1. Pre-treatment shall be appropriately made on the surface of a beam to be
wrapped with Carbon fiber sheets.
2. Corners of cross section of beam shall be rounded with a corner radius of 20 mm or larger. This rounded portion must be straight and un-curved along the beam length. 3. The beam shall be securely and tightly wrapped with carbon fiber sheets. The fiber direction shall be perpendicular to the beam axis. 4. Overlap of carbon fiber sheets shall be long enough to ensure the rupture in materials. It shall be not less than the 200mm. 5. Carbon fiber sheet shall wrap closely around the column. Position of lap splice shall be provided alternately. 6. Impregnate adhesive resin shall be the one which has appropriate properties in construction and strength to bring the strength characteristics of carbon fiber sheet. 7. After impregnation of adhesive resin has completed the initial hardening process, mortar, boards or painting must be provided, for fire resistance, surface protection or design point of view.
SURFACE PREPARATION 1. Surface preparation should be based on the type of applications: bond-critical applications (e.g., design controlled by flexure, shear strengthening of structural elements) or contact-critical applications (e.g., design controlled by confinement of columns or special joints). 2. For bond-critical applications, the concrete surface should be free of loose deposits on the concrete surface that could interfere with the bonding of the FRP. 3. Surface preparation can be accomplished using abrasive or water-blasting techniques. After removing all foreign or loose deposits, bug holes (surface voids) should be filled with putty and the concrete surface should be prepared to a minimum profile of CSP-2 as defined by the International Concrete Repair Institute (ICRI) surface profile chips. For example, localized out-of-plane variations including form lines should not exceed 0.03 in. (0.76 mm) or the tolerances recommended by the manufacturer. Such tight tolerances can be achieved by grinding the surface prior to surface blasting. The following two recommendations are made with respect to wrapping at re-entrant angles and concrete elements requiring confinement. The re-entrant corners should be profiled to a minimum of a 0.5 in. (1.25 mm) radius to minimize stress concentrations in the FRP wraps and to also minimize voids between the wrap and the concrete surface. Special detailing of FRP wraps around re-entrant corners is essential to ensure a bond with the concrete substrate. All concrete surfaces should be dry, as recommended by the wrap system manufacturer. The moisture content level must be established to comply with ACI 503.3 and reduced, if necessary, to enhance resin penetration into the concrete surface and improve the mechanical interlocking of resin with concrete aggregates. 4. For concrete elements requiring confinement, uniform contact surfaces are required to develop uniform bond resistance by the FRP wraps without generating undesirable stress spikes. Large voids in the surface should be patched in both bond- and contact-critical applications. Large voids or spalls in the concrete substrate should be filled and properly bonded to substrate with high compressive-strength material to enhance the confinement effects of a concrete structural element.
APPLICATION OF CONSTITUENTS 1. Putty or bulk adhesive should be used to fill large voids and smooth surface discontinuities as recommended by the FRP manufacturer. Primer should be applied to all areas of the concrete surface to be covered with FRP wraps. Primer and putty should be cured fully before applying the FRP wrap system. The two types of commonly used composite wrap systems are the wet lay-up system with hand or machine application and the pre-cured system. 2. Wet lay-up systems typically involve the hand-laying of dry fiber sheets or fabrics, which are saturated with appropriate resins. FRP sheets or wraps can be saturated using a resin-impregnating machine. The fiber wraps should be pressed into the uncured resin as recommended by the FRP system manufacturer. To remove any trapped air, the wet wrap system should be rolled out exhaustively while the resin is still wet. When more than one layer of fiber wrap is required, laying the additional layers of fibers/fabrics before the complete cure of the previous layer of resin occurs is preferable to develop a good bond between the successive layers. Pre-cured systems, such as FRP shells (Figure 5.1) or strips, are bonded to a clear concrete surface with an adhesive. The surface should be prepared in accordance with the manufacturers recommendations. Adhesive should be applied uniformly to the properly prepared concrete surface before placing the pre-cured FRP systems. Any trapped air between the concrete surface and the pre-cured system should be rolled out before the adhesive is cured. Adhesive thickness should be maintained as recommended by the FRP manufacturer. Excessive adhesive thickness may not provide adequate interlaminar shear transfer capability and can even lead to poor structural compositeness between the concrete substrate and the FRP procured system. 3. Special coatings should be provided to protect the FRP systems from UV degradation or excessive moisture ingress. Coatings should be compatible with FRP systems to minimize surface blistering or micro-cracking. Temporary protection, such as loose plastic sheathing around the FRP system, is essential for a proper cure of the resins. Such protection would help minimize the direct contact of the resin surface with rain, dust, sunlight, or even vandalism. 4. In wet lay-up systems, proper fiber/fabric alignment is critical. Even small variations (up to 5) in fiber orientation from the design specifications can cause substantial strength variations. Fabric kinks or waviness should be minimized to avoid local stress concentration. Up to four plies of wraps can be used to efficiently transfer the shearing load between plies [Kshirasagar et al. 1998]. All resin systems should be cured according to the manufacturers recommendations, and field modification of resin chemistry should not be permitted [ACI 440.2R-02]. The bond strength between a properly prepared concrete substrate and a FRP system is adequate to transfer interlaminar shear through the cured resin [GangaRao et al. 2000].