Rehabilitation of reinforced concrete slab using ultra high-performance concrete and fiber reinforced polymer

Abstract

Rehabilitation the flexural capacity of reinforced concrete structures has been the subject of many studies. However, there is currently limited research on repairing such structures using Ultra-High-Performance Concrete (UHPC) and the combination of UHPC with Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) materials. This article presents the results of an experimental study on the flexural behavior of 4 specimens: 1 specimen of reinforced concrete (RC), 1 specimen strengthened with FRP sheets, and 02 specimens with the same height as the RC specimen but with a replacement of 3 cm of the protective concrete layer with a UHPC layer, either bonded or not bonded to the existing concrete, with or without the reinforcement of FRP sheets. The experimental results of the 4-point bending tests indicate that, while maintaining the height of the RC specimen constant, replacing the protective concrete layer with a UHPC layer and incorporating FRP in the tension zone led to an increase of approximately 83.35% in flexural capacity, with the deflection at the failure stage rising by only 12.8%. This research opens up a new and promising direction for improving and extending the service life of RC bridges using UHPC and FRP