Behaviors of Concrete Beam Prestressed with External CFRP Tendons

The purpose of present paper is to study the flexural behaviors of concrete T-beams prestressed with external carbon fiber reinforced polymer(CFRP) tendons. Tests were carried out on 5 beams under four-point load, of which four beams were reinforced with hybrid both external CFRP tendons and internal steel rebars and another one only reinforced with internal steel rebars. Such parameters as the different initial loading states at external CFRP tendon jacking and different jacking stress in tendon were considered in experiment. A program was developed to predict the behaviors of those beams prestressed with externally prestressed tendons and the parametric study was conducted using the program. The predicted results from the program were in good agreement with the test results. Such parameters as jacking stress, elastic modulus of external tendons, configuration of deviators and ratio of span to effective depth of beam were chosen as primary analytical factors for the study on the flexural behaviors of beams prestressed with external tendons. The initial loading state on the beam before tendon jacking has no significant influence on the ultimate loading capacity and deflection.