Experimental Study of Strengthening for Increased Shear

Bearing Capacity
Anders Carolin1 and Björn Täljsten2

Abstract: The need for structural rehabilitation of concrete structures all over the world is well known, and a great amount of research
is going on in this field. The use of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer 共CFRP兲 plate bonding has been shown to be a competitive method
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with regard to both structural performance and economic factors. This method consists of bonding a thin carbon-fiber laminate or sheet
to the surface of the structure to act as an outer reinforcement layer. However, most research in this area has been undertaken to study
flexural behavior. This paper deals with shear strengthening of reinforced concrete members by use of CFRP. Tests on rectangular beams
3.5 to 4.5 m long have been undertaken to study different parameters, such as fatigue, anchorage, and others. The strain field in shear
spans of beams simultaneously subjected to shear and bending is also studied. The tests presented also contribute to the existing literature
on tests of concrete members strengthened for increased shear capacity.
DOI: 10.1061/共ASCE兲1090-0268共2005兲9:6共488兲
CE Database subject headings: Concrete structures; Retrofitting; Shear; Fiber reinforced polymers; Laboratory tests.

Introduction more dangerous and less predictable than flexural failure

共Al-Sulaimani et al., 1994兲.
All over the world are structures intended for living and transpor- Several methods exist for strengthening in shear, such as ad-
tation, some of which are in such bad condition that they will ditional reinforcement covered with shotcrete and clamping with
need to be replaced. Since environmental and economic factors steel, just to mention a few. External bonding of CFRP is also an
preclude replacing all such structures, they should instead be effective way to strengthen for increased shear capacity where the
strengthened or retrofitted as far as possible. Methods for flexural bonded fibers become external stirrups 共Pellegrino and Modena
strengthening are well developed and have therefore been used 2002; Micelli 2002; Diagana et al. 2003兲. CFRP can be bonded in
quite widely. One method that has gained acceptance all over the the form of laminates, or a composite may be built up on-site with
world is plate bonding with fiber-reinforced polymers 共FRPs兲 fabrics and resin. Although shear deficiencies are not the only
共Burgoyne 1999; Breña et al. 2003; Wong and Vecchio 2003兲. The problem facing structures today, they are becoming more and
more prevalent, and a great need for strengthening and retrofitting
method involves externally bonding a thin layer of fiber compos-
for increased shear capacity exists. Previous research 共Carolin
ite to a structure’s surface so that the fibers act as an outer rein-
2001; Carolin and Täljsten 2005兲 has shown that the composite is
forcement. FRPs have a high strength and stiffness-to-weight
not uniformly stressed when bonded to the sides of a beam and
ratio, show excellent fatigue behavior and corrosion resistance,
that the strain field must be further studied to understand the
and are not magnetic. The high number of such projects being
behavior of a member strengthened in shear.
undertaken confirms that the method is here to stay.
The topic of this paper is strengthening of concrete structures
Work has been done to restore or upgrade the flexural capacity
for increased shear capacity. The aim of the study is to investigate
of many structures, while the shear capacity has not been ad-
the effect of different parameters when upgrading structures for
dressed to the same extent 共Micelli et al. 2002兲. When increasing increased shear capacity with externally bonded carbon fiber
flexure capacity, the structure will be loaded closer to its maxi- composites. The strain fields in shear spans of beams simulta-
mum shear capacity. Täljsten 共1994兲 even shows in a full-scale neously subjected to shear and bending are also studied, and the
test that flexural strengthening can induce shear failure. On the tests with large specimens presented also contribute to the exist-
other hand, a structure with brittle failure in shear can be strength- ing literature of tests on concrete members strengthened for in-
ened so that the failure mode will change to a more ductile and creased shear capacity.
friendly mode 共Collins and Roper 1990兲. A beam must have a
certain safety margin against shear failure since shear failure is
Truss Model and FRP Plate Bonding
1
Luleå Univ. of Technology, Luleå, Sweden.
2
Professor, Skanska Teknik AB, Solna, and Luleå Univ. of One model that calculates the shear capacity of a reinforced con-
Technology, Luleå, Sweden. crete member, VRd, takes the sum of all the terms, as shown in
Note. Discussion open until May 1, 2006. Separate discussions must Eq. 共1兲 共Täljsten 2002兲:
be submitted for individual papers. To extend the closing date by one
month, a written request must be filed with the ASCE Managing Editor. VRd = Vc + Vs + V f 共1兲
The manuscript for this paper was submitted for review and possible
publication on May 14, 2003; approved on March 7, 2005. This paper is where Vc is the concrete contribution, which often includes the
part of the Journal of Composites for Construction, Vol. 9, No. 6, dowel action from the tensile reinforcement and is determined by
December 1, 2005. ©ASCE, ISSN 1090-0268/2005/6-488–496/$25.00. empirically found relationships; Vs is the contribution from steel

