EFFECT OF CARBON FIBER REINFORCED POLYMER (CFRP) COMPOSITES APPLIED TO WALLS AND SLABS OF MASONRY BUILDING

Abstract

The use of fiber reinforced polymers (FRPs) has become popular because of their attractive behaviors such as
high strength-to-weight and high stiffness-to-weight ratios, high mechanical performance and possibility to be produced
in any shape, ease of installation and lesser requirements for supporting structure, corrosion resistance, light weight and
high durability. It has been shown in the literature that the use of small sheets of CFRP composites improve structure’s
responses substantially. In this study, analysis of masonry building strengthened with CFRP on tension sides of slabs and
walls is conducted. A commonly Finite Element Method by use of ETAPBS Software v.16 is used to analyze a 2 storey
masonry building with brick walls and wooden slabs. Both walls and slabs are strengthened with CFRP, and comparison
is done in terms of stresses and stiffness for buildings with and without CFRP. It is shown that there is around 48%
increase in the stiffness of building with CFRP compared to one without CFRP. In addition, stresses resulted from
building with CFRP are far smaller, indicating the effectiveness of using CFRP in strengthening and prevention of both
invisible and visible cracks for Retrofitted structures.