ABSTRACT
Externally bonded advanced composite materials, are currently being studied and applied around the world for the repair and strengthening of structural concrete members (El-Shiekh 1996). FRP composite materials are of great interest to the civil engineering community because of their superior properties such as high stiffness and strength as well as ease of installation when compared to other traditional repair materials. Researches reveal that strengthening using FRP provides a substantial increase in post-cracking stiffness and ultimate load carrying capacity of the members subjected to flexure, torsion and shear (Mahmut et al 2006, Panchacharam & Belarbi 2002, Damian & David 2002).The technique of adhesively bonding steel or fiber reinforced plastics as additional laminates to the surfaces of reinforced concrete beams and slabs is being adopted worldwide to repair and strengthen the RC buildings and bridges (Tjandra & Tan 2003, Neale & Labossiere 1997) because it is inexpensive, easy to apply, causes minimal disruption to moving traffic and negligible losses in headroom. International building codes such as American Code
(ACI Committee 440) (2001) and Egyptian Code of Practice (ECOP-2005) (2005) have been introduced for the design, construction and strengthening of RC structures using FRP.
