Strengthening of concrete structures by the use of mineral based composites : system and design models for flexure and shear

Abstract: A great number of society's resources are invested in existing concrete structures, such as bridges, tunnels, different kind of buildings etc. All of these structures have both an expected function and an expected life span. However, both the function and the life span can be influenced by external factors, e.g. degradation and altered load situations. Further influencing aspects could be mistakes in design or during the construction phase. Repairing and/or strengthening these structures could maintain or increase the function as well as the life span.To strengthen concrete structures by using adhesively bonded fibres or fibre reinforced polymers (FRP) has been shown to be an excellent way of improving the load bearing capacity. The most common adhesive used for this type of strengthening is epoxies. Unfortunately, there are some drawbacks with the use of epoxy adhesives such as diffusion tightness, poor thermal compatibility with concrete and requirements for a safe working environment which might lead to allergic reactions if proper protective clothing is not used. A further limiting factor is the requirement on the surrounding temperature at application. A commonly recommended minimum temperature at the time for application is 10°C, which makes the preparations regarding application during colder seasons much more complicated. However, some of these drawbacks could be reduced by substituting the epoxy adhesive for a mineral-based bonding agent with similar material properties as concrete.The strengthening system and also the topic of this thesis is termed "mineral-based composites" (MBC). The MBC consists in this context of grids of carbon FRP with high tensile strength that are bonded to an existing concrete surface by the use of a cement based bonding agent.The scientific approach in this thesis includes analytical methods to describe load bearing capacity for the strengthened concrete structure in both flexure and shear. The analytical approaches are then verified against experimental results. Above the theoretical and experimental performance of the MBC system a review of state of the art research has been made in order to collate and map existing mineral-based strengthening systems other than the MBC system.To develop and verify the theoretical models and to compare the performance of the MBC system to other possible designs of mineral-based strengthening systems, six papers are appended in the thesis. - The first paper describes the performance of the MBC system when used in flexural strengthening. The experimental program in this paper consists of a concrete slab strengthened with both the MBC system and epoxy based system. In addition, a parametric study was made on small scale beam specimens to evaluate the performance of using different cement-based bonding agents.- The second paper describes the performance of the MBC system when used as shear strengthening. This study consists of experimental results of 23 reinforced concrete beams with different concrete qualities, internal shear reinforcement ratios together with different variations of the CFRP grid design and mineralbased bonding agents. In addition, a comparison is also made to traditional epoxy-based strengthening. This paper also has an analytical approach to estimate the shear resistance.- The third paper describes existing mineral-based strengthening systems and how these perform in comparison to the proposed MBC strengthening system in shear and flexure.- The fourth paper maps different possibilities to design and combine various materials in order to obtain a mineral-based strengthening system. This paper also consists of experimental research on the tensile behaviour of the MBC system when using high performance fibre reinforced cementitious bonding agents (engineered cementitious composites - ECC). In addition, these results and discussions are also coupled to the observations made in flexural and shear strengthening.- The fifth paper gives suggestions on how to estimate the shear bearing capacity of MBC strengthened concrete beams. The suggested shear design approaches are mainly based on traditional shear design models based on truss analogy, but one design presented is based on the compression field theory.- The sixth and last paper describes the strain development in a shear strengthened concrete beam both with and without the MBC system. All of the results from the investigations made in this thesis indicate that the MBC system contributes to increasing the load bearing capacity for strengthened concrete structures considerably. It is also shown that the MBC system can give competitive strengthening effects compared to existing epoxy bonded strengthening systems. From the experimental investigations on the shear strengthened beams it is shown that the strains in the shear span are lowered compared to a non strengthened specimen. This reduction of strains is also shown in the transition zone between the development of macro cracks from micro cracks. The suggested analytical approach in order to estimate the load bearing capacity of strengthened concrete structures in both flexure and shear indicates that realistic estimations can be made. The flexural design is straightforward while the shear design is more intricate. It is however concluded that a simple and safe design could be made based on the "additional" approach using a 45° truss.