RETROFITING OF CONCRETE STRUCTURES AGAINST EARTQUAKES VIA PRE-PREG FIBER COMPOSITES

摘要

The recent studies on earthquakes showed that many existing structures, particularly in developing countries, were not safe against seismic actions and other environmental impacts. With this respect, it is believed that a significant proportion of these existing structures will either collapse or get heavily damaged during a possible strong earthquake. Thus, existing structures need seismic retrofitting against the structural damages. Based on the developments in the construction material industry, existing knowledge of concrete retrofit with pre-impregnated (pre-preg) fiber-reinforced polymer composite (FRPC) should be validated. In the present study, cylindrical concrete specimens were prepared using the traditional mix of concrete materials, and retrofitted with pre-preg carbon, glass and Kevlar fiber composites. The pre-preg composites were applied on those concrete specimens under vacuum and temperatures following the companies' curing cycles. The layers of pre-preg composites on the concrete specimens were 0, 1, 3 and 5 layers. Specimens were tested under uniaxial compression loading tests. The test results indicated that mechanical strengths of the concrete specimens reinforced with the pre-preg composites were significantly improved. This study may be useful for the different concretes used for structural purposes against earthquakes and other environmental impacts.