Retrofitting of RC Beams Using Coir Textile Reinforced Mortar

Abstract

Textile Reinforced Mortars (TRM) has been broadly concentrated during the most recent two out of this world across as a promising option in contrast to Fibre Strengthened Polymers (FRP) retro-fitting solution for strengthening of reinforced. The effectiveness of using TRM over FRP has been researched previously but research proving the effectiveness of use of natural fibres textiles with TRM is lacking, which is studied with the comparison of strength parameters of the Reinforced concrete structures jacketed with natural textile and commonly used synthetic textiles viz. glass fibre textiles. Also the effectiveness of chemical treatment subjected to natural fibres textiles in terms of strength increase is studied. Coir fibres being the most widely available natural fibres with favourable strength are selected for this study. The results obtained show us an increase in flexural strength in beam specimens retro-fitted with TRM. And coir textile wrapped specimens gave comparable results in comparison to glass textile wrapped counterpart. Chemical treatment of coir fibres also proved to be effective with increased strength over untreated coir fibres. The use of natural fibres is hence proved to be feasible at a fraction of the cost of the synthetic fibre textiles used.