STRENGTHENING OF REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAM USING STEEL FIBER AT DIFFERENT DEPTH OF THE BEAM

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation for enhancing the shear and ultimate strength capacities of reinforced concrete (RC) beams using steel fiber at different depths. Ultimate loads, load-deflection curves, cracking and crushing patterns have been compared with those of the RC beams without steel fiber henceforth noted as controlled beam. A total of four sets of experiments each having three concrete beams, one set control beam and three sets with randomly distributed discrete steel fiber at different depths henceforth noted as fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) beam, were performed to determine the most economical structure in the perspective of ultimate strength and shear capacity. From the test results, it was found that incorporation of steel fiber in RC beams have shown to be effective in enhancing the shear strength capacity. It has also been observed that the strength increases with the use of varying depth of steel fiber. Beam strengthened using this scheme has shown 20% increase in shear strength and ultimate load in comparison to controlled beam.