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 Table 1. Tested Beams
Amount Direction
Name 关g / m2兴 关°兴 Comments
Type A
R1 — —
R2
Fig. 1. Fiber alignment and crack angle R3
R4
R5
calculated by the truss model; and V f is contribution from CFRP
strengthening systems. In this study, only the contribution from 145 125 45
strengthening, V f , is experimentally investigated. When the con- 145F Fatigue loaded
tribution from strengthening is to be calculated, it is important to
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consider the anisotropic behavior of the composite material. From 20 200 0

this point on, the fiber direction will be defined as the angle be-
tween the longitudinal direction of the fibers and the longitudinal
245a 200 45
direction of the beam. In the following, two angles will be used
245b
共Fig. 1兲: ␣ for crack inclination, and ␤ for fiber direction.
Equations are derived based on truss theory and are presented 245W Wrapped
in detail in Triantafillou 共1998兲, Täljsten 共2002兲, Carolin and Täl- 245F Fatigue loaded
jsten 共2005兲, and Chen and Teng 共2003兲. The ultimate fiber frac- 245Ra R2 repaired
ture strain cannot be used in the same way as the yield strain for 245Rb R3 repaired
steel stirrups because of the nonuniform distribution of shear 245RF R4 repaired, fatigue loaded
strains that act on a cross section 共Carolin 2001兲. Instead,
a reduction factor, ␩ f , must be used that is experimentally 290a 200 90
studied in this paper and theoretically studied in Carolin and 290b
Täljsten 共2005兲. 290W Wrapped
290WR R5 repaired, wrapped

Shear Tests 345 300 45

345F
Tests were undertaken on 23 rectangular reinforced concrete Type B
beams, of which 20 are without steel stirrups 共type A兲 and 3 with
R — — Steel stirrups
steel stirrups 共type B兲. All beams are heavily reinforced in bend-
290 300 90 Steel stirrups
ing. The first tests undertaken were done with type A beams.
390 300 90 Steel stirrups
When it was decided to also study beams with stirrups, it was
found that type A beams would not fail in shear when reinforced
with steel stirrups and strengthened in shear. Type B beams were
then designed to have extra strength in flexure to ensure shear
failure even after CFRP strengthening. The fiber direction has
been varied as well as the thickness of the fiber sheets used. Some
of the beams were precracked before the strengthening was ap-
plied, some strengthened with fibers on the sides only, and others
with fibers wrapped around the entire beam to achieve better an-
chorage. Other beams were subjected to fatigue loading after

Fig. 2. Naming of strengthened beams Fig. 3. Strengthening scheme for type A beams

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 Fig. 4. Strengthening scheme for type B beams

strengthening had been applied, and all beams were finally tested
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to failure by deformation-controlled loading. Beams have also

