Effect of bond enhancement using carbon nanotubes on flexural behavior of RC beams strengthened with externally bonded CFRP sheets

This paper studied the effect of incorporation of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) on strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) beams. The RC beams were prepared, strengthened in flexure by externally bonded CFRP or CNTs-modified CFRP sheets, and tested under four-point loading. The experimental results showed the ability of the CNTs to delay the initiation of the cracks and to enhance the flexural capacity of the beams strengthened with CFRP. A nonlinear finite element (FE) model was built, validated, and used to study the effect of various parameters on the strengthening efficiency of CNTs-modified CFRP. The studied parameters included concrete strength, flexural reinforcement ratio, and CFRP sheet configuration. The numerical results showed that utilization of CNTs in CFRP production improved the flexural capacity of the strengthened beams for U-shape and underside-strip configurations. The enhancement was more pronounced in the case of U-shape than in the case of use of sheet strip covers on the underside of the beam. In case of using underside-strip, the longer or the wider the sheet, the higher was the flexural capacity of the beams. The flexural enhancement of RC beams by strengthening with CNTs-modified CFRP decreased with increasing the rebar diameter and was not affected by concrete strength.