Study On Behavior Of RC Beams Strengthened With High-strength Steel Wire Mesh And Polymer Mortar

Rehabilitation with high-strength steel wire mesh and polymer mortar is a new techniqueof structural strengthening. Compared to other strengthening methods, it has a series of obviousadvantages. For the first one, the strengthening structure and the original one bond and worktogether well. Second, the construction is simple and does not require large-scale executionmachines and templates. Third, it has good durability, resistance to elevated temperatures andfireproof performance. Fourth, appearance and functions of the building are not affected. Lastbut not the least, pollution to the construction and the environment is little.In this paper, experimental study on flexural behavior of RC beams, flexural behavior offire-exposed RC beams and shearing behavior of RC beams strengthened with high-strengthsteel wire mesh and polymer mortar were included. Ten RC specimens were designed andproduced. The mode of failure, cracking behavior, load versus deflection curves and ultimateload-carrying capacity of the strengthened specimens were analyzed. The results showed thatthe strengthening layer blocked up the growth of cracks. The flexural and shearing load-carrying capacity and stiffness of the rehabilitated beams with were increased effectively. As tofire-exposed specimens, the load-carrying capacity of the beam strengthened with this techniquecan reach the level of specimen before fire.Based on the experimental results, the factors which affect the mechanical behavior andfailure mode of the strengthened beams were analyzed, and the formula of the load-carryingcapacity of the beams under loading were proposed in the frame of the Code for Design ofConcrete Structures(GB50010-2002). The theoretical calculation results agree well with theexperimental ones and the calculation method proposed here can be applied to the retrofitdesign of reinforced concrete structures. The work in this dissertation provides a resource for theestablishment of the relative specification or code.In order to test the results of the experiment, numerical simulations of the strengthenedbeams behavior were carried out through the ANSYS finite element program in the end of thedissertation. The stress and strain of the flexural and shearing specimens were calculated, andfactors affecting the behavior of the beams were investigated. The temperature distribution ofthe beam after fire is calculated by thermal analysis with ANSYS procedure This simulationprovides an efficient aided analysis to the experimental investigation. On the basis of experiment and numerical simulation, the responses of the overall structurewith the beams strengthened were analyzed. The results showed that the structure strengthenedhas a good work.This study is funded by the Research and Development Project of the Ministry ofConstruction (05-k4-18).