been reinforced with steel stirrups in one shear span to cause the
failure to occur in the other span and therefore make it possible to
focus the measurements on the failing shear span. The naming
convention for the strengthened beams is given in Fig. 2. First,
fiber thicknesses 1, 2, and 3, for 125, 200, and 300 g / m2, respec-
tively, are given, then the fiber directions 0°, 45°, or 90°, and
finally letters are assigned to the specimens. Nonstrengthened ref-
erence beams are denoted R, followed by a number. The beams
and their strengthening scheme are presented in Table 1 and
Figs. 3 and 4.
For strengthening in shear, the system BPE Composites, con-
sisting of low-viscosity resin 共BPE Lim 417兲 and unidirectional Fig. 5. Points for measurement of strains
carbon-fiber sheets, has been used. All beams were strengthened
with the hand layup technique in laboratory conditions of 20°C
and 60% humidity. Table 2 shows the properties of the material measure the strain field. Strain gauges 共SGs兲 and rosette strain
used. When testing 290W, the mode of failure changed from shear gauges 共RSGs兲 were placed based on the final failure crack pat-
to bending. Therefore 290WR and 245W were strengthened in tern for the other beams on the composite. The placement of the
bending with one Sika Carbodur M1412 laminate over the whole gauges can be seen in Fig. 5.
length of the tension side of the beam. RSGs were placed at seven levels of the height of the cross
The beams have been subjected to four-point bending, as section E–K to measure the strain field in the shear span. Two of
shown in Figs. 3 and 4. The loading for test to failure was con- the individual gauges of the rosette were placed in the beam’s
trolled deformation with rates of 0.01 mm/ s 共0.6 mm/ min兲 for longitudinal and transverse directions, and the third was placed in
type A beams and 0.003 mm/ s 共0.2 mm/ min兲 for type B beams. the 45° angle, as presented in Fig. 5. To increase the possibility of
Beams 145F, 245F, 245RF, and 345F were subjected to 106 load
cycles before loading to failure. The load varied from 40 to 60%
of the failure load of beams not subjected to fatigue. The fatigue
loading was carried out for 10 days with a frequency of 1.2 Hz.
Midpoint deflection and support settlement have been registered
for all beams load, ed. For beams 245W, 290⬙, 290W, and
290WR, the strains in the composite have also been registered to

Table 2. Material Properties

Compressive Tensile Young’s Ultimate
strength strength module strain
Material 共MPa兲 共MPa兲 共GPa兲 共10−3兲
Concrete 55a 3.4a 42
Steel 515b 515b 210 2.5b
Adhesivec
BPE Lim 417 80 50 2
BPE Lim 465 103 31 7
Fiberc
BPE Composite S 4,500 234 19
Sika Carbodur M1214 ⬎2 , 800 210 ⬎13
a
Average.
b
Yielding.
c
Supplier’s data. Fig. 6. Failure modes of externally bonded carbon fiber fabrics

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 Fig. 7. Typical failure pattern of strengthened beam 245W with
CFRP removed
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Fig. 8. All reference beams

measuring fiber strains close to the formed final crack, single
strain gauges were also placed on the sides of the rosette gauges
as presented in Fig. 5. These gauges were placed along the same sound was occasionally emitted from the beams. The occurrence
fiber as the rosette gauges above and below. On the precracked of clicking increased in frequency as the beams were loaded
beam 290WR, the rosette gauges were placed along the crack. closer to the maximum load-bearing capacity. Other than this, no
significant warning signals preceded a sudden failure. Fig. 6
shows the identified failure modes: A is for anchorage failure, C
Results for compression failure at top of beam, R for fiber rupture, S for
shear crack only in concrete, AR for a combination of anchorage
During loading of the beams to failure, when the load was ap- failure and fiber rupture at the same load, and A + R for fiber
proximately two-thirds or more of the failure load, a clicking rupture after anchorage at a lower load. A typical failure crack
pattern is shown in Fig. 7, where the fibers have been manually
Table 3. Maximum Shear Loads from Tests on Beams
removed after failure. Before the final shear crack forms, there is
a zone of several small shear cracks distributed over the shear
Compressive Ultimate shear span. At failure the final shear crack is then formed by several of
strength Tensile strength load Failure these small cracks joined together.
Beam 共MPa兲 共MPa兲 共kN兲 mode
Of the total applied load, only half 共i.e., reaction force at sup-
Type A port兲 acts as a shear load in each shear span. In the following, all
R1 65 3.6 126 S loads presented are the shear loads acting in the shear span. The
R2 67 3.5 124a S maximum shear loads from all tests are shown in Table 3, to-
R3 47 3.5 103a S gether with the concrete capacity tested on 150-mm cubes as an
R4 53 3.5 119a S average from three cubes or more and the modes of failure of the
R5 46 2.9 125a S beam. The load-bearing capacity and the failure modes will be
discussed further in the following where different parameters are
studied at each time.
145 67 3.5 247 R
145F 49 3.5 338 R
20 59 3.5 154 S Reference Beams
When studying shear-bearing capacity of a strengthening system,
245a 71 3.8 257 AR the capacity of the original structural element must be known, and
245b 53 3.5 305 AR therefore several specimens were tested without strengthening.
245W 46 2.9 338 A+R The results from the tests of the type A reference beams are pre-
245F 49 3.5 319 AR
245Ra 67 3.5 306 AR
245Rb 47 3.5 251 AR
245RF 53 3.5 291 AR
290a 59 3.5 256 A
290b 52 3.7 298 A
290W 52 3.7 367 C
290WR 46 2.9 388 A+R

