Experiment on non-damaged RC beams strengthened by high-strength steel wire strand meshes reinforced ECC in bending

In order to study the flexural performance of reinforced concrete (RC) beams strengthened by high-strength steel wire strand (HSSWS) meshes reinforced engineered cementitious composites (ECC), the bending tests were performed on seven non-damaged RC beams considering the influence factors such as the steel strand diameter, the longitudinal steel strand reinforcement rate, formula of ECC and end anchorage. The results show that under the condition of using reasonable anchorage measures at the end of the reinforcement layer, the bearing capacity, ductility and crack-control capacity of RC beams strengthened by HSSWS meshes reinforced ECC in bending can be significantly improved, and the crack development of the original RC beam can be effectively delayed, which results in reducing crack width. The increase of longitudinal HSSWS reinforcement rate will improve the cracking load, bearing capacity, crack-control capacity and stiffness of the strengthened beams in bending, but excessive HSSWS reinforcement rate of the strengthened beams would reduce the ductility and toughness. When the reinforcement ratio of longitudinal HSSWS is close, the ductility, toughness and crack-control ability of strengthened beams would be reduced to some extent by using the HSSWS with relative large diameter. The cracking load, bearing capacity and stiffness of strengthened beams in bending increase with the increases of elastic modulus and tensile strength of ECC. The crack-control ability, ductility and toughness of strengthened beams increase with the increase of ultimate tensile strain of ECC.