Sustainable Decision Making in the Shear Strengthening of Concrete Beams

In the older concrete structures, there is a problem of low shear capacity. Recommendations for increasing the shear capacity of new and old concrete beams using fiber-reinforced polymer are made. The calculated example verifying the received numerical recommendations has been made. The procedure of applying the shear force increase factor to the formulas of the present construction norms is suggested. A comparison of the concrete beams reinforced with web reinforcement, wrapping the existing stirrups, and the beam strengthened with FRP is carried out. It is shown that the rib-shortening problem resulting from the usage of stirrups web reinforcement can be avoided. Using the scheme with FRP reinforcement, significant savings of time for fabricating the concrete beams in the stage of increasing the concrete carrying capacity is achieved. A total of two full-scale reinforced concrete T-beams were under simply supported conditions. The experimental results aim to clarify the influence of this specific CFRP-stirrup arrangement on the overall load-carrying capacity of the beams.