Ways in the preparation of beams concrete surface for the execution of reinforcement against flexion with carbon fibers

Abstract

The adhesion of carbon fiber reinforced polymer to armored concrete beams has been satisfactority used for increasing these elements resistance to flexion and shearingg. Increments in the resistance to flexion from 10% to 160% have already been documented. However, to avoid the occurrence of undesirable problems, such as the reinforcement early displacement (point of concern of some designers, as it anticipates the ruin of reinforced beams), and guarantee the technique´s success, special attention must be pid to teh reinforcement system´s adherence to the concrete substrate. The external adherence of the reinforcement with carbon fibers to the concrete substrate is what permits the transference of tensions between the concrete and the reinforcement. To do so, the concrete surface must be prepared adequately. Some researchers state that the surface´s preparation can influence in the reinforcement adherence resistence to the concrete substrate. Therefore, this work has had the objective of reporting the recommended procedures, in the existing literature, for concrete surface prepartion, and also to show the procedures carried out in the author´s Master Degree work as well as by some others researches. Thus, it has been intended to gather technical information and procedures that can be used as reference for the development of future researches on the subject.