Influence of Transverse Steel on the Performance of RC T-Beams Strengthened in Shear with GFRP Strips

The need for structural rehabilitation of concrete structures all over the world is well established and a large amount of research is devoted in this area. Though a large volume of research is directed towards the flexural behaviour of beams, works on the effect of GFRP strips strengthened on shear are relatively sparse. The present paper focuses on the study of the effect of transverse steel on the performance against shear and modes of failure of simply supported RC T-beams strengthened in shear with GFRP strips. RC T-beams of 2.5 m span are cast at the structural laboratory of IIT, Kharagpur, and are tested with shear reinforcement and GFRP strips in U-shape around the web, and side bonded with orientation of the GFRP strips at 90 degrees and 45 degrees with the horizontal axis of the beam. All the beams are tested on a 300 T UTM. The experimental results clearly indicate the advantage of using externally applied epoxy bonded GFRP system to restore or increase the shear capacity of RC T-beams. It is also observed that the combination of configuration of GFRP strips and transverse steel is an important factor to gain the shear capacity and the ductility.