Description
The improvement of repairing and/or strengthening techniques of existing reinforced concrete structures is a subject of interest in the field of Civil Engineering regarding that a great percentage of civil works involves interventions on existing structures. This research is in the frame of an experimental ongoing program aimed at studying strengthening techniques of concrete structural elements both at ambient temperature and after the exposure to high temperatures. This paper is particularly focused on the shear strengthening of existing reinforced concrete beams using a well-known technique as concrete jacketing but employing a high-performance concrete type. The results of an experimental campaign related with reinforced concrete beams strengthening with jackets elaborated with Self-Compacting Fiber Reinforced High Strength Concrete (SCFRHSC) are addressed. Different jacket widths, concrete jacket types and surface preparations are considered. The experimental program includes Three-Point Bending (TPB) tests on jacketed Reinforced Concrete beams and also other mechanical tests on laboratory scale samples: uniaxial compression and splitting tensile tests on cylindrical samples and TPB on notched prismatic specimens. A comparison between traditional jacketing with reinforced concrete and jacketing using SCFRHSC without steel reinforcing bars is presented. The results show that the considered high-performance concrete is a suitable material for strengthening existing beams with thinner concrete jackets than those necessary using standard concrete and therefore, resulting in a composite element with better sustainability properties.
