Title:
Flexural Strengthening of RC Beams with GFRP Grid Reinforced Polymer
Author(s):
Piyong Yu, Pedro F. Silva and Antonio Nanni
Publication:
Symposium Paper
Volume:
327
Issue:
Appears on pages(s):
53.1-53.12
Keywords:
GFRP, grids, polyurea, reinforced concrete, retrofit, strengthening.
DOI:
10.14359/51713374
Date:
11/1/2018
Abstract:
Flexural strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) beams with fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites and two different bonding agents were investigated in this research. The bonding agents used in this research consisted of an epoxy paste and a sprayed polyurea. When polyurea was used as the bonding agent, it was sprayed to specific regions on the RC beams. Three RC beams were flexural strengthened with FRP composites according to the following techniques: (a) sprayed polyurea with and without glass FRP (GFRP) grid reinforcement, and (b) manual layup using one GFRP grid. Experimental results clearly indicate that flexural strengthening with the un-reinforced or reinforced polyurea technique is an effective strengthening scheme. Advantages of using polyurea over other epoxy based methods are that the application process requires significantly less time and the polyurea cures within minutes. Furthermore, no debonding of the un-reinforced or reinforced polyurea system was observed, suggesting a further benefit of this technique. Application of the polyurea system and key experimental results are presented and discussed herein.