Increasing the flexural capacity of RC beams using partially HPFRCC layers

High Performance Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Composites which are called HPFRCC, include cement matrices with strain hardening response under tension loading. In these composites, the cement mortar with fine aggregates, is reinforced by continuous or random distributed fibers and could be used for various applications including structural fuses and retrofitting of reinforced concrete members etc. In this paper, mechanical properties of HPFRCC materials are reviewed briefly. Moreover, a reinforced concrete beam (experimentally tested by Maalej et al.) is chosen and in different specimens, lower or upper or both parts of that beam are replaced with HPFRCC layers. After modeling of specimens in ABAQUS and calibration of those, mechanical properties of these specimens are investigated with different thicknesses, tensile strengths, tensile strains and compressive bars. Analytical results which are obtained by nonlinear finite analyses show that using HPFRCC layers with different parameters, increase loading capacity and ultimate displacement of these beams compare to RC specimens.