It is crucial to preserve the serviceability of offshore structures due to the rise in their numbers. These structures include offshore airports, fortifications, offshore wind power, island reefs, sea light-houses, radar stations, as well as civil and military terminals. Therefore, the initial goal of this study is to present an exploratory campaign on the flexural failure behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) T-beams strengthened in the hogging zone with the near-surface mounted (NSM) technique utilizing carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) rods under non-reversed cyclic loading, and second, to determine the impact of the rods’ depth of embedment on the specimens’ overall seismic properties. Additionally, two series of geometrically similar RC T-beams consisting of two strengthened specimens having CFRP rods embedded to various depths as well as an un-strengthened specimen were experimentally tested. The results show that the presence of strengthening materials in the hogging zone influences the flexural failure of the RC T-beams, which experience non-reversed low cyclic loading. In particular, the hysteretic behavior, stiffness deterioration, ductility, and failure modes, as well as the beams’ energy dissipation capacity resulting from the embedment depth of the CFRP rods, were evaluated specifically and in-depth.
In addition to being the most widely utilized man-made construction material in the world, the widespread availability and inexpensive cost of concrete have made it the material of choice for building both civil and infrastructural projects in marine environments. In such marine environments, however, concrete is susceptible to a number of physical and chemical degradation processes (Glasse et al., 2008; Hu et al., 2019; Hu et al., 2020; Qu et al., 2021). The corrosion of the reinforcement that occurs as a result of chloride exposure is the primary cause of concrete deterioration in marine environments (Kwon et al., 2017). Furthermore, offshore structures could be vulnerable to risks arising from the possibility of a terrorist attack or extreme loading circumstances such as fire, collision, blast, and earthquake, all of which could lead to serious destruction in a relatively short amount of time. However, due to the high cost of rebuilding, damaged structures frequently need a restoration strategy in an attempt to reestablish or improve their load-carrying capacity.
