Flexural Strength of Reinforced Concrete Two way Slabs Strengthened and Repaired by High Strength Ferrocement at Tension Zone

Abstract

     This paper presents a study of the flexural behavior of strengthened and repaired reinforced concrete two slabs by ferrocement layers.  This study included testing 11 simply supported two way slabs, which include 1 control slabs, 8 strengthened slabs and 2 repaired slabs. In the strengthened slabs the effect of the thickness of ferrocement layers, the compressive strength for mortar and number of wire mesh layers of ferrocement on the ultimate load, mid span deflection at ultimate load and intensity of cracks was investigate. In the repaired part the slabs were loaded to (74 %) of measured ultimate load of control slab. The effect of connection method between repaired slabs and ferrocement jacket on the ultimate load, mid span deflection at ultimate load and intensity of cracks was examined. All reinforced concrete slab specimens were designed of the same dimensions and reinforce identically to fail in flexure. All slabs have been tested in simply supported conditions subjected to central concentrated load. The experimental results show that the ultimate loads are increased by about (4.6-19.2%) for the slabs strengthened with ferrocement with respect to the unstrengthened reinforced concrete slab (control slab).