Development of deflection hardening cementitious composites using glass fibres for flexural repairing/strengthening concrete beams: experimental and numerical studies

This paper presents experimental and numerical programmes employed to strengthen concrete beams using glass fibre-reinforced concrete in order to achieve deflection hardening behaviour. Numerous tests were carried out on 270 specimens in the experimental phase in order to characterise mechanical properties of beams reinforced with glass fibre. Three beams were then cast with plain concrete and experimentally tested under flexural load conditions. Based on the experimental results, numerical simulations were conducted and the results were calibrated to the experimental results. Then, the robust-able FE models were used to strengthen concrete beams through numerical simulations. Furthermore, section enlargement method was also used to strengthen the concrete beams. The experimental and numerical results showed that using glass fibre-reinforced concrete layer to strengthen the concrete beams through the section enlargement method significantly improves the load carrying capacity and ultimate deflection.