Strengthening Techniques of Reinforced Concrete Cantilever Slabs

There are many problems related to cantilever slabs such as the time-dependent deformation and corrosion problems of steel reinforcement. In addition, the lack of experimental studies on the strength of strengthened cantilever slabs. There is an investigation to evaluate the behavior of reinforced concrete cantilever slabs after strengthening with different techniques. Six medium-scale specimens, divided into three groups, were tested along with a control slab. The first group consists of two specimens that were repaired and strengthened using a reinforced concrete jacket with and without dowels, whereas the second group contained two slabs that were strengthened using two layers of glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) covering 60% and 90% from the cantilever length. The last group involves two specimens strengthened with two steel plates covering 90% of the cantilever length. The steel plates were glued to the surface using epoxy resin. And another was affixed to the concrete surface using expansion bolts. The seven cantilever slabs were modeled using commercial software ANSYS V R15.0 This software is adopted in this study to perform the 3D finite element modeling of specimen.