Flexural behavior of reinforced concrete beams strengthened with high-strength stainless steel wire rope meshes reinforced ECC

Abstract

In this study, the flexural behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) beams strengthened with high-strength stainless steel wire rope (HSSSWR) meshes reinforced Engineered Cementitious Composite (ECC) was investigated. In total, six strengthened beams and one control beam were manufactured and tested taking into account of test variables including the reinforcement ratio of longitudinal HSSSWR, nominal diameter of HSSSWR, and formula of ECC. The test results showed that the flexural capacity, ductility, stiffness, and toughness of the strengthened beams were sufficiently improved, and the development of crack including maximum width and spacing was delayed by using the strengthening system of HSSSWR meshes reinforced ECC, and the failure mode of the strengthened beams was concrete crushing, which was followed by the local debonding along the interface and rupture of reinforcement layer except for the beam with the relatively high reinforcement ratio of longitudinal HSSSWRs. The calculation models with high accuracy were proposed to predict the flexural capacity and stiffness for the RC beams strengthened by the HSSSWR meshes reinforced ECC, which were verified by test results in this study and existing study.