Strengthening the reinforced concrete slab by HPFRCC material

A number of reasons may necessitate the need for strengthening the existing structures. It may be due to age of the building, change in use of it, revisions in structural codes and occurrence of natural disasters. Reinforced concrete buildings are widely constructed in the world and some methods have been presented for strengthening of these buildings. Reinforced concrete structures can be strengthened by high performance concrete materials. High performance fiber reinforced cement composites (HPFRCC) are ductile materials containing cement mortar and fibers. Tensile strain hardening behavior and multiple cracking are the main characteristics and consequently it is suitable for strengthening of reinforced concrete members. In this paper, HPFRCC layers with different thicknesses have been used for strengthening of the existing reinforced concrete slab. Load capacity of these strengthened slabs are determined by finite element method and compared with that of reinforced concrete slab. Results show that using HPFRCC material in these members concludes to more ultimate load and ductility compared to those of reinforced concrete slab.