STRENGTHENING OF RC BEAMS WITH OPENINGS SUBJECTED TO TORSION USING CFRP

Abstract

An experimental study will be presented to evaluate the behavior of RC beams with openings subjected to pure torsion repaired with CFRP. The effect of CFRP configuration, the opening’s width and CFRP Layers were the three main parameters in this study. The experimental results indicated that the presence of the opening in the beams leads to the decreasing of the cracking and ultimate torques. Repairing the beam specimens with CFRP improved the ultimate torque, and ultimate rotation angle. Using one-layer Vertical CFRP configuration in repairing beams with openings improved the ultimate torque by 109.52% and using one-layer Inclined CFRP improved the ultimate torque by 61.90%. Increasing the layer of CFRP to two layers led to the increase in the ultimate torque by 128.50%. Finally, in case of repairing beams with opening width of 300 mm and 500 mm with constant height of 150 mm by using one layer of vertical CFRP, the ultimate torque increased by 109.5% and 128.5%, respectively.