EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL ASSESSMENT OF EXTERNALLY BONDED AND NEAR-SURFACE MOUNTED NATURAL FIBRE COMPOSITES ON REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAMS
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Date
2022
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Abstract
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.