Evaluation of shear behavior of short-span reinforced concrete deep beams strengthened with fiber reinforced polymer strips

Abstract

The application of externally bonded fiber-reinforced polymers (EB-FRP) is known to improve the shear behavior of reinforced concrete beams. Nevertheless, the studies available in the literature are not sufficient to explain the shear behavior of the beams that have low shear span to effective depth ratios (av/d) and are strengthened with FRP and the interaction between the horizontal steel shear reinforcement and FRP strips. To fill these gaps in the literature, an experimental study involving twenty-two tests of deep beams with a low av/d and with different amounts of vertical and horizontal steel shear reinforcement was carried out. Both unstrengthened and strengthened with fully wrapped FRP strips beams were tested where the number of FRP layers, the spacing between them and the type of FRP material were varied. The experimental results showed that the FRP strips improved the shear and ductility capacities of beams with low av/d. In addition, as the vertical shear steel reinforcement ratio in the beams strengthened with FRP strips increased, the percentage increases in the shear and deflection capacities decreased. Also, as the horizontal shear steel reinforcement ratio in the strengthened beams increased, the percentage increase in the shear capacity increased. Finally, a new equation was proposed to estimate the FRP contribution to the shear capacity. To prove the reliability of the proposed equation, a comparative study was conducted using twenty existing equations.