345 71 3.8 334 A

345F 54 3.6 344 A
Type B
R 45 2.9 237 C
290 46 3.0 298 A
390 46 2.8 298 A
a
Loading canceled when shear crack arose. Fig. 9. Effect of different fiber directions

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Fig. 10. Results from tests with different composite thicknesses Fig. 11. Effect of different anchorage configurations

Fiber Amount
sented in Fig. 8. The loading of beams R2, R3, R4, and R5 was To investigate the influence on shear-bearing capacity and failure
cancelled when a shear crack suddenly arose because these beams mode for different amounts of bonded fibers, beams have been
were going to be strengthened after being damaged. However, strengthened with composites with different thickness and amount
this can be considered the ultimate capacity since the remaining of fibers. The strengthening effect due to thickness of the com-
shear capacity only consisted of dowel action from the longitudi- posite, that is, the fiber amount, is shown in Fig. 10, which shows
nal rebars. that an increase in fiber amount gives a higher strengthening ef-
Beam R1 was not supposed to be repaired, and the loading fect. Final failure of beam 145 共125 g / m2兲 was complete fiber
continued after a shear crack formed. The ductile behavior is due rupture, and the load was therefore controlled by the amount of
to dowel action on the heavily bending reinforcement. There is a fibers. The 245 beams 共200 g / m2兲 failed finally with a combina-
negligible difference between the reference beams, and therefore tion of anchorage and fiber failure. It was not possible to deter-
in the following figures only beam R2 will be used as a reference mine which was the primary failure. Final failure of beam
and will be called REF. 345 共300 g / m2兲 was characterized by complete anchorage failure.
The final failure might have been preceded by deformations caus-
ing decrease of aggregate interlocking and therefore increase in
Fiber Direction
deformations causing the anchorage failure of the composite, but
Unidirectional carbon-fiber composites are highly anisotropic, this cannot be determined from the test.
and the effectiveness of strengthening depends to a large extent
on the fiber direction. The results from the tests with different
Anchorage
alignment of the fibers are summarized in Fig. 9.
The first thing to note is that a significant strengthening effect As found by the study of fiber amount, the anchorage is of utmost
can be achieved if the fibers are placed in the correct direction in importance. Fibers bonded on sides only may have debonding
relation to the shear crack. It is also obvious that strengthening without reaching the rupture strain. By wrapping the sheets
scheme 20 共0°兲 did not contribute significantly to the load-bearing around the entire beam, a good anchorage is obtained. Fig. 11
capacity. The small increase of shear-bearing capacity might be shows load-deflection plots for different anchorage schemes.
due to increased concrete contribution from the distribution of As can be seen clearly in Fig. 11, anchoring by wrapping
cracks and the crack opening being limited by the longitudinal around corners significantly increases the load-bearing capacity.
fibers. The tests showed no difference in bearing capacity be- The mode of failure actually changed for beam 290W from shear
tween the 45° and 90° fiber directions, which is in good agree- to bending with yielding of longitudinal steel reinforcement and
ment with the theory presented in Carolin and Täljsten 共2005兲. concrete crushing at the top of the beam. At onset of concrete
Fibers bonded in a 90° direction debonded at failure, while fibers crushing in bending, the beam was unloaded and inspected. The
bonded in the 45° direction debonded and ruptured at failure. At fibers at this stage had debonded on both sides of the crack zone
failure of beam 20, the fibers had neither ruptured nor debonded. but were still attached outside this zone. This may indicate that

