The influence of spacing between CFRP strips on the strengthened concrete slabs’ behavior

In the last few decades, several contributions have used the Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) for reinforcing slabs. However, previous studies disregarded the effect of spacing between the bands of the Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP), which appears scientifically to be of great importance for enriching the literature. The principal objective of this paper is to ascertain the experimental data and results on the strengthened concrete slabs’ behavior when changing the spacing between the CFRP bands. To meet this objective, six slabs with 600 mm length, 500 mm width, and 50 mm thickness have been utilized. To begin with, we have put to test one reference slab without strengthening while the other slabs were strengthened with CFRP strips. Secondly, the strengthened slabs have been reinforced with three CFRP bands of 50 mm wide by varying either the spacing between them among 50 mm, 100 mm, and 150 mm, or the number of the CFRP layers. This research paper casts light on several points describing the strengthened concrete slabs’ behavior. It is worth mentioning that the slab breaking load increased when the spacing between the CFRP strips was small; and the bands were distributed close to the center.