Flexural behavior of CFRP-strengthened reinforced concrete beams rubberized with finely minced rubber tire

Abstract

Although using rubber to create reinforced concrete substrates has many benefits, using rubberized concrete substrates, such as beams, is still limited. Where concrete with rubber included in it starts to lose a percent-age of its mechanical qualities, such as flexural strength. Conversely, a significant portion of structural uses for strengthening reinforced concrete beams using exterior carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets are for flexural strengthening. This study used externally bonded carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets to compensate for the reduction in flexural strength when creating rubberized concrete beams. The reinforced concrete beams used in this study were divided into three groups, each with three beams. Waste tire rubber was replaced (5%) of the fine aggregate volume in the first group and replaced (10%) in the sec-ond group. The reference group consists of the third set of beams. The first concrete beam in any group was always devoid of external strengthening, the second beam had one layer and the third beam had two layers of (CFRP) sheet. The third layer of strengthening was numerically represented using ABAQUS, a finite element analysis program. The results indicate that for two-volume replacement rates of fine aggregate (5 and 10) %, a decrease in ductility will have been accompanied by an improvement in the flexural strength of the rubberized concrete beam when externally strengthening with one, two, and three layers of (CFRP) sheets.