Published Jose-Upreti 2016
Published Jose-Upreti 2016
Published Jose-Upreti 2016
Vol. 43, No. 2, June - July 2016 pp. 190-198 No. 43-18
Strength and ductility are the two important parameters for the design of concrete structures to prevent sudden collapse
and minimize damage. An experimental investigation was carried out on pre-damaged RC beams strengthened with
Ultra High Strength Cementitious Composite (UHSCC) overlay under four point bending. The aim of the present
investigation is to evaluate the strength and ductility of the pre-damaged strengthened RC beams with UHSCC overlay.
The enhanced strength after strengthening, ductility using deflection and energy based approach, failure modes and
load deflection behavior are discussed. It is observed from the experimental findings that UHSCC overlay significantly
enhances the load carrying capacity and ductility. Further, it is noted that both deflection ductility and energy based
ductility are in good agreement with each other in the present study.
A highly developed infrastructure is necessary for structures proposed to withstand stand at seismic
economic growth and prosperity of the country. Many vulnerable zones1-2. It is essential to always ensure
structures necessary to this infrastructure, especially the designed structure subjected to critical load
those made of reinforced concrete (RC), have suffered behave in a ductile manner. This means ensuring
severe degradation since their construction due to the the structure will not fail in a brittle fashion without
combined effects of freeze thaw cycles, aggressive advance warning but will be capable of undergoing
environments, de-icing salts, and significantly increased large inelastic deformations at maximum load. The
live loads. One of the most important problems faced ductility of reinforced concrete structures is considered
by the civil engineers of today is to save, retrofit, and as the ability to sustain inelastic deformation without
maintain these deteriorating structures. The early substantial loss of load resisting capacity prior to
deterioration of RC structures is a serious issue for failure3-4. It can also be generalized as the study of post
any society, as it will put the public safety in jeopardy yield behavior considering main reinforcement yield as
and the escalator repair cost will directly burden the benchmark.
future economy. Strength and ductility based design Strengthening of damaged RC structures has more
of concrete structures prevent the sudden collapse and essential because of their unsatisfactory performance
minimize the damage. due to a variety of reasons. The alteration in use,
Ductility is a vital design criterion in most of the prohibitive cost, deteriorations from aggressive
prevailing design standards, particularly for all the exposure, damage from natural disasters, excessive
2-8mmØ
200
2-10mmØ
A 100
1200
1500
Shear-flexure failure 80
70
60
Load (kN)
Flexural cracks and crushing 50 R C-C1
R C-UH1
(a) (b) 40 R C-UH2
R C-UH3
30
20
10
0
(c) (d) 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Fig. 4 (a) Typical shear-flexure failure (b) several flexural cracks Mid span deflection (mm)
on pure bending zone (c) Typical Ultimate flexural failure (a)
of strengthened beams (d) Failure mode for the beam
strengthened only on constant bending zone 90
80
Figure 5 presents the load deflection behavior
70
of the tested beams. Load carrying capacities of the
strengthened beams are significantly enhanced except 60
R C-C2
for the beam RC-UH5 which failed under shear. Table 1 Load (kN) 50 R C-UH4
R C-UH5
presents the enhanced capacity, degree of prior damage 40 R C-UH6
before strengthening mid span deflection and failure 30
modes in detail.
20
Ductility of strengthened beams 10
Table 1
Experimental test results
Increased Mid span
Overlay Pre-damage Pre-damage Ultimate
Beam load capacity deflection Failure mode
length (mm) (%) load (kN) load (kN)
(%) (mm)
RC-C1 N/A N/A N/A 72.73 N/A 14.39 Flexure
RC-UH1 800 65 45 81.04 11.42 12.437 Flexure
Series A
RC-UH2 700 70 50 72.91 0.2 13.457 Flexure
RC-UH3 1500 70 50 77.22 6.1 13.897 Flexure
RC-C2 N/A N/A N/A 83.0 N/A 18.0 Flexure
RC- UH4 1500 86.92 72.5 85.0 1.91 12.7 Flexure
Series B
RC-UH5 1500 84.2 70.2 82.5 -2.99 17.0 Shear-flexure
RC-UH6 1500 88.13 73.5 83.5 1.19 10.8 Flexure
3.5
3.0 to decrease by 17.39% and 7.97% respectively but
2.5
the strength of the beam is enhanced marginally. For
2.0
1.5 the strengthened beam RCUH3, deflection ductility is
1.0 reduced by 16.87% but the energy ductility is improved
0.5 by 39.27% with the enhanced load carrying capacity
0.0
RCUH4 RCUH5 RCUH6 of 6.1%. The results show that the efficiency of UHSC
Strengthened Beams overlay to improve the strength and ductility of the pre-
4.0
(a) damaged strengthened RC beams. Fig. 6 presents the
B comparative chart of ductility for the tested beams.
3.5 D
3.0 Series B
2.5 As the degree of pre-damage is relatively high (based
Ductility Index
E nergy based
2.0
from parent specimen highlights the excellent
Deformation