NON-LINEAR FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF REINFORCED CONCRETE (RC) BEAMS STRENGTHENED WITH CARBON FIBER REINFORCED POLYMER (CFRP) SHEETS FOR FLEXURE AND SHEAR USING ANSYS

The main focus of this study is to analyze the strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) beams with CFRP using nonlinear finite element analysis. The finite element analysis software (ANSYS) has been used to build the models and to study the effects of the important parameters on the response of strengthened RC beams in flexure and shear. Seven models were built where four were simulated for flexural strength and three were simulated for shear strength considering the effect of two main parameters; the number of CFRP layers and strengthening by continuous U-wrap of CFRP. ANSYS results showed a good match with the experimental results of the past research. The ultimate capacity in shear and flexure increases for the strengthened RC beams with CFRP layers and U-wrap and it was observed that U-warp was more effective as compared to CFRP layers.