Shear strengthening of RC beams with high performance jacket

The possibility of strengthening RC elements for increasing the bearing capacity under shear actions is an important issue in the retrofitting field. In RC existing structures, made in the ’60s and ’70s, the shear reinforcement is often not sufficient to satisfy the prescription of current codes. Hence, in the xc0020retrofitting of these structures it is often necessary to increase the shear bearing capacity. A possible use of low thickness high performance jackets for shear strengthening purposes is analyzed herein. The jackets are made with a high performance fiber reinforced concrete, with or without an additional 2mm diameter steel-wire mesh. Two different high performance concrete are investigated: a concrete with a self leveling rheology, that can be cast with reduced thickness, and a thixotropic material that can be placed without molds. The different jackets were used for reinforcing 3m long beams. The elements were tested up to failure and the comparison between the obtained results is presented herein.