Numerical and analytical investigation of parameters influencing the behavior of shear beams strengthened by CFRP wrapping

In this study, a parametric study was performed considering material properties of concrete, material properties of steel, the number of longitudinal reinforcement (reinforcement ratio), CFRP ply orientations, a number of layers as variables by using ABAQUS. Firstly, the parameters used in the Hashin failure criteria were verified using four coupon tests of CFRP. Secondly, the numerical models of the beams strengthened by CFRP were verified using five experimental data. Finally, eighty numerical models and eighty analytic calculations were developed to investigate the effects of the aforementioned variables. The results revealed that in the case of using fibrous polymer to prevent shear failure, the variables related to reinforced concrete significantly affected the behavior of specimens, whereas the variables related to CFRP composite have a slight effect on the behavior of the specimens. As a result of numerical analysis, while the increase in the longitudinal tensile and compression reinforcement, load bearing capacity increases between 23.6%-70.7% and 5.6%-12.2%, respectively. Increase in compressive strength (29 MPa to 35 MPa) leads to a slight increase in the load-carrying capacity of the specimens between 4.6% and 7.2%. However, the decrease in the compressive strength (29 MPa to 20 MPa) significantly affected (between 6.4% and 8.1% decrease observed) the behavior of the specimens. As the yield strength increases or decreases, the capacity of specimens increase approximately 27.1% or decrease 12.1%. The effects of CFRP ply orientation results have been obtained as a negligible well approximately 3.7% difference. An increasing number of CFRP layers leads to almost no effect (approximately 2.8%) on the behavior of the specimen. Finally, according to the numerical analysis, the ductility values obtained between 4.0 and 6.9 indicate that the beams have sufficient ductility capacity.