Strengthening of RC beams in shear using GFRP inclined strips – An experimental study

Though there have been a number of studies on shear strengthening of RC beams using externally bonded fiber reinforced polymer sheets, the behaviour of FRP strengthened beams in shear is not fully understood. This is partly due to various reinforcement configurations of sheets that can be used for shear strengthening and partly due to different failure modes a strengthened beam undergoes at ultimate state. Furthermore, the experimental data bank for shear strengthening of concrete beams using FRP remains relatively sparse due to which the design algorithms for computing the shear contribution of FRP are not yet clear. The objective of this study is to clarify the role of glass fiber reinforced polymer inclined strips epoxy bonded to the beam web for shear strengthening of reinforced concrete beams. Included in the study are effectiveness in terms of width and spacing of inclined GFRP strips, spacing of internal steel stirrups, and longitudinal steel rebar section on shear capacity of the RC beam. The study also aims to understand the shear contribution of concrete, shear strength due to steel bars and steel stirrups and the additional shear capacity due to glass fiber reinforced polymer strips in a RC beam. And also to study the failure modes, shear strengthening effect on ultimate force and load deflection behaviour of RC beams bonded externally with GFRP inclined strips on the shear region of the beam.