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Flexural strengthening of reinforced concrete beams with fabric reinforced cementitious mortar : effect of reinforcement ratios

University of British Columbia

The current state of North America’s infrastructure system is in dire straits. The cost of repair is estimated at over $3.6 trillion in the United States alone. An innovative and cost-effective method of repair and retrofitting is vital to close what has been referred to as the infrastructure gap. As an alternative to the current methods, fabric reinforced cementitious mortar (FRCM) is proposed to aid the civil engineering industry in removing this gap. Applied to structural members externally, FRCM is characterized by its ability to strengthen and rehabilitate these structures. This study set out to determine the flexural strength improvement of reinforced concrete (RC) beams with different reinforcement ratios, textile layers, fabric materials and anchorage methods. Ten full-scale (200 x 300 x 4000mm) RC beams (2 controls, 8 strengthened) were cast and tested under monotonic four-point bending conditions. Ultimate flexural capacity, pseudo-ductility, energy absorption, stiffness, and failure mode were taken as performance indicators. Results showed all FRCM strengthened beams failed in a similar way to their control counterparts and FRCM did not affect the pre-yielding stiffness or ductility of the strengthened beams. However, FRCM significantly improved the beams’ yield load and flexural capacity over the control. Flexural strength improved by up to 81% over the control. Strength improved with an increase in textile layers, and U-shaped strengthened specimens outperformed their soffit-strengthened equivalents.

Text

2017-01-21

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/60139

Civil Engineering

University of British Columbia

UBCO

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/