Fig. 12. Bond stresses at crack

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Fig. 13. Precracked and repaired beams Fig. 14. Fatigue load on strengthened beams

debonding started from a shear crack in the cracked zone and capacity cannot be explained other than by a favorable stress
propagated toward the bottom and top of the beam and is ex- distribution together with good anchorage that gives a high fiber
plained by stress concentrations at the crack, as schematically utilization, a combination not found for any of the other speci-
shown in Fig. 12. The shear stresses become too high at the crack mens. Therefore the result is considered exceptional rather than
and the anchorage is reduced. Depending on the fracture energy reliable. However, the final failure mode followed the expected
of the concrete and the possibility of strain redistribution, the pattern. Beam 145F 共125 g / m2兲 failed by fiber fracture,
stress concentration is moved outward from the crack and the 345F 共300 g / m2兲 by debonding, and 245F 共200 g / m2兲 by a com-
anchorage failure propagates or the stress concentration becomes bination of the two failure modes.
smaller, anchorage is sufficient, and the composite may be loaded There is a tendency for fatigue-loaded beams to have a higher
further. For a fiber thickness of 200 g / m2 shear stress concentra- load-bearing capacity when tested to failure compared to beams
tion higher than the capacity of the concrete occurs for fiber without a fatigue history. If this is the case, it might be explained
strains on the order of 6,000 microstrain. by crack distribution that gives a propitious stress situation that in
Beams 245W and 290WR were also strengthened in bending turn gives better anchorage. With only small differences and a
with a high modulus laminate, as presented above, to enforce the small amount of tests, it is however not possible to make any
failure mode to shear. These wrapped beams failed by complete conclusion about this. During fatigue loading of beam 245RF, the
fiber rupture and debonding for all fibers crossed by the final matrix started to crack. This happened during the first 10,000
shear crack. The composite debonded prior to fiber rupture, but cycles and was detected by a color change of the matrix, changing
the wrapping gave satisfactory anchorage and the fibers ruptured from transparent to a whiter, frosted color at the location of the
after additional loading. Beam 290b failed by debonding, and crack.
245b by a combination of debonding and fiber rupture.

Tests of Beams with Steel Stirrups

Precracking
In most cases existing structures have different amounts of steel
It is of interest to know whether predamaged members may be stirrups. Even if stirrups are not always directly needed for struc-
strengthened to their original capacity or to a higher capacity. tural reasons, they are sometimes placed in the structure for
Fig. 13 shows tests on predamaged strengthened beams together crack-width limitations. Therefore tests were undertaken on
with nonpredamaged strengthened beams. These tests show first beams with stirrups for both strengthened and nonstrengthened
that a damaged beam can be repaired and strengthened to a level beams. The results from these tests, type B, with stirrups in the
comparable to a strengthened beam that was not damaged before shear span are presented in Fig. 15.
it was strengthened. The repaired beams indicate that there can be
a larger difference in load-bearing capacity between different re-
paired beams, but that is not ensured. The distribution between
the beams is related to the failure mode. The beams failed in a
combination of fiber rupture and debonding. The different ratio of
debonding and fiber fracture gives the different loads.

