Strengthening of concrete beams having shear zone openings using orthotropic CFRP modeling

Abstract

A finite element reinforced concrete model has been analyzed by the author with ANSYS 9 finite element program for both unstrengthened and CFRP-strengthened beams using concrete element model 25x25x25mm and discrete and smeared steel distribution with openings exist. The CFRP has been modeled using Solid46 element, which has orthotropic properties. The deflection results have been compared with an experimental and other finite element model which are performed by Mohamed [4], in which using 100x42.5x42.5 mm concrete element, smeared steel distribution with the same opening sizes, and modeling CFRP with ANSYS 5 finite element program using Link10 element which has a uniaxial properties. These results show that the author's model is much better than the Mohamed's [4] model comparing with the experimental one. A parametric study has been done on the proposed model for obtaining the maximum strains values for concrete and steel at failure loads, for different opening sizes and comparing them with the experimental one. This study show a good agreement between the proposed and experimental model results for strains values which indicate the efficiency of the proposed model for analyzing the unstrengthend and strengthened reinforced concrete beams.