Experimental and analytical investigation on strengthening of heat damaged concrete by textile reinforced concrete (TRC)

Abstract

Composites fabricated of textile as reinforcement and a fine-grained concrete as matrix are referred to textile reinforced concrete (TRC) which provides the opportunity to build thin and shell constructions and to repair and strengthen concrete and masonry structures. This paper aimed to exploit the repair potential of TRC through confinement of heat-damaged concrete columns. For this purpose, a two-phase approach was conducted, in the first phase of which the effect of elevated temperature on mechanical properties of concrete was examined. The main objective of the second phase, however, was to assess the efficiency of glass textile reinforced concrete (GTRC) in the confinement of heat-damaged concrete. This phase commenced with selecting a candidate mortar among commonly used TRC mortars to confine heat-damaged specimens. Experimental results revealed that the adopted confinement system is an efficient solution to enhance the load bearing capacity of even seriously heat-damaged specimens. Eventually, experimental results were compared with available prediction models from the literature for both of the load-bearing capacity and also the compressive strength of confined concrete. Then an analytical confinement model was proposed based on best-fit analysis exclusive to heat-damaged concrete confined by GTRC.