NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF RC STRENGTHENED BEAMS USING NEAR-SURFACE MOUNTED GFRP BARS

In recent years, the near-surface mounted, NSM, strengthening technique has been used to increase the load carrying capacity of concrete structures. This study focused on the development of a numerical modeling that can predict the behavior of reinforced concrete, RC, beams strengthened with NSM FRP rods. A three dimensional finite element, FE, analysis computer program ANSYS was conducted to obtain the response of the strengthened beams. The eight–node elements, solid 65, were used for the idealization of concrete while the reinforcement steel was idealized by using LINK 180. In this research, A nine different models were developed and implemented added to a control beam in the ANSYS to study effect of different parameters of such as GFRP bars length, tensile steel reinforcement ratios on the collapse behavior as observed from first crack load to fully collapse. The result obtained from the 3D FE analysis used in this study was the load-deflection curves simulating the behavior of reinforced concrete beams. Moreover the results indicated an increase in the first cracking load of reinforced beams by 17% compared with that of the control beam and improved the deflection due to different lengths and tensile reinforcement steel ratios.