Bending of Beams Externally Reinforced with TRC and CFRP Monitored by DIC and AE

Strengthening and repairing existing reinforced concrete structures is often more economical and sustainable than rebuilding them. The most commonly used technique, externally bonded Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymers (CFRP), does not answer the need for a temperature resistant, fire safe and economical solution. High performance glass fibre Textile Reinforced Cements (TRC) can offer an answer to these drawbacks. A validation of this TRC technique against the existing one of CFRP is still needed. The Digital Image Correlation (DIC) and Acoustic Emission (AE) measuring techniques are applied to monitor the bending, cracking and failure behaviour of a reference beam, a beam with CFRP external reinforcement and a precracked and non-precracked TRC external reinforced beam. Four-point bending tests indicate the successful complementary use of DIC and AE and prove that TRC as an external reinforcement for concrete beams actually works.