Behaviour of reinforced concrete beams strengthened with basalt textile reinforced concrete

Abstract

Experimental investigations were carried out to determine the flexural behaviour of reinforced concrete beams strengthened with basalt textile-reinforced concrete under monotonic and low-cycle fatigue load. Reinforced concrete beams strengthened with basalt textile-reinforced concrete were tested under four-point bending. The behaviour of the strengthened beam was compared with that of un-strengthened reinforced concrete beam. It is observed that there is an enhancement in energy absorption for reinforced concrete beams strengthened with basalt reinforced concrete even though there is no considerable increase in load carrying capacity. It is observed that when the strengthened beams are subjected to monotonic loading, the increase in ultimate load carrying capacity is marginal but the increase in ductility is 84.5% and the increase in energy absorption is 162% compared with un-strengthened beam. Reinforced concrete beams strengthened with basalt reinforced concrete were also tested under low-cycle fatigue load. It is observed that there is about 20% reduction in ultimate load carrying capacity and 27% reduction in ductility compared to monotonic case. But the cracking and failure patterns are similar in both the cases.