Efficacy of FRCM systems in flexural strengthening of RC T-beams

This paper presents an experimental study on the flexural behaviour of RC beams strengthened with fabric reinforced cementitious matrix (FRCM) system. Eight T-shaped RC beams with two different flexural reinforcement ratios (ρs = 0.40% and ρs = 1.02%) were constructed and tested as simply supported under monotonic three-point loading. Two beams were kept unstrengthen to act as references while the remaining six beams were strengthened with different types and geometric schemes of FRCM system. Three different test parameters have been considered: (a) FRCM type (carbon and glass), (b) FRCM strengthening scheme (side bonded versus U-shaped scheme), and (c) internal flexural reinforcement ratio. The strengthening system increased the ultimate load carrying capacity by 16.52 – 46.73% in carbon FRCM strengthened beams and 4.84 – 29.41% for glass fRcM strengthened beams relative to the reference beams. The strengthening performance of FRCM system decreased with an increase in the amount of internal flexural reinforcement. Moreover, U-shaped strengthening scheme performed better than the sided bonded counterparts in terms of the gain in the ultimate load and failure modes.