Fatigue
Measurements were undertaken during all load cycles. Here only
the measurements from loading to failure are presented 共Fig. 14兲.
The initial deformation of the beams comes from the fatigue load-
ing that caused flexural cracking. Unfortunately, the displacement
gauges for beam 145F were damaged during fatigue loading, and
therefore no load-deflection plot is presented for this beam. How-
ever, the 145F beam was loaded to 338 kN before failure. This is
the highest load for all tests of nonwrapped beams and unex-
pected since that beam has the lowest amount of fibers. The high Fig. 15. Load-deflection plots for type B beams

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Fig. 16. Maximal measured fiber strains on beams 245W, 290W, 290b, and 290WR

The reference beam was not unloaded at the onset of shear beam, approximately 125 kN. The fibers to be subjected to strains
cracking, but rather, several shear cracks started to develop in the are located at the center of the height of the beam. Fibers bonded
middle of the height of the beam. As loading continued the cracks in the 45° direction are subjected to compression forces at the
grew both in width and length. Finally, the beam failed by severe upper part of the beam. Fiber strains measured directly over the
shear failure from one large shear crack. The drop in stiffness for crack on the precracked beam, 290WR, show that the fibers are
the reference beam at approximately 120 kN comes from the stressed from the beginning of the test. This was also found from
onset of the formation of shear cracks, which is not found on the the fatigue loading of beam 145F, which showed a change in
strengthened beams since the composite distributes the strains and color of the matrix just at the location of the shear crack, the color
also holds the cracks together. Both of the strengthened beams change being due to high cyclic strains in the composite.
failed with complete debonding of the composite, which occurred The strains presented in Fig. 16 show that for the nonwrapped
at the same load for both beams. The tests show that concrete beam, 290, the fibers at the top 共E兲 and bottom 共K兲 of the beam
beams with stirrups can be strengthened with externally bonded are hardly stressed at all, but are most stressed at the middle of
fibers for a higher shear-bearing capacity. Beams with stirrups do
the beam height 共H兲. For the wrapped beams, debonding takes
not have the same lack of shear reinforcement, and the strength-
place at about 300 kN, and not until then do the upper and lower
ening effect cannot be as large as for beams without stirrups. If a
parts of the fibers start to be stressed. This becomes more evident
beam with steel stirrups is in need of a large strengthening effect
if the strains at the different heights are plotted for different loads
in shear, it is probable that the beam also must be strengthened in
in the same figure. These strains become strain profiles over the
flexure. Since the higher amount of fibers in the tests did not give
any higher bearing capacity but instead debonded for the same height of the cross section, that is, along the crack, and show the
load, it is of utmost importance also to anchor the fibers when strain distributions. In Figs. 17 and 18, the strain profiles for some
beams with stirrups are strengthened. chosen loads have been plotted along the length of an idealized
final shear crack. The strains have been plotted versus the height
of the beam instead of the location on the crack to make compari-
Strains son possible between nonprecracked members and the precracked
Strains are measured not only to investigate the strain distribution member. On the precracked member, the gauges have been placed
but also to get an understanding of how the composite and con- at the same heights, but along the real crack instead of the ideal-
crete will act together, and furthermore to measure to what level ized crack, as shown in Fig. 5.
the composite is stressed. Fig. 16 shows the maximum measured Fig. 17 shows how strains for the 45° fiber direction are dis-
strains in fiber direction at the seven heights 共Fig. 5兲 for beams tributed over the cross section. The fibers start to be stressed when
245W, 290W, and 290WR 共all 200 g / m2兲. On members that were the concrete cracks, and already at 150 kN the strain distribution
not precracked, the fibers are not subjected to strains until the can be noticed. At 270 kN, the nonuniform distribution is obvi-
load reaches the cracking load for a nonstrengthened reference ous: fibers at the upper and lower part of the crack are hardly

