Abstract
The rehabilitation of reinforced concrete (RC) members with high-strength steel wire and polymer mortar is a popular method for structural strengthening, owing to the resultant high strength and good fire resistance. However, similar to cement mortar, polymer mortar is a brittle material in tension. Further, its use as the strengthened layer will lead to the corrosion of the steel wire, as well as secondary corrosion of the steel reinforcements in existing RC members. This study proposed a novel method for flexural strengthening existing RC members through the employment of high-strength steel wire and high ductile engineered cementitious composites (ECC). The influences of the matrix type of the strengthened layer, reinforcement ratio of the steel wire, and existence of pre-damage on the flexural behaviours of the beams were tested and analysed in detail. It was found that the flexural strength and stiffness of the strengthened beams were significantly higher than those of an unstrengthened control beam. The substitution of polymer mortar with ECC at the strengthened layer not only changed the crack pattern at the strengthened layer (i.e. multiple and fine cracks in the ECC layer, as compared to fewer and larger cracks in the polymer mortar layer), but also delayed the crack development in the concrete tension zone. Finally, the flexural strengths of the strengthened beams were calculated based on the design code GB 50367-2013. It was found that the current design code can predict the flexural strength of the beams with high accuracy.
Published Version
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