Failure of RC beams strengthened in bending with unconventionally arranged CFRP laminates

摘要

This paper describes the experimental tests made on RC beams retrofitted by unconventionally arranged CFRP strips and on a reference, not retrofitted one. Diagonal CFRP strips were applied on the lateral faces of the specimens and connected to the longitudinal ones in order to improve the anchorage length of the latters. The experimental outcomes prove that this CFRP strips distribution can improve the load carrying capacity of the retrofitted beams, provided that the diagonal strips are long enough and that the longitudinal reinforcement is arranged along the whole beam. Comparison with the predictions based on CNR-DT 200 and ACI 440.2R-02 guidelines is finally displayed.