EFFECT OF ADDITION OF CHOPPED CARBON FIBER ON THE BEHAVIOR OF REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAMS WITH VARIABLE (SHEAR DISTANCE TO EFFECTIVE DEPTH ) RATIOS.

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to evaluate strength and behavior of reinforced concrete beams reinforced with discrete carbon fiber. Six beams were cast and tested up to failure under two concentrated static loads. Four beams were strengthened with discrete carbon fiber (two of them reinforced with carbon fiber of length 12mm and the other two with 6mm carbon fiber). The remaining two were casted without using carbon fiber as a reference beams. Load-deflection response of all the beams was evaluated. The effect of shear span to effective depth ratio and carbon fiber pecies length on the behavior of beams was studied. The results revealed a good improvement provided b the usage of carbon fiber as compared with the references beams (without carbon fiber). The results also show that. The use of carbon fiber lead to a good improvement in the ultimate load value [ (6mm) length carbon fiber increased (Pu) by 18.75% for (a/d = 4/3) and by 20% for (a/d = 4), while the (12mm) length carbon fiber increased (Pu) by 64.06% for (a/d = 4/3) and by 80% for (a/d = 4)].