Retrofitting of shear damaged reinforced concrete beams

The importance of the maintenance, rehabilitation, and strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) members has increased due to various factors including increase in traffic volume and weight, structural aging and environmental impact. Several techniques have been used to strengthen these structures. External post-tensioning is one of the widely used strengthening techniques due to its advantages over other methods. Flexural strengthening of RC members using external post-tensioning has becomewell established technique over the past few decades. However, when external post-tensioning is used to strengthen shear damaged reinforced concrete members the efficiency is significantly reduced by existing cracks. In order to investigate the possible alternative techniques to reduce the effect of such shear cracks, an experimental investigation was carried out using external clamping on the shear damaged RC beams. The experimental results are discussed in this paper highlighting the effect of existing shear cracks on the member capacity of RC beams.