Title:
FRP Strengthening of Beams Made with Recycled Concrete Aggregate
Author(s):
Lawrence C. Bank, Ardavan Yazdanbakhsh, Ali Hamidi, Stefanie Reichman, Minhui Weng and Chen Chen
Publication:
Symposium Paper
Volume:
322
Issue:
Appears on pages(s):
9.1-9.14
Keywords:
Carbon–epoxy materials, Flexural Failure, FRP debonding, FRP strengthening, Recycled concrete aggregate (RCA), Shear failure
DOI:
10.14359/51706960
Date:
6/18/2018
Abstract:
Coarse recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) has been studied as a replacement for natural aggregate (NA) in concrete for decades. RCA is still predominantly used in non-structural applications such as filler, road sub-base, drainage material, and low quality concrete. However, there is increased interest in using RCA in new structural concrete due to restrictions on landfilling of construction and demolition (C&D) waste and on the scarcity of natural aggregates, especially in urban megacities. The compressive strength of concrete with coarse RCA is typically 15–30% less than that with NA. This feasibility study was conducted to evaluate the effect of FRP strengthening on RCA
beams as compared with NA beams also strengthened with FRP. Four RCA and four NA beams were strengthened in flexure and in shear using hand laid-up carbon-epoxy FRP materials. A combination of longitudinal strips on the beam soffit and intermittent closed hoop wraps along the length were used. The FRP-strengthened beams were designed to yield and then fail in compression with the FRP still attached. The results of the testing are described. The ability of FRP strengthening to, (1) change the failure mode of RCA beams, and, (2) to improve the reliability of RCA concrete beams constructed or repaired with FRP materials is discussed. It was found, surprisingly, that the
FRP-strengthening was effective in increasing the capacity of the RCA beams. This is attributed to a different failure
mechanism of the RCA beams from that of the NA beams tested.