Construction and Building Materials, Vol. 9, No. 5, pp.

259-266, 1995
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Structural repair/strengthening of RC columns

M. Frangou*, K. Pilakoutas* and S. Dritsos+

*Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, University of Sheffield, Mappin

Street, Sheffield, Sl 3JD, UK
‘Department of Civil Engineering, University of Patras, Patras, Greece

Received 16 September 1994; revised 5 January 1995; accepted 16 January 1995

The susceptibility of the majority of the existing building stock to structural damage largely
depends on the quality of design, detailing and construction. In many cases, the engineer can
extend the life span of a building structure by utilizing simple repair/strengthening techniques. The
choice of the repair/strengthening technique becomes, therefore, the decisive factor, since high
cost would deter many building owners from executing essential repair works. In this paper, a cost-
effective and efficient technique for strengthening RC columns is described. The proposed tech-
nique involves post-tensioning metal strips around reinforced concrete columns, by using a
strapping machine. The preliminary results of the experimental work carried out at Sheffield
University indicate that such strengthening can increase member strength and ductility to higher
levels than those possible by conventional reinforcement, at only a fraction of the time and cost
required by alternative techniques

Keywords: post-tensioning; metal strips; repair

The need for structural repair/strengthening of the The draft Eurocode for seismic loading, EC 8’, recog-
majority of the existing building stock largely depends nizing the beneficial effects of lateral confinement, pro-
on factors such as errors due to bad design and detail- vides a procedure for designing members for the desired
ing, not strictly implemented quality control measures ductility. By focusing on this new development in
and poor construction materials and workmanship. design, it has been anticipated that new repair and
However, the need for repair/strengthening of weak strengthening techniques could be developed that will
structures may also arise due to hazardous and acciden- lead to significant cost and time savings. Hence, it was
tal loading, like earthquakes, strong winds, impact and with the EC 8 design recommendations in mind that the
explosive loading, which was neglected during the work presented in this paper was initiated, in order to
design stages. examine new repair techniques.
It is important therefore, for the engineer under- The aim of the proposed technique presented in this
taking the design of repairs and strengthening of struc- paper is to ensure the enhancement of the member
tures, to have an overall strategy, similar to the ones strength and ductility by localized strengthening of RC
used during design. Whilst increasing the overall struc- members. The cost of structural interventions and dis-
tural strength may be unavoidable in certain circum- ruption of building use is kept to a minimum by
stances, in many cases of statically indeterminate strengthening selected structural members externally.
structures, increasing the ductility of certain critical As for the development of any successful repair and
members may be sufficient for enhancing both the struc- strengthening technique, the principal objectives at the
tural ductility and strength. initial stages of an investigation are the following:
A number of repair and strengthening techniques
are currently in use for reinforced concrete (RC) struc- i) Confirmation that the technique can be applied in
tures. Unfortunately, the majority of them are very practical terms.
expensive, time consuming and require the interruption ii) Development of analytical tools that can be used
of use of the structure whilst works are carried out. to predict the effects of the intervention.
Hence, there is a pressing need for the development of iii) Practical design guidance.
improved, low cost, less disruptive techniques, which
will make necessary interventions in many structures In the following sections, some of the most widely used
economically viable. It should be borne in mind that the repair/strengthening methods and the proposed tech-
cost of retrofitting buildings is the primary factor which nique are described. The preliminary results of experi-
deters many private owners from executing essential mental work, carried out at Sheffield University in
works. collaboration with Patras University in Greece, demon-

Construction and Building Materials 1995 Volume 9 Number 5 259

Structural repair/strengthening: M. Frangou et al.

strating the viability of the technique, are presented.

These results are then compared to an existing analyti-
cal model proposed by EC 8.

Methods used for repair/strengthening of columns

tie plate welding
Some of the most widely used methods for repair/
strengthening of RC columns include: existing column
~
(i) Jacketing of part or the entire member. In this ELEVATION

