FLEXURAL STRENGTH OF RC BEAMS WITH MULTIPLE LAYERS OF CFRP SHEET

Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composite sheets has been universally used in the construction industry for the last twenty years as a common technique for strengthening, rehabilitation and retrofitting purpose of the RC structures. Five RC beams with different layers of CFRP sheets were prepared and put under four-point load. The aims of this research are to investigate the efficiency of multiple layers of CFRP and how different number of layers of CFRP will influence the RC beam behavior. Besides, to identify the optimum number of CFRP sheets should be used to strengthen the RC beams. It was proven that the load carrying capacity of the strengthened RC beams were increased compared to the control beams (B1). However, the outcomes from the load-deflection curve shows that the optimum number of CFRP sheets layer was three layers with load increment by 14.63%. This is because when the beam was strengthened by four layers of CFRP sheets, it shows the lowest load increment by 2.23%. The failure mode experienced by the strengthened beams was concrete cover separation, which is categorized as shear failure.