The use of carbone fibre composite for strengthening reinforced concrete beams

The study of different reinforced concrete structure pathologies helps to understand the main causes of materials as well as structures damage which are mainly due to bad detailing, poor design, and a lack of durability and to the aggressive external actions. Algeria is a country exposed to natural disasters. Thus, damaged buildings need strengthen and repair involving adequate methods and new types of materials. Repairing and strengthening techniques based on carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRP) are the new materials characterized by their light weight, high stiffness, ease of placing, efficiency, high tensile strength, reasonable cost and very appreciable overall durability. Bearing in mind the last earthquake (March 18, 2021) which hit Bejaia (Algeria) and caused a lot of damages to buildings and bridges, an important program of repairing has been launched. A study has been carried out in order to examine the effect of the CFRP strengthening of reinforced concrete beams by gluing carbon materials subjected to bending. On the other hand, it is aimed to contribute to develop these techniques based on CFRP for a wide use. These materials could widely be used mainly for seismic retrofit of concrete structures since Algeria as well the whole North Africa is a very active seismic region where many important earthquakes have been recorded. For this purpose, an extensive experimental program has been elaborated and conducted in order to determine the most efficient mode of strengthening of these bearing reinforced concrete structural elements and the effect of these CRRP techniques on the properties and the behaviour of the constitutive materials of these RC beams. The results obtained showed an increase in the bearing capacity together with a reduction in steel and concrete deformations and deflections.