Flexural Behavior of RC Beams Strengthened with Textile Reinforced Concrete

Abstract

AbstractIn RC structure, the role of beams is vital in resisting the flexural and shear stress due to the applied force. Many studies have been carried out in improving the shear resistance capacity of RC beams using various strengthening techniques such as externally bonded FRP, steel plate bonding, jacketing etc.., Similarly, near surface mounting techniques, FRP wrapping are employed in improving the flexural behaviour. Recently, the application of textile reinforced mortar is widely used to examine the flexural performance and observed significant improvement in terms of strength and ductility. The inelastic performance and increased moment carrying capacity is an advantage of Textile Reinforced Mortar (TRM). Textile Reinforced concrete (TRC) has been found as a promising technique in enhancing the desired performance of the structures. In this study, the TRM layers have been used at the tension region where cover concrete has been completely removed to avoid the increase in cross section. Many textiles have been used to increase the flexural performance of the RC elements. The effectiveness of glass textile fiber and polymer grid as reinforcement with cementitious composites was used in this strengthening work. All the strengthened beams were tested under monotonic loading until the failure occurs. The parameters include failure mode, load bearing capacity, crack bridging mechanism, energy dissipation are considered to evaluate the performance of the strengthening schemes adopted. The strengthening layer enhances the flexural performance of RC beam with improved ductility and increased damage tolerance capacity. KeywordsTRCFlexural strengtheningRC beamsDuctilityGlass fiber