Experimental Study on the Behaviour of Reinforced Concrete (RC) Continuous Beam Strengthened with Carbon Fibre-Reinforced Polymer (CFRP)
摘要
Strengthening existing reinforced concrete (RC) continuous beams is critical for extending the service life of aging infrastructure and meeting increased load demands. In particular, the complex moment redistribution and critical negative bending regions in continuous systems make their strengthening more challenging than simply supported members. This study investigates the flexural behaviour of two-span continuous RC beams externally strengthened with carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets under symmetrical static loading. Three CFRP strengthening strategies were evaluated: strengthening in the hogging region alone, the sagging region alone, and both hogging and sagging regions simultaneously. Four continuous RC beams, each measuring 150 × 200 × 3500 mm, were cast and tested to failure under a five-point bending configuration with a three-support setup. The CFRP sheets were bonded externally to the beam surfaces using epoxy resin. Two-point loading per span was applied gradually, and moment redistribution was observed and compared among all four beams. The results show that wrapping CFRP sheets around both the tension and compression regions significantly increase the bending strength of RC beams. The epoxy-bonded CFRP layers also delayed crack initiation, with cracks appearing at higher load levels. The results demonstrated that CFRP strengthening in the hogging region increased the ultimate load by 27.27%, strengthening in the sagging region increased it by 23.80%, and combined hogging and sagging strengthening yielded the highest increase of 33.33%.