Experimental Study of Moderately Reinforced Concrete Beams Strengthened with Bolted-Side Steel Plates

Existing reinforced concrete (RC) beams can be effectively strengthened by attaching steel plates to the side faces of the beams using anchor bolts. The performance of this type of beam, bolted side-plated (BSP) beams, is mainly controlled by the degree of partial interaction at the steel-concrete interface. In this study, a total of seven moderately reinforced BSP beams with different steel plate depths and various bolt spacings were tested. Their behaviours were compared to the available test results for lightly reinforced BSP beams obtained by other researchers. The results show that moderately reinforced RC beams are more effective in increasing the flexural strength and ductility capacity using deeper steel plates than the use of a greater number of anchor bolts. It was also found that the longitudinal and transverse slips were controlled by both the stiffness ratios of the steel plates to the RC beam and the force-slip response of the anchor bolts.