Concrete structures, increasingly, have been reinforced with carbon fiber (blanket or sheet) for its easy execution, lightness, low architectural impact and structural performance. Its flexural design can be quite laborious, as it requires an analysis in Stage I or II for the calculation of the initial deformations in the structure and an iteration process for the verification in the Ultimate Limit State.
The Carbon Fiber Structural Strengthening Program (PREF) calculates, for beams or slabs subjected to composite bending with or without bonded prestressing, the in-service deformations for Stage I or II. It also calculates, for a given carbon fiber reinforcement, its design resistant moment based on the American Norm ACI 440.2R-17.
Thus, a check is made for the Service Limit State of the stresses in the concrete, passive and active reinforcement and in the carbon fiber through the calculation of Stage I or II of the already reinforced section. The stress limits adopted are those recommended by ACI 440.2R-17 for carbon fiber reinforcement.
PREF also calculates the design shear strength for a given carbon fiber reinforcement and reinforcement based on ACI 440.2R-17. It is possible to choose between three types of reinforcement: the first, which involves the entire beam; the second, which partially involves it (U-shaped), and the third, which would be the reinforcement only on the side.
As a new update, it is now possible to calculate the strength of concrete confined by carbon fiber blanket (fcc) based on ACI 440.2R-17. Normally this calculation is used for column reinforcement.
The calculator is in Portuguese and English.
The user will also be able to generate a report in “.docx” format (Microsoft Word) summarizing the input and output information for the bending or shear calculation.
Some videos explaining the application can be found at: https://youtu.be/SfcvMjEChSM https://youtu.be/XCQ8dJ91hc4 https://youtu.be/q7XdiQOjIMs