EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL ASSESSMENT OF EXTERNALLY BONDED AND NEAR-SURFACE MOUNTED NATURAL FIBRE COMPOSITES ON REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAMS
2022
Effiong, John Uduak | Covenant University, Theses
The demand for sustainable and accessible materials is on the increase with drive towards providing and strengthening physical infrastructures to guarantee a more resilient, and sustainable environment. A substantial survey of literature has revealed that most research have concentrated on enhancing reinforced concrete (RC) beams adopting the externally bonded (EB) strengthening or near-surface mounted (NSM) techniques employing synthetic fiber reinforced polymer-based materials. A few studies have found that the use of natural fiber reinforced polymer (NFRP) composites is advantageous as a potential substitute for the utilization of conventional synthetic fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composites for structural strengthening. The comparison of EB and NSM techniques using NFRP composites is very underexplored. Six beams were cast, and they underwent testing as part of the experiment. Flexural failure was the primary mechanism of failure for these beams. The findings of the empirical investigation show that the NSM kenaf FRP configuration of K-N-2-4 provided the best structural strengthening by increasing the load-carrying capacity by 163.64% and improving stiffness before deformation. This further demonstrates the kenaf FRP composite as a viable option in strengthening RC beams. The un-strengthened and strengthened RC beams were modelled numerically on Abaqus FEA software to correlate the empirical findings, and the numerical analysis' findings on the beams' load-deflection response, yielding load, and crack propagations were in conformity with the results of the experimental research.
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