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Fig. 17. Fiber strains over cross section 245W, 200 g / m2 Fig. 18. Fiber strains over cross section 290W, 200 g / m2

stressed, while the strain in midregion is about 5,000· ␮s 共␮s, or

microstrain, is used in the text for 10−6m / m兲. Fibers at the top of
the crack are actually slightly compressed; when the load is fur- be used in designing with the truss model. With satisfactory an-
ther increased the strain becomes more uniform. This is explained chorage such as wrapping, strains can be redistributed, which
by the debonding of the fibers, which redistributes the strains. gives a higher load-bearing capacity. The distribution of strains is
Because of the wrapping, the fibers still make a significant con- also an issue when designing in the service limit state, and more
tribution, even though the fibers are debonded. Just before final research needs to be done.
failure, at 338 kN, the strain distribution is quite uniform even From the tests, different failure modes have been identified,
though the curve seems jagged, with a maximum strain of about such as fiber rupture, anchorage, and combinations thereof. An-
8 , 300 ␮s. Fig. 18 shows the corresponding strains for vertical chorage is dependent on many factors, for example, fiber amount,
fibers.
orientation, and quality of workmanship during application of
For 225 kN the nonuniform distribution is very distinctive, and
strengthening. Anchorage failure starts from cracks in the shear
at 330 kN fibers have started to debond, causing a more uniform
span and propagates outward. Anchorage is of utmost importance
distribution. Debonding starts from shear cracks in the cracked
and should be further studied, especially with the complicated
zone and propagates outward, as found on beam 290W, discussed
earlier. Just before final failure, 367 kN, the strain distribution is strain field in the concrete in mind. Before failure, the shear span
more uniform, with a maximum strain of about, 9 , 200· ␮s. The has several cracks that are highly distributed, and the final crack
measured strains at failure are quite low compared to 19, 000 ␮s, is formed by joining of these cracks. Measurements with strain
the ultimate strain value provided by the supplier. It is natural that gauges at distinct points are not the optimal recording technique
the ultimate strain becomes lower for fibers bonded to concrete; for studying behavior of beams in shear. Strains are highly af-
defects can be introduced from the bonding procedure, and stress fected by distance to nearby cracks, and gauges in distinct points
concentrations can develop at several locations. It is also unlikely may give uncertain values. Instead, strain recording techniques
that gauges have been placed at the location of the fiber rupture. covering the whole area may offer a more complete strain distri-
As has been shown, before debonding, fibers are differently bution and should be used for detailed studies. The work pre-
stressed depending on the location on the beam. The measured sented has identified areas in need of more research. Since fibers
average fiber strains, compared to the measured maximum strain are active from onset of loading of members with cracks, these
for each beam before debonding, are 0.70 and 0.60 on average for members should be studied with loads during strengthening. Fi-
the 45° and 90° fiber directions, respectively. Fig. 16 shows that nally, the strain field in shear spans and the anchorage situation
the maximum fiber strain when debonding starts at approximately should be studied analytically. A fracture energy approach should
300 kN in the region of 6 , 000 ␮s. Beam 145 did not debond but be used in determining critical anchorage in a zone with shear
failed by fiber rupture, in this case starting at the center of the cracks.
beam. After rupture of the first fibers the stresses were redistrib-
uted to the other fibers that failed, and so on until all fibers had
broken.
Acknowledgments
Conclusions
Lars-Erik Lundbergs Foundation, The Swedish Building and De-
Plate bonding with CFRP is an effective method for increasing velopment Fund, J Gust Richert Foundation, and Skanska AB
the load-bearing capacity in shear. A concrete beam may be have provided financial support. For help with the laboratory
strengthened so that the failure mode changes from shear to flex- tests, special attention should be given to Håkan Johansson, Lars
ure. Due to anisotropy, it is of utmost importance to place the Åström, and Georg Danielsson at Testlab, Luleå University of
fibers in the correct direction in relation to the shear cracks. A Technology. The assistance of Professor Lennart Elfgren is also
damaged beam may be repaired not only to its original capacity greatly appreciated. Last but not least, the students Abderahim
but to a capacity above what it had before. The strains are not Aboudrar, Anders Johansson, Peter Mattsson, Jon Rödsätre, and
uniformly distributed over the cross section of a rectangular Andy Hägglund should be thanked for their energy and collabo-
beam. A reduction factor based upon the strain distribution must ration skills during the laboratory work.

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J. Compos. Constr. 2005.9:488-496.

 Notation Luleå Univ. of Technology, Division of Structural Engineering, Luleå,
Sweden.
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