PERFORMANCE OF MODELS FOR PREDICTING THE SHEAR CAPACITY OF FRP-STRENGTHENED RC BEAMS

The behaviour of reinforced concrete (RC) beams shear strengthened with fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) has been extensively studied. Numerous analytical models have been proposed to predict the shear contribution of externally applied FRP to RC beams. Due to the continuous increase of experimental data, it is fundamental to assess the predictive performance of these models, to find the most appropriate ones and their boundaries of application. This study evaluates the predictive performance of some available models using a comprehensive database of published works. The results reveal that current models have significant shortcomings, resulting in unreliable and potentially unsafe predictions. Therefore, a new simple and more effective model is required. This preliminary study briefly discusses potential approaches to improve the accuracy of these models.Paper 9