There are a many situations where it becomes necessary to increase the load carrying
capacity of a structure. In the past, the increase in strength has been provided by
casting additional reinforced concrete or dowelling in additional reinforcement. Actually
there is a growing use of externally bonded fibre composites (FRPs) to strengthen a
wide range of structural elements.
Many experimental work show that FRP composites, used in the beams as external
tensile reinforcement, increase the strength and the stiffness of the structure.
This paper presents the flexural strength enhancement provided by FRP laminate. The
analysis is performed using finite element method. Two dimensional plane stress
element with layered cross section are used for the discretisation of concrete. The
modifications of neutral axis position and the materials properties during the loading
process are taken into account. The predicted results show an increase of the carying
capacity of the streingthened beams. They are in good correlation with those of
literature review.