method, the damaged column is usually temporar- Figure 2 Heat tensioning of full thin steel and tie plates
ily supported during the intervention. Any disinte-
grated concrete is removed and the steel
reinforcement is uncovered at appropriate places. screw
Surface preparation methods, like roughening of
the existing concrete surface and removing conta-
mination materials such as dirt, dust or oil,
follow. Additional reinforcement bars are welded
onto the existing reinforcement bars, as shown in
Figure 1. Detail A
Welding is done either through intermediate existing column
bars or through bend-down bars. Following that, Figure 3 Collar ties tightened and tensioned up by means of screws
stirrups are fastened, preferably by welding onto
these additional bars, at a spacing that should not through the damaged length, and are tightened up
exceed 100 mm. The section is finished by the by means of screws, the column edges being pro-
addition of either a cast-in-place concrete jacket, tected by steel angles. A light wire mesh is placed
at least 100 mm thick, or a gunite jacket, at least on all four edges of the column. Finally a gunite
50 mm thick2. jacket of at least 50 mm thick is applied, as shown
(ii) Heat tensioning of full thin steel plates or tie in Figure 3’.
plates. This technique is based on fixing thin steel (VI Mild steel fixed round the damaged element. Mild
full plates (hid 5 3) or tie plates (h/d > 4) around steel round bars are heated and hammered round
the whole of the column, both shown in elevation the damaged element to form a spiral. They can
in Figure 2. Steel angles are placed at each of the then be welded on steel angle sections, positioned
corners of the column and are clamped onto the at the corners of the member, as shown in Figure
concrete. The plates are then welded onto these 45. Heating bars is essential so as to ensure that
angles. Proper tightening of the sheets can be they are mobilized in tension.
ensured by means of heat tensioning. A cast-in- (vi> Wrapping a column with a high strength fibre
place concrete jacket or a gunite jacket is added, composite (HSFC) jacket. HSFCS are used as an
as shown in plan in Figure 23. alternative method to steel jackets. The HSF are
(iii) Clueing of thin steel sheets on damaged members saturated in special epoxy formulation which
by using epoxy resin laid onto the steel sheets and allows them to be wrapped around columns and
concrete surfaces. The steel sheet is placed in posi- structural members. Simple passive confinement
tion and fastened using clamps for at least 24 h4. by using unstressed HSFC jackets have proven ade-
(iv) Tying of the damaged parts of the column using quate to strengthen column@. However, our cal-
steel ties. Steel ties in the form of collars are culations show that there is a lower limit to the
placed around the column, densely spaced amount of passive confinement below which
crushing of the concrete will occur before the
strength of the HSFC is developed.
~~ existing reinforcement

Spiral welds
reinforcement
< - existing RC
/ column
5omm4 ,

8-- steelangle

SECTION A-A PLAN VIEW c

Figure 1 Jacketing of a damaged column Figure 4 Heated and hammered spiral

260 Construction and Building Materials 1995 Volume 9 Number 5

 Structural repair/strengthening: M. Frangou et al.

Figure 6 Strengthening of a cylindrical specimen by the proposed

technique

and constructed to older inferior standards and prac-

tices and that have been subjected to severe structural
Figure 5 Repairs on columns by using jacketing and welding of tie and environmental loading.
plates techniques, following the Killini earthquake in Greece, 1988

Description of technique
Figure 5 showing a repaired column after a cata- The technique under investigation for the repair/
strophic earthquake in Greece demonstrates the jacket- strengthening of columns, involves post-tensioning
ing technique and the technique of welding tie plates on metal strips around the column (by using standard
steel angles placed at the corners of the repaired column. strapping machines used in the packaging industry) and
The amount of effort required and the time consump- subsequently securing them in place by metal clips, as
tion involved in all these methods are clearly significant. shown in Figure 6.
Most of the existing repair methods discussed above Commercially available strapping equipment enables
utilize welding for connecting the steel reinforcement. the operator not only to apply stress on the strip but
The drawbacks in using welding are as follows: also to link the stressed strip by the pressing of special
clips. Even though there is a limit to the maximum
(i) Lack of an analytical tool, generally accepted to thickness and width of a strip w.hich can be bent
interpret the effectiveness of welding, since it is easily around comers, in terms of strength, high strength
primarily dependent on the operator carrying out strips in excess of 1000 N/mm2, are available on the
the work. market. The strips are tensioned to just below their
(ii) Time consumption. yield stress: Hence, an effective lateral stress is applied
(iii) High cost. on the column prior to loading, thus firstly ensuring the
(iv) Specialized equipment and power supply required utilization of the capacity of the strip and secondly
on site. avoiding early crushing of the confined concrete, as
(iv) Properly trained staff are required. would be the case with not properly tightened strips.
The low cost of strip and speed and ease of applica-
The use of collar ties tightened up by means of screws tion of the strapping technique make this method effi-
does not require site welding; however, the lack of an cient for use as a repair and strengthening technique for
analytical tool and the high costs involved in the manu- certain structural members. An RC column would nor-
facture of the collars are the main disadvantages of this mally require six man days’ work to be jacketed (see
method. Figure 5) whilst a maximum of two days’ work is
The two main disadvantages of the HSFC jacket required for external strapping, which clearly demon-
method are the high cost involved in the production of strates the cost savings when using the proposed tech-
the HFS and the lack of pretensioning of the fibres which nique. The initial stages of the investigation undertaken
would lead to their full utilization. in the University of Sheffield have been focused on
Obviously, there is a need for more efficient low cost members with rectangular or circular cross-sections.
repair techniques which will require as little skilled The principal objective of the work presented in this
labour as possible if essential repairs and strengthening paper is the verification of the effectiveness of the repair
are to be undertaken to a larger scale. This is further and strengthening technique for RC columns by utilizing
reinforced by the realization that, as engineers, we will the strapping method. This objective has been achieved
progressively be dealing with old structures designed through the following two tasks:

Construction and Building Materials 1995 Volume 9 Number 5 261

Structural repair/strengthening: M. Frangou et al.

Load
i) Confirmation in practice that the technique can be
applied for the repair and strengthening of columns -moving loading
under axial load and bending.
ii) Investigation of the suitability of the Eurocode 8
design method for confinement of concrete for the
purposes of strengthening by the strapping technique.
I++--- prism specimen

Experimental work
In order to examine the above tasks in practical terms,
an experimental programme has been initiated at
Sheffield University’. The experimental programme
Figure 7 Testing arrangement
comprised two groups of tests; in the first group, speci-
mens were tested axially in compression and in the LOAD
second group, specimens were tested in bending. I

Compressive tests
A total of 18 cylindrical specimens of 100 mm in diam-
eter and 200 mm in height were cast vertically using
standard steel forms. A total of 28 prisms of 100 mm
square cross-section and 200 mm in length were cast
horizontally using 500 mm steel forms, separated in the
middle by 100 mm length wooden blocks. LVDT ‘s
Specimens were confined externally with metal strips Figure 8 Typical arrangement for the bending tests
of 12.7 mm in width and 0.5 mm in thickness. The
width and thickness of the strip was limited to the
above dimensions, because of the small section size of
the specimens. Two types of steel strip were used as sup-
plied by ACME Gerrard Ltd, strapping steel manufac-
turers. The basic difference between the two strips,
Bryten and Extraten, lies in the strength characteristics
as shown in Tuble 1. The results presented in Tuble 1
are a product of experimental work especially carried
out at British Steel Swinden Laboratories in Rotherham
(S) and ACME Gerrard company (G).
The longitudinal strains in the concrete specimens 0 0.61 0.62 0.b3
were measured as deflections on two opposite sides of Longitudinal strain
the specimen, using two linear voltage displacement Figure 9 Stress-longitudinal strain curves for confined specimens
transducers (LVDTs) of 50 mm range. Figure 7 shows and an unconfined control specimen

the typical testing arrangement including the location of

the two LVDTs. and at a distance of 20 cm to the left and right of the
middle of the specimen under testing, as shown in
Bending tests Figure 8.

The second group of tests comprised six, one metre

long, beams tested in bending, as shown in Figure 8. Results
LVDTs were used to measure deflection in the middle
Compressive tests
Some typical results are presented in Figure 9 in order
Table 1 Strength comparison between the two types of strip used in to demonstrate the increases in load and longitudinal
the experiments
strain resulting from three laterally confined concrete
STRIP Break load Ultimate stress Average ult. cylindrical specimens and a comparison of these speci-
(NJ (N/mm’) stress
mens with a control sample in axial loading tests. Each
(N/mm’)
of the specimens was confined externally with Bryten
Bryten 3220 (S) 480 490 type metal strips of 12.7 mm width and 0.5 mm thick-
12.5 X 0.5 mm X 3220 (S) 498 ness. The clear spacings, s’, used between the strips for
50 mm length 3230 (S) 481
3301 (G) 500 the three specimens, were 0, 12.7 and 25.4 mm.
The normalized strength enhancement of cylindrical
Extraten 4930 (S) 760 767
specimens confined with Bryten and Extraten metal
12.5 X 0.S mm X 4890 (S) 740
50 mm length 5300 (G) 802 strips is shown in Figure 10, for different clear spacings,
.s’, used between the strips. The results are expressed in

262 Construction and Building Materials 1995 Volume 9 Number 5

 Structural repair/strengthening: M. Frangou et al.

