© 2010 www.newwsa.com Sakarya-Turkey EFFECTS OF CLAMPS IN COMPOSITE I-BEAMS STRENGTHENED WITH HM-CFRP

Corrosion of steel members and an increase in the traffic loads make the retrofit necessary for steel bridge beams. To strengthen composite steel bridge beams, either the existing damaged members are reinforced or they are replaced with the new ones. Both process demand a bridge to be closed to traffic for a long time. The bridge can shortly be opened to traffic after the damaged beams are rapidly strengthened by means of composite member reinforcements. In this study, steel beams with I-cross section are reinforced using High Modulus Carbon Reinforced Polymer shortly named HM-CFRP. Also in this study, the effect of using steel clamps on the strengthening method is investigated. The clamps are used to avoid the slip of HM-CFRP material from epoxy