Experimental study of ferrocement for strengthening short lap splice of RC members

Abstract

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental program on strengthening short lap splice of reinforcement using ferrocement jacket. The strengthening technique applied the skeleton steel of 9 mm diameter for confining the lap splice zone. The experiment consisted of 7 specimens. One is the control specimen with continuous bar (without lap splice). The other 6 specimens contained lap splice of longitudinal bars. The main study variables were lap splice length and the volume of confining skeleton steel. The ferrocement was made with 50 MPa mortar and reinforced by two layers of hexagonal wire meshes. Based on experimental results, the un-strengthened specimens showed a sudden drop in strength after the peak load capacity was reached. Strengthening by ferrocement jacket could significantly increase the strength by as much as 50% and could develop the yield strength of the bars. Moreover they could also increase the ductility of the strengthened specimens.