Improving structural performance of concrete beams by U-wrapped basalt fibre: a retrofitting approach

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of the work is to investigate structural behaviour of reinforced concrete (RF) beam retrofitted with basalt fibre (BF) fabric. The incorporation of BF showed enhancement in bending strength, to increase confinement and to repair damages caused by cracking. In the early decades, using BF for composite materials shaped BF as an excellent physical substance with necessary mechanical properties, highlighting the significant procedures ability.

Design/methodology/approach

Specimens were casted with U-wrapped BF and then evaluated based on flexural tests. In the test carried over for flexural fortifying assessment, BF reinforcements demonstrated a definitive quality improvement in the case of the subjected control sample; ultimately, the end impacts depend upon the applied test parameters. From the outcomes introduced in this comparison, for the double-wrapped sample, the modifications improved by 12% than that of the single-wrapped beam, which is identified to subsist for a better strengthening of new-age retrofitting designs.

Findings

The current research deals with the retrofitting of RC beam by conducting a comparative experiment on wrapping of BF (single or double BF wrapping) in improving the mechanical behavior of concrete.

Originality/value

It can be shown from the experimental results that increasing the number of layers has significant effect on basalt strengthened beams.

Citation

Kannan, H., Prakash K., S. and , K.V. (2024), "Improving structural performance of concrete beams by U-wrapped basalt fibre: a retrofitting approach", World Journal of Engineering, Vol. 21 No. 2, pp. 267-274. https://doi.org/10.1108/WJE-07-2022-0289