Abstract
Shear strengthening is required when an RC beam is found deficient in shear, or when its shear capacity falls below its flexural capacity after flexural strengthening. A recent technique for the shear strengthening of RC beams is to provide additional FRP web reinforcement, commonly in the form of bonded external FRP strips/sheets. Over the last few years, a large amount of research has been conducted on this new strengthening technique, which has established its effectiveness and has led to a good understanding of the behaviuor and strength of such shearβstrengthened beams. This paper presents a stateβofβtheβart review of existing research on this topic. The methods of strengthening are described first, followed by a summary of experimental observations of failure processes and modes. The accuracy of existing design provisions is examined next through comparisons with test results. Limitations of existing experimental and theoretical studies are also highlighted. While the paper is mainly concerned with externally bonded FRP for shear strengthening, the emergence of alternative FRP shear strengthening techniques, including nearβsurfaceβmounted FRP and prestressed CFRP straps, is also noted.