Experimental Study on PCC Beams Strengthened With External Wrapping of Basalt Fibre Reinforced Polymer (BFRP)

Abstract

Infrastructure plays a vital role in development for recent times and humiliation of structural materials that is caused by some environmental effects has to be protected by strengthening of structures. One of the finest challenges in Civil Engineering is strengthening and rehabilitation of existing structures. There are various rehabilitation technique such as external wrapping of fiber reinforced polymers (FRP) have been developed. At initial period, strengthening has been done externally using steel plates bonded to the tension side and it has numerous difficulties including durability, manipulation, and heavy weight. The main aim of the study is to investigate the flexural behavior of the PCC beam with respect to orientation of the wrapped basalt fiber reinforced polymer (BFRP). A sequence of 12 PCC beams with 500mm as its length, 100mm as its width and 100mm as its depth are cast with M25 grade concrete. All the 12 specimens are cured for a period of 28 days. Of the 12 PCC beams two beams are control specimens and a comparative study on the orientation of the fiber such as wrapped tension zone, shear zone, U shaped-1, U shaped-2, and fully wrapped are used on the specimen. The fiber is to be wrapped according to the orientation of the beam with epoxy resin. The experimental results shows that PCC beam that is wrapped as U shaped – 2 Shows higher Flexural strength compared to all other fabric orientations. BFRP Fully wrapped beam gives minimum Load carrying capacity when compare with other fabrics. U shaped – 2 orientation has higher load carrying capacity and economical as compared to fully wrapped and all other modes of orientations.