Structural Performance and Ductility of Fiber Reinforced Polymer Concrete Bonding System Under Tropical Climates

Tropical climate combines with saltwater exposure may influence the structural performance and durability of FRP–epoxy–concrete system over long period of time. FRP being non–corrodible material has been proven to be efficient materials in rehabilitation jobs compared to steel. Reinforced concrete structures may be required to be strengthened at a later age of their service life to overcome additional loading capacity and deterioration due to environmental effect. The main objective of the current paper is to study flexural behavior of an externally bonded reinforced concrete beams using carbon FRP plate and fabrics due to exposure to natural tropical climate. The research studies the ability of reinforced concrete beams externally bonded with CFRP plate and fabrics to resist numerous environmental conditions such as tropical weather, normal laboratory environment and saltwater solution. The bonded beams are subjected experimental evaluation by performing four points load test until failure to observe the failure loads, deflection, strain, cracking behavior and the patterns of failure. Strengthening of reinforced concrete beams using CFRP plate and fabrics demonstrated significant improvement in the flexural capacity of the beams by 30% and 16%, respectively compare to control specimen without strengthening.