Description
Textile reinforced mortars (TRM) have recently used for strengthening of Reinforced Concrete (RC) beams by researchers. The use of Carbon, glass, aramid and PBO fibres have extensively caught the eyes of the scientists and research enthusiasts, basalt fibre has been mostly explored for strengthening of masonry. For beams, a narrow band of data is available TRM using basalt fibres as strengthening material, most of which comprises of small-scale tests. The following paper presents an experimental study of six full scale beams tested within the shear critical region, i.e. a varying shear span to depth (a/d) ratio between 1 through 2.5, where three beams are acting as control beams for various a/d ratios while the remaining three TRM strengthened full scale beams with basalt fibres provided at the tension face and wrapped in U-shaped arrangement for corresponding a/d ratios. The results showed that TRM using basalt fibres is effective in improving the performance of RC beams in terms serviceability, both crack and deflection control. The use of TRM also improved load carrying capacity of beams in flexure and delayed the appearance of first crack, and the post cracking stiffness of the flexural members and better performance in terms of ductility.
