Reinforcement Effect and Mechanical Characteristics of CFS Reinforced RC Slabs with Different Number of Layers

Abstract

A method of reinforcing RC slabs for road bridges against cracking damage by using CFS is investigated in the present study. Static load tests were carried out on three types of RC slab test specimens having different number of layers of CFS. The reinforcement effect of different number of CFS layers and the reduction coefficient to be applied to the CFS tensile strength was investigated. A punching shear mechanical model and load resistance equation for CFS reinforced RC slabs was proposed. The results showed that a reinforcement effect of a factor of 1.35 was obtained for CFS reinforced RC slabs relative to RC slabs, and this factor is unaffected by the number of layers. Also, there was an inverse relationship between the ultimate load on the test specimen or the strain in the CFS and the number of layers, so that the ultimate load on the test specimen and the strain in the CFS reduced as the number of layers increased. By applying this reduction in strain with respect to the tensile strength of the CFS as the reduction coefficient to the proposed equation for the punching shear load resistance, good agreement between test values and the theoretical values were obtained.