PLASTIC HINGE REPLACEMENT AND ENHANCING THE LOAD CARRYING CAPACITY OF THE RC JOINTS USING CFRP

In an RC building subjected to lateral loads due to earthquake disturbing forces or any other external exciting forces, the beam–column joints constitute one of the critical regions of the RC moment resisting frames of a structure. In existing frames, which were not adequately designed, change in implementation purpose of the structure or due to changes in engineering codes and seismic parameters of a specific region a practical way of controlling plastic hinging and implement the strong-column weak-beam concept is through the use of a FRP retrofitting system. This paper presents the results of an analytical study carried out in order to evaluate the ability of CFRP sheets in preventing the plastic hinge formation at the face of the column in exterior RC joints, Different wrapping schemes and configuration of CFRP in RC beam-column joints would be compared and discussed with their advantages and specific results