Shear strengthening of reinforced concrete beams completely wrapped by large rupture strain (LRS) FRP.

An experimental work on the shear strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) beams completely wrapped by large rupture strain (LRS) FRP is presented in this paper. A total of 14 three-point bending tests were carried out on simply supported RC beams, with a focus on the impacts of the shear span-to-depth ratio (1.53, 2.25, and 3.01) and FRP reinforcement ratio (0.37 %, 0.75 %, and 1.12 %) on the shear behavior of RC beams strengthened with LRS FRP. For the beams with a median length, the ductility coefficients increased by 81 %, 154 %, and 335 % with the increase in FRP reinforcement ratio. For the long beams, the ductility coefficients increased by 116 %, 286 %, and 470 % as the FRP reinforcement ratio improved. The ductility markedly improved with the increase in shear span-to-depth ratio. PET FRP's fracture was not found at the ultimate state, and the improvement in mid-span deflection after the peak state was mainly contributed by the shear deformation. The strengthened specimens exhibited a ductile shear failure mode. For the short RC beams, the shear capacity was slightly enhanced, and the ductility was not improved after being strengthened. The strengthened short RC beams still showed a brittle diagonal compression failure mode. The experimental shear contribution of PETT FRP was compared with the prediction of the existing design guidelines. Finally, an effective strain model of PET FRP, including the shear span-to-depth ratio effect, was proposed and verified with the experimental results. • Shear performance was studied for shear-critical RC beams completely wrapped by LRS FRP. • Ducile shear failure of LRS FRP-strengthened RC beams was observed. • Effect of shear span to depth ratio on shear behavior was discussed. • Six design guidelines for FRP shear contribution were evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]