PSI - Issue 37

Jamal A. Abdalla et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 37 (2022) 652–659 Abdalla et al./ Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000 – 000

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Fig. 1. Reinforcement details of the test beam .

2.2. Test Matrix

The test matrix consisted of four RC beams of identical dimensions, concrete strength and reinforcement details as shown in Figure 1. As presented in Table 1, the control beam (CB) was not externally strengthened while the other three beams (B1W0, B2W1, B3W2) were strengthened with externally bonded AA plates to the beam’s soffit using epoxy adhesive. The AA plate for B1W0 was not anchored, while B2W1 and B3W2 were anchored at their ends with one and two layers of U-wrap CFRP sheets, respectively using epoxy adhesive. Table 1 gives a summary of the test matrix.

Table 1 Test matrix Specimen

Description

Control beam with no external strengthening

CB

B1W0 B2W1

Beam strengthened with 2 mm thick and 50 mm wide AA plates

Beam strengthened with 2 mm thick and 50 mm wide AA plate and anchored with one layer of CFRP U-wrap at the two ends of the AA plates Beam strengthened with 2 mm thick and 50 mm wide AA plate and anchored with two layers of CFRP U-wraps at the two ends of the AA plates

B3W2

Figure 2 shows a sample of the strengthened beams with the experimental setting. The clear span between the simple supports was 1690 mm. Three beams were strengthened with 2 mm thickness AA plates of grade 5083-0 (Aalco 2019). The AA plates were 1520 mm long by 50 mm wide. The AA plates were anchored for two of the strengthened beams, one with one layer and the other with two layers of U-wrap of CFRP sheets at the two ends, up to the full height of the beam ’s sides as shown in Figure 3. All four beams were tested under four-point bending and the load was applied monotonically in a displacement control manner of 2 mm/minute until failure. As shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3, the shear span on each side of the applied load is one third of the span (561.5 mm) while the distance between the two point loads was around one third of the span (567 mm). Furthermore, the length of the AA plate is roughly around 90% of the full span of the beam.

Fig. 2. Reinforcement details of the test beam .