ABSTRACT
Deficient concrete structural elements require repair or strengthening actions at a certain point of their service lives. External bonding of steel strips to an existing concrete surface with epoxy adhesive has been used in retrofitting of deteriorated concrete elements. Strengthening concrete structures by attaching fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) materials has been widely implemented because of its well-known advantages over the conventional methods. The bonding of carbon FRP (CFRP) composites occurred in two steps, preparation of concrete surface, and installation of CFRP strips then sheets. The load deflection curves for beams, strengthened with CFRP strips and anchored using different anchorage configurations are depicted. CFRP sheets anchorage, consisted of a single layer, tended to tear off parallel to their fibers direction prior to its end detachment. The beams strengthened with CFRP strips with no anchorage system demonstrated lower load capacity and higher deflection values than those of strengthened and anchorage ones.
