Flexural capacity of RC beams strengthened with carbon fiber sheets

Based on analysis of existing study, many basic parameters affect the flexural capacity of RC beams strengthened with Carbon Fiber Reinforced Sheets (CFRSs), such as strength of CFRSs, concrete and steel materials, section of beams, steel bar reinforcement, area of CFRSs, the Young's modulus of materials, the CFRSs anchorage length and its additional anchorage, etc. Authors selected ten parameters to solve the flexural capacity of RC beams strengthened with CFRSs. A numerical model for forecasting flexural capacity has been established by BP algorithms of Neural Network. This model has been trained by seventy-four test results published. In order to prove the validity of the model, five experiments of RC beams strengthened with CFRSs have been finished. The forecasting results accord with the actual value. According to the rule of the model, the influence of sectional height of beam and steel bar reinforcement radio on the flexural capacity of RC beams strengthened with CFRSs have been analyzed qualitatively. The results indicate that forecasting precision of the model is satisfactory.