Assessment of Flexural Performance of Reinforced Concrete Beams Strengthened with Internal and External AR-Glass Textile Systems

Abstract

This paper is an experimental study of the effectiveness of using internal and external alkali-resistant glass fabric textile (AR-GT) layers for flexural strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) beams. The experimental work compares internal single and triple layers of AR-GT as supplemental flexural reinforcement with textile-reinforced mortar (TRM) in RC beams subjected to four-point bending loading. In addition, a control beam specimen is cast with no AR-GT fabric. Monitoring the load–deflection curves, crack patterns, and strengthening layer performance showed that using AR-GT for internal and external layers increased the load-carrying capacity of RC beams. The failure patterns of beams with one external AR-GT layer and three internal AR-GT layers showed a similar trend, with higher loading capacity and lower deflections than the other beams. Three internal textile AR-GT layers recorded higher flexural strength (52%) than one internal layer (6.3%), compared to the control beam specimen. Moreover, using one layer of external AR-GT fabric exhibited higher flexural strength than using one or three internal layers (56.8%).