Full-bonded shear and flexural CFRP strengthening of steel I-beams with and without openings

Recently, the carbon fiber reinforced polymer CFRP strips are widely used for shear and flexural strengthening of steel beams. A finite element FEM steel model has been analyzed by the author using ANSYS 9 finite element program for both unstrengthened and full-bonded shear and flexural CFRP-strengthened steel beams using Solid 1S5 element for representing1 steel sections, including anchor plates and Jjolts, and Solid46 element for representing CFRP laminates without using adhesive strips. The obtained failure load and maximum vertical deflection results have been compared with other experimental and EE model results using ANSYS software, in which using Solid 187 element for simulating the steel I-beam, stiffeners, plates, bolts, adhesive and CFRP strips. Also, the effect of anchor plates and anchor bolts on the failure results of the flexural strengthened models has been discussed by the author. The obtained results show the success of the author's proposed model. Also, a parametric study has been done using the proposed model to analyze the effect of shear or flexural zone openings on the failure results and compared with the experimental model results. without openings, showing a significant effect especially for shear zone openings.