An innovative circular anchor system for CFRP plates: Experimental investigation and field application

Abstract

Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) has been proved effective in flexural strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) beams. Various anchor systems have been developed to prevent premature debonding of CFRP plates for structural reinforcement applications. In this study, a novel circular wedged anchor system was proposed and tested under tensile load. The new anchor system includes circular barrel, connector and toothed wedges. Parameters such as intensity and height of tooth, gap between wedges and wedge angle were investigated in order to optimize the proposed anchor system. Effects of above parameters on capacity of the proposed anchor system are presented in the paper. The test results indicate full tensile strength of the tested CFRP plate could be developed using the optimized anchor system. A practical application of the proposed anchor system has been employed in the structural reinforcements of Tongyu River Bridge in China, and this system is found very effective in bridge cracking control via the practical long-term bridge inspections after strengthening.

Keywords

• CFRP plate
• Anchor system
• Circular wedge
• Experimental test