Hysteretic behavior of RC shear walls strengthened with CFRP strips

The purpose of this study was to investigate the hysteretic behavior of shear deficient reinforced concrete (RC) walls that were strengthened with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips. Totally, 1/2 scale five specimens with 1.5 aspect ratio walls were constructed. One of them was tested without any retrofitting as a reference specimen and four of them were retrofitted specimens with CFRP strips. All of the specimens were tested under cyclic lateral loading. CFRP strips with different configurations were tested like X-shaped, horizontal and parallel strips or combinations of them. All of the CFRP configurations were symmetrically bonded to both sides of the shear wall and were anchoraged to the wall. The research focuses on the effect of using CFRP strips for enhancing strength and increasing ductility of the non-seismic detailed shear walls. Test results shows that all of the CFRP strip configurations significantly improves the lateral strength, energy dissipation and deformation capacity of the shear deficient RC walls. The specimen that was strengthened with X-shaped CFRP strips was failed with premature shear failure. The specimen that was strengthened with horizontal strips was showed flexural hysteretic behavior and plastic hinge was developed at the wall base. CFRP strips were controlled shear crack propagation and resulted in improvement of displacement capacity. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.