Effect of Fabric Reinforced Cementitious Mortar (FRCM) on the Strength of Shear-Damaged Reinforced Concrete Beams

Abstract

This paper discusses an experimental study on the shear strengthening of damaged reinforced concrete beams using fabric reinforced cementitious mortar (FRCM). The key parameters studied were: 1) level of damage, namely presence of the first shear crack and 70% of the ultimate theoretical load and 2) the wrapping scheme used (continuously wrapped and intermittent strips). In total six 2 m long rectangular beams were constructed, one of the beams was left unstrengthened to act as control specimen, while all of the remaining beams were wrapped using a U-shaped wrapping scheme. Two beams were strengthened prior to any loading and the remaining three beams were repaired after sustaining the specified damage. When comparing the two wrapping schemes, it was found that, while both were able to increase the load-carrying capacity of the beams, specimens with intermittent wrapping had about 88% of the capacity compared to fully wrapped beams. It was also found that both wrapping schemes were fully effective in restoring the beams’ strength for the lower level of damage. However, as the damage increased the strengthening became less effective.