Use of Fiber-Reinforced Self-Consolidating Concrete to Enhance Serviceability Performance of Damaged Beams

Abstract

The use of fiber-reinforced self-consolidating concrete (FR-SCC) in repairing damaged concrete beams has been evaluated. An experimental program was conducted to design and test key fresh and hardened properties of SCC and FR-SCC mixtures. The designed FR-SCC mixtures included two types of supplementary cementitious materials (silica fume (SF) and slag (SL)) and two types of fibers (steel fiber (STF) and polypropylene fiber (PPF)) were used. To ensure good workability to repair congested areas, the optimized volume fractions of the STF were 0.25% and 0.50% compared with 0.10%, 0.15%, and 0.20% for the PPF. In addition, the flexural behavior of 10 beam specimens was investigated. The main reinforcement for the control beams consisted of #5 reinforcing bars, while the main reinforcement for the repaired beams was either #4 or #3 reinforcing bars that were introduced to simulate 35% and 65% reduction of the bar areas, respectively, due to corrosion. The results demonstrate that the optimized FR-SCC mixtures are effective repair materials and can develop adequate bond strength to existing concrete. The flexural test results showed that the repair mixtures were able to increase the cracking load for the repaired beams compared with the control beams. Such an increase is expected to contribute to extending the life of the damaged member or structure at the service load level. This paper also presents a comparison of the predicted values for the first-crack load strength using the ACI 544 code equation with the experimental data. Results showed that the code equation provides safe prediction.