Experimental Investigation of Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Columns Strengthening with Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Under Axial and Uniaxial Bending Loadings

Abstract

Reinforced concrete columns are the most important structural elements that need to be strengthened or repaired due to situations such as aging of the structure, environmental effects, earthquake, etc. It is very important to determine what effects a structural element is exposed to while being strengthened. Although reinforced concrete columns are often subjected to concentric loads, especially side columns are also subjected to eccentric loads and try to carry axial loads under the influence of bending moments. In this study, it is aimed to experimentally investigate concentric and eccentrically loaded reinforced concrete columns strengthening with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips. For this purpose, 6 large-scale test elements were fabricated. Two of these test elements were chosen as reference. The remaining 4 test elements are strengthened with CFRP strips. Loading type (concentric and eccentric) and anchor usage were determined as variables. The strip width and spacing were kept constant. As a result of the experimental study, the maximum load carrying capacity, initial stiffness, ductility and energy dissipation capacity of the test elements were calculated and the results were compared.