Strengthening of under-strength concrete using FRP fabric

Abstract

Applications of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composites as reinforcement for concrete structures have been growing rapidly in recent years because of its properties. Reasons of failures can be caused by environmental factors such as corrosion or severe blast winds, weakened members caused by negligence in maintaining proper damages, earthquake or under strength concrete manufactured during construction. This study focuses on the effect of strengthening of concrete under compression using CFRP and GFRP fabric. Concrete samples of grade 20 were made with different shapes such as circular, square, rectangular and cube. The effect of sharp edges and circular corner on the strengthened samples was also investigated. The concrete samples were wrapped either by continuous or intermittent methods. The result of the study shows that the strength of the strengthened concrete was increased by approximately 50 percent. The circular corner samples recorded higher compressive strength than sharp corner samples. The results also show that continuous wrapping was better than intermittent wrapping. All of the findings indicated that the strength of the under strength concrete can be enhanced using strengthening technique.