Structural Performance of Externally Strengthened Rectangular Reinforced Concrete Beams by Glued Steel Plate

This paper examines both flexural and shear behaviour of eight full-scale (2700×160×100-mm) reinforced concrete rectangular beams subjected to one-third point load. Two types of beams were investigated; Type-E and Type-C. Type-E are reinforced concrete rectangular beams strengthened externally by 1.5mm thick structural steel plate glued to the tensile face with epoxy as adhesive while type-C are reinforced concrete rectangular beams without structural steel plate glued to the tensile face. An average concrete strength of 30N/mm2 at 28 days was used. Required internal reinforcement according to BS 8110-1:1997 was provided for the concrete rectangular beams. Before the beams were externally strengthened, the beam surface to be plated was gritted to take off the cement membrane and to open up the aggregates. Epoxy adhesive was applied as a paste to both the plate and concrete surfaces: the two surfaces were then put together and held in place under pressure of 3.84kN/m2 until the glue was cured. The beams were subjected to flexural testing after 28 days, using loading frame. Each of the rectangular beams support at both ends were subjected to one-third point load, deflection readings were recorded using a dial gauge at every 1.82kN increment. At ultimate load, the beams failed by a crack initiated at the bottom fiber of the beams. From the test results, an average flexural and shear strengths of Type-C beams are; 21.91N/mm2 and 1.05N/mm2 respectively, while type-E beams are; 28.91N/mm2 and 1.39N/mm2 respectively. The results of the investigation showed that flexural and shear strengths of reinforced concrete rectangular beam increased when strengthened externally by bonded steel plate. A straightforward analytical procedure was developed to validate the experiment results of type-E and type-C beams, using rectangular stress block for concrete. Experimental average failure load for beams Type-C and Type-E are 22.44kN and 29.60kN respectively while theoretical failure load for Type-C and Type-E beams are 20.86kNand 31.2kN respectively. Generally, there were acceptably fair correlations between analytical and experimental failure loads of Type-C and Type-E beams.