RELIABILITY ANALYSIS OF EXTERNALLY BONDED FRP STRENGTHENED BEAMS CONSIDERING EXISTING CONDITIONS: APPLICATION OF STOCHASTIC FE AND CONDITIONAL PROBABILITY

Abstract

The use of externally bonded (EB) fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) to strengthen existing reinforced concrete flexural members is becoming a more heavily used practice due to the advantages FRP has shown over conventional reinforcing in rehabilitation. In this research, several reliability-based frameworks are developed to investigate the effect of accounting for the existing conditions of an existing beam on its strengthened reliability. Each chapter is a standalone paper starting with the literature review. Based on identified research gaps in the literature review, the work is divided into three topic chapters: i) Stochastic FE (SFE) Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) reliability analysis of flexural strengthened RC beams considering random fields for concrete and bond strength, ii) Optimization of the computation of SFE reliability analysis through clustered active-learning kriging MCS, and iii) Reliability analysis considering load type and history of existing members for strengthening RC flexural members. Several FRP design standards are considered.