An Analytical Study of the Reinforcement of Fungal Slabs with CFRP Sheets after Creating Service Openings in them

Abstract

When constructing modern buildings, openings are often used in reinforced concrete slabs to serve as corridors for various building services, but at the same time they are considered a weak source for the slabs, as they lead to a decrease in durability and rigidity unless they are strengthened with reinforcement to compensate for the reinforcement cut off as a result of the opening, whether it was specified before or after pouring .
The research included an analytical study, and an analytical model was built according to the finite element method using the safe [7] program for the samples to be studied, and its validity and reliability were verified. The analytical model was also used to study the contribution of the external reinforcement of the openings in several ways to bearing the loads applied to these slabs.
The results showed the effectiveness of the reinforcement of the opening area using steel plates and CFRP plates, and the great convergence between the analytical and experimental results in the reference study, where the average relative difference between them reached 5.59%. They also demonstrated the reliability of the analytical  model used.