.8 The expression for the mechanical volumetric ratio,

CO,,,,
is given by Equation (1):
.6

volume of stirrups fill

0 - (1)
w - volume of cofined concrete z

where:

1 fyh: is the yield stress of the lateral reinforcement,

0 10 20 30 A,: is the cross-sectional area of the lateral reinforce-
Clear spacing, s’ (mm) ment,
Figure 10 Normalized strength for cylindrical specimens confined .S: is the centre spacing between the lateral reinforce-
with Bryten and Extraten metal strips for various spacing ment,
d is the diameter of the confined concrete.
fx 1.4
i.e. for a cylindrical section, w,, is given by:
Cl.3
+k+
E 1.2 Ap d 61,
w w =--=-- 4A, &
(4
d= Xc, d s Lo
-S
ill 4

E'
$1 The factor c1 is introduced in the equations so as to
d lb 2b reduce the average value of the confining stress in order
Clearspacing, s’ (mm) to account for the least confined section. It is obtained
Figure 11 Normalized strength for prism specimens confined with by considering areas .of effectively confined concrete, as
Bryten and Extraten metal strips for various spacing shown in Figure 13. Figure 13 is used to illustrate the
effect of the characteristics of the section, like the
terms of the normalized strength, which is the ratio of arrangement of the longitudinal and lateral reinforce-
maximum compressive strength due to the applied lat- ment, in confining a rectangular section, in elevation
eral pressure, f,,to the unconfined specimen strength, and plan
f,W
The normalized strength enhancement of prism spec-
imens confined with Bryten and Extraten metal strips
are shown in Figure II, for different clear spacings of
strip.
It is evident from the above two figures that for the
same spacing of strip, the cylindrical specimens are
much more effectively confined.

Comparison of Eurocode model with experimental

results
-
The model used as a design tool in Eurocode 8 is based 0.1 afJ4v
on work carried out by Tassio?. The equations giving
Figure 12 EC 8 model giving the increase in concrete compressive
the increase in the maximum compressive strength due strength due to lateral confinement
to the applied lateral pressure, for the above model, are
shown in Figure 12, where:

fi: is the increase in the maximum compressive

stirrups
strength due to the applied lateral pressure,
LO: is the unconfined concrete strength,
Ineffectively
LX is a reduction factor, expressing the effectiveness confined areas _ longihldinal
of confinement in plan and elevation, reinforccmfmt
CO,: is the volumetric mechanical ratio.

The two parameters, u and CO,,,,are introduced in

order to express the amount of effective confinement
due to the applied lateral reinforcement. Figure 13 Effectiveness of confinement in 3-D

Construction and Building Materials 1995 Volume 9 Number 5 263

Structural repair/strengthening: M. Frangou et al.

According to Eurocode 8’, the value of u can be

defined as:
5
F 1.6
u = U”U, (3) $
$ 1.4
where:
z
E
5 1.2
u,: is a reduction factor, expressing the effectiveness of
z
confinement in plan. It is related to the pattern
with which stirrups are placed and the distribution
of the longitudinal reinforcement in the section.
CI,: is a reduction factor expressing the effectiveness in Confinement aw,
elevation. It is related to the spacing of the stirrups. Figure 14 Strength comparison between EC 8 and cylindrical speci-
mens confined with Bryten and Extraten strips

In an approach similar to the one developed by

Mander’ the area of the effectively confined concrete
can be calculated by assuming an arching action in the
form of a second degree parabola with an initial slope
of 45”.
Therefore u, can be calculated by considering the
arching action in plan as follows:

u, = A,IA, (4)

where: 0 0.03 0.06 0.09 0.12 0.15

Confinement aWW
A,: is the area of concrete effectively confined and is
Figure 15 Strength comparison between EC 8 model and prism speci
given by: mens confined with Bryten and Extraten strips

A, = bd - 2(b2/6 + &6)

and A,, is the total area of the confined concrete and is mental results. An important point to be noticed is that
given by: the change in slope of the EC 8 curve seems to fit the
experimental results. The results shown in Figure 14 are
A, = bd - A, (A, can be considered to be negligible) expressed in terms of the amount of confinement, uw,.
In Figure 15, a comparison between the experimental
A,: is the area of longitudinal reinforcement. results from prism specimens and the analytical results
from EC 8 are presented. The analytical results are
Therefore, for a square section, b = d and u, = l/3, and shown to be closer to the experimental results for con-
for a circular section u, = 1. finement levels higher than 0.08, whereas for low con-
The