Flexural Performance of Reinforced Concrete Beams Strengthened by a New Side Near-Surface Mounted Technique Using Carbon Fibre-Reinforced Polymer Bars: Experimental and Analytical Investigation

This paper introduces an innovative approach, referred to as the Side Near-Surface Mounted (S-NSM) technique, for flexural strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) beams using Carbon Fibre-Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) bars. Experimental and analytical investigations were conducted to explore the strengthening of RC beams with S-NSM CFRP bars. Analytical models were shown to predict the flexural response of the RC strengthened specimens. Four-point bending tests were performed under static conditions up to failure on the rectangular RC beams (which had been strengthened using different ratios of S-NSM reinforcement) while load, mid-span deflection, strain and failure modes were recorded. The test results revealed that the S-NSM technique with CFRP bars improves the flexural performance of RC beams. The increase in the S-NSM reinforcement ratio measurably enhances the flexural capacity, crack characteristics and energy absorption capacity. The results predicted by the analytical models express good agreement with the experimental data, which prospects confident implementation of the proposed S-NSM technique.