Residual behavior of fire-exposed reinforced concrete beams prestrengthened in flexure with fiber-reinforced polymer sheets

Numerous research studies have shown externally bonded fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) materials can be used efficiently and economically to repair and retrofit deteriorated or understrength concrete structures. FRP materials are being widely applied in the rehabilitation of deteriorated bridges, however, their use in buildings has been limited, partly because of insufficient knowledge about the performance of FRP materials in fire. To enable further applications of FRPs in buildings, this paper presents a study on the residual performance after fire of four reinforced-concrete (RC) T-beams that were prestrengthened with externally bonded FRP sheets and provided with a supplemental fire protection system. Results from this study suggest that the RC beams strengthened with FRPs prior to fire exposure retained most of their initial unstrengthened flexural capacity after fire. This is attributed to the fact that the temperature of the internal concrete and reinforcing steel was kept to below 200 and 593°C, respectively.