Deflection and Cracking Behavior of RC Beams Strengthened in Flexure

This paper will discuss that in order to understand and predict the effect of externally bonded reinforcement (EBR) on the serviceability behavior of FRP (fiber-reinforced polymer) strengthened members, four-point bending tests have been executed on reinforced concrete (RC) beams with span length 3.8 m (150 in.). This experimental campaign was further complemented with tests on strengthened tensile members. These so-called ‘tension stiffening’ tests typically consist of a tensile test on a reinforcing bar embedded in a FRP strengthened concrete prism. As the FRP EBR increases the stiffness of the beams and as a denser crack pattern with smaller crack widths is obtained, the serviceability limit state (SLS) of the strengthened members is positively influenced. Hereby, the behavior in terms of deflection and crack widths can be predicted in a fairly accurate way.