Flexural Behavior of Cracked RC Beams Retrofitted with Strain Hardening Cementitious Composites

In the present research, the efficiency and the effectiveness of different Ultra High Performance Strain Hardening Cementitious Composites (UHP-SHCC) schemes for flexure retrofitting of a cracked RC beams were investigated experimentally, numerically and analytically. The experimental program consisted of six RC beams. The control specimen was loaded until failure. The middle third part of the control specimen was replaced with UHP-SHCC, then, it was loaded again until failure. The other five beams were loaded until 52% of the failure load of the control beam, then they were retrofitted with a layer of UHP-SHCC casted at tension side. The main parameters were thickness and the reinforcement ratio of UHP-SHCC layer with two different lengths of UHP-SHCC layer. The test results showed that using UHP-SHCC layer is a highly effective technique to increase the flexural capacity and the ductility of RC beams. As the reinforcement ratio of the layer increased, the flexural capacity increased. The flexural capacity of the beams with a layer length of 75% beam span was less than the capacity of the beams having a layer length equal to the beam span. Analytical and numerical results agreed with the experimental results.