Flexural behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) beams retrofitted with hybrid fiber reinforced polymers (FRPs) under sustaining loads

This paper reports experimental studies of reinforced concrete (RC) beams retrofitted with new hybrid fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) system consisting carbon FRP (CFRP) and glass FRP (GFRP). The objective of this study is to examine effect of hybrid FRPs on structural behavior of retrofitted RC beams and to investigate if different sequences of CFRP and GFRP sheets of the hybrid FRPs have influences on improvement of strengthening RC beams. Toward that goal, 14 RC beams are fabricated and retrofitted with hybrid FRPs having different combinations of CFRP and GFRP sheets. The beams are loaded with different magnitudes prior to retrofitting in order to investigate the effect of initial loading on the flexural behavior of the retrofitted beam. The main test variables are sequences of attaching hybrid FRP layers and magnitudes of preloads. Under loaded condition, beams are retrofitted with two or three layers of hybrid FRPs, then the load increases until the beams reach failure. Test results conclude that strengthening effects of hybrid FRPs on ductility and stiffness of RC beams depend on orders of FRP layers.