Biography
Biography: Biao Hu
Abstract
The externally bonded (EB) fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) strengthening technique has become a popular method for improving the structural performance of infrastructures, in which U-wrapping FRP is one of the most popular choices for shear strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) beams. However, the debonding of EB-FRP U-strips in shear span is the major failure mode, which results in a fracture failure mode with low efficiency of using FRP material. The paper presents an experimental study to investigate the performance of a hybrid bonding (HB) FRP system with mechanical anchors under different targeted vertical pressure levels for shear strengthening of RC beams. The performance of EB- and HB-FRP strengthened beams was compared in terms of the detailed failure process, failure mode, load-deflection response and strain levels in FRP U-strips. Tests results indicate that, compared with EB-FRP system, HB-FRP strengthened beams showed a larger shear capacity and more effective using of FRP material, and that such superiority will be more significant when increasing the vertical pressure applied on anchors. A modified shear strength model considering the mechanical anchor applied on FRP strips was then proposed.