and stage 2 (repair). At stage 1, three pairs of beams were tested under impact loading. External bonded reinforcement (EBR) and near surface mounted (NSM) techniques were used to strengthen the RC beams to find the most effective technique. Three pairs of beams were tested in stage 2 (repair). Different degrees of damages were induced using different impact energies. NSM technique was used to repair the damaged beams using CFRP strip. Stiffness degradation method was used to assess the degree of damage in beams due to impact. The study investigated the stiffness, bending load, impact energy, deflection and mode of failure of CFRP strengthened or repaired beams under impact loading. The distribution of the stresses, strains, accelerations, inertia forces, and cracks in the beam under impact loading was also investigated in this study. Empirical equations were proposed in this research to predict the bending load and maximum deflection of the damaged and repaired beams under impact loading. For validation purposes, finite element analysis was used with the LUSAS package. The FEA results were compared with the experimental load-deflection curves and ultimate failure load results. In this research, to simulate a real situation, different models were used to simulate the bonding between the CFRP and concrete and also between steel bars and concrete. In these FEA models, the bonding between the concrete and the CFRP was modelled using the Drucker-Prager model. To simulate the bonding between steel and concrete, a joint element was used with spring constants to model the bond between steel bars and surrounding concrete. The analytical results were compared with the experimental results. In most previous research, FEA has been used to simulate the RC beams under impact loading without any damage. In this thesis, a new 3D FEA model was proposed to simulate and analyse the damaged RC beams under impact loading with different degrees of damage. The effect of the damage on concrete stiffness and the bonding between the steel bars and the concrete were investigated in FEA model. The damage was modelled by reducing the mechanical properties of the concrete and the bonding between steel bars and concrete. This thesis has contributed to improving knowledge of the behaviour of damaged beams repaired with CFRP, and the experimental work conducted, together with the numerical analysis, have provided essential data in the process of preparing a universal standard of CFRP design and construction. In the FEA model, the damage to the beams due to impact loading was successfully modelled by reducing the beam stiffness.

Keywords

Beams, Strengthened, Repaired, Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer, Impact, Concrete

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Date

2016

Download

Share

COinS