Fatigue performance of Near-surface mounted CFRP strips embedded in concrete girders

This study investigates experimentally and analytically the bond and flexural performance of reinforced concrete beams strengthened and repaired using near-surface mounted carbon fibre reinforced polymer systems. The main variables of the experimental works were the adhesive material type (epoxy, polymer cement-based and innovative high strength self-compacting non-polymer cementitious adhesives), different carbon strip surface and dimension, loading type (monotonic and fatigue with several load amplitudes), and state of beams (with and without pre-cracking). The test results show that the innovative cement-based adhesive represents an excellent alternative to the epoxy adhesive, as it improves the bond strength, flexural strength, carbon strip utilisation, stiffness, residual strength, fatigue life, serviceability and ductility.