Strengthening of reinforced concrete bridge piers by carbon fiber sheet

The 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake destroyed many concrete bridge piers as well as the other structures. Lack of shear capacity is considered to be the main reason for the collapse. The piers with a proper capacity in bending ductility were escaped from collapse although they were severely damaged by bending Strength improvement of the existing concrete bridge piers using carbon fiber sheet is proposed. This method is relatively easy to apply since it is only necessary to glue the sheet on the surface of a pier. The load bearing test of the model piers proved 20 to 40% improvement in the shear strength and 2 times improvement in the bending ductility.