Experimental and numerical methods are used to predict the load carrying capacity of beams strengthened with hybrid carbon fibre and arimid fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP/AFRP) sheets. The effect of FRP type, thickness and length on the failure load and ductility was studied. The curves of initial cracking load, ultimate load, stiffness, ductility and stresses of fibre versus FRP type, thickness and length are presented. Results of tests and simulations show good agreement. Study results indicate that, in contrast with reference beams, initial cracking loads of both hybrid FRP strengthened beams and CFRP strengthened beams increase greatly, stiffness and ductility increase more, whilst the ultimate loads increase considerably. Cracking patterns of both types of FRP strengthened beams are improved. Crack widths of hybrid FRP strengthened beams are smaller and the number of main cracks is clearly reduced compared with the reference beam and the CFRP strengthened beams under the same load, therefore it is effective to use hybrid AFRP and CFRP to strengthen beams instead of pure CFRP.

  • INTRODUCTION

  • EXPERIMENT DESIGN AND PREPARATION

  • TEST RESULTS

  • FINITE ELEMENT MODELLING

  • COMPARISON OF TEST AND NUMERICAL RESULTS

  • CONCLUSIONS

  • ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  • REFERENCES

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