BEHAVIOUR OF RC FRAME USING PRECAST FOAM CONCRETE STRENGTHENED WITH CFRP AS AN INFILL WALL UNDER HORIZONTAL CYCLIC LOADING

Abstract

An experimental study was undertaken to examine the behavior of RC-frames employing precast foam concrete reinforced with diagonal CFRP as an infill wall under ASTM E2126-02a cycle testing methodology (ASTM 2003) in order to anticipate the onset of earthquake-related disasters. The study aimed to determine the failure rate and mechanism based on FEMA 356. An RC frame with precast foam concrete acting as an infill wall without retrofitting (WTI) and an RC frame with precast foam concrete acting as an infill wall and CFRP retrofitting at a width of 36 cm (WTC) were constructed as two different types of examples. The results showed that whereas the WTI produced a maximum load value of 44.88 kN at push loading and 52.30 kN at pull loading, the WTC produced a maximum load value of 102.87 kN at push loading and 80.09 kN at pull loading. The diagonal CFRP retrofitting increased the RC frame's capacity to support in-plane horizontal cyclic stresses when foam concrete precast was used as an infill wall. The test specimen with the CFRP retrofitting underwent a shear failure that started with the CFRP strip debonding and ended with a shear structural collapse. The infill wall had an in-plane failure and a diagonal crack with shear collapse. This demonstrates that the maximum load that the RC specimen could withstand after being retrofitted with CFRP rose for each structural performance grade.