NONLINEAR ANALYSIS OF REINFORCED CONCRETE CORBELS STRENGTHENED WITH CARBON FIBRE REINFORCED POLYMER STRIPS BY ANSYS

Abstract

This research is devoted to investigate the effect of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) strips on the behavior and load carrying capacity of the strengthened concrete corbels. Numerical investigation was carried out. The experimental program variables include location, direction, amount of CFRP strips, effect of shear span to effective depth (a/d) ratio on the behavior of strengthened corbels. All corbels had the same dimensions and flexural reinforcement and they were without horizontal shear steel reinforcement. ANSYS V.11.0 software was utilized in this work. Solid65, Solid45, Link8 and shell41 elements were used to model concrete, steel bearing plates, steel flexural reinforcing bars, and CFRP strips respectively. Full bond was assumed between CFRP sheets and concrete interface. The full Newton-Raphson method is used as a nonlinear solution algorithm. The displacement criteria are used for convergence. The adopted finite element analysis showed good agreement with experimental results throughout the load-deflection history, the maximum difference in the ultimate load was less by10%. However, the finite element models show a slightly stiffer response.