Suitability Evaluation of Structural Analysis Approaches for Determining the Flexural Capacity of Reinforced Concrete Elements Strengthened with Textile-Reinforced Mortar

Abstract

This study presents the evaluation of various structural analysis approaches to theoretically determine the bending resistance of flexural reinforced concrete elements strengthened with textile-reinforced mortar (TRM), which are gaining more and more attention as external strengthening layers. To assess the increase in capacity due to strengthening, multiple experimental studies from the literature were evaluated. Different structural analysis approaches for determining the flexural strength increase were tested against the experimental data. Finally, the consideration of strain limits for the textile layers, as also applied in the dimensioning of externally bonded fiber-reinforced polymers, proved to be the most reliable analytical approach.

Keywords:

• Reinforced concrete elements
• flexural strengthening
• textile fibers
• textile-reinforced mortar (TRM)
• dimensioning

Acknowledgements

The investigation presented here is part of the research project AGB 2015/005, funded by the Swiss Federal Road Office FEDRO (fund no. 8201119). The fruitful and constructive exchange with the accompanying AGB commission, composed of J.-Chr. Putallaz (chair), Stéphane Cuennet, Herbert Friedl, Dr Pascal Kronenberg and Prof. Aurelio Muttoni, is highly appreciated.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental Information

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10168664.2020.1776196.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Swiss Federal Road Office [grant number 8201119].