Fire resistance of FRP strengthening concrete beams at elevated temperature using ABAQUS

Abstract

Mechanical properties of FRP such as strength and stiffness as well as the bonding interface between FRP and concrete will be badly deteriorated when exposed to high temperature. Furthermore, the effect of thickness of insulation with different type of concrete strength has not yet been studied elsewhere in numerical studies. Therefore, this study is to assess the thermal-structural behaviour of insulated FRP strengthened RC beam exposed to elevated temperature using ABAQUS. The proposed numerical model of 200 ×300 mm RC beam subjected to 2 hours standard fire curve (ISO 834) had been validated with the analytical solution. The validated numerical model then is used in parametric study to investigate the behaviour of fire damaged normal strength concrete (40 MPa) and high strength concrete (60 MPa) of RC beam strengthened with CFRP using various fire insulation thickness of 12.5 mm, 25 mm and 40 mm, respectively. The result of steel characteristic strength reduction factor is compared with analytical using 500˚C Isotherm methods. The parametric studies indicated that the fire insulation layer is essential to provide fire protection to the CFRP strengthened RC beams when exposed to elevated temperature. The insulation layer thickness of 25 mm had been found to be the optimum thickness to be used as it is able to meet the criteria of temperature distribution and displacement requirement. In conclusion, the numerical model developed using ABAQUS in this study is to carry out assessment on the thermal-structural behaviour of the insulated CFRP-strengthened RC beams at elevated temperature.

Keywords

• abaqus
• concrete
• fire insulation
• fibre reinforced polymer (frp)
• fire resistance
• high temperature