Effect of different parameters of U-concrete jacketing on behavior of strengthened beam

Abstract

With the continuous developments of civil engineering practices in general and structural engineering in particular, engineers have been investigating the rehabilitation/strengthening techniques of existing structures to save them and/or increase their load capacity by raising the efficiency of the structural elements of existing buildings such as beams and columns. This technique used for different purposes such as in increasing the lifetime of these structures, adapting with the change of functionality of the building, and to overcome the error design. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of changing some properties of reinforced concrete jacket u-shaped which used for strengthening reinforced concrete (RC) beams. This study focused on increasing the load capacity of beams in existing buildings. The effect of changing yield strength, concrete strength, rebar size, and thickness of RC jackets on the load capacity of beams have been investigated aiming at identifying the best practices in this regard using Finite Element Method (FEM)-based numerical analysis utilizing ANSYS software. Moreover, reinforcement stress is discussed. The results of the numerical analysis have verified experimentally utilizing previous research. It is noticed that some of the proposed changes for RC jackets contribute in improving of performance for U-concrete jacketing technique to be a more effective technique to strengthen the existing beams which shall help engineers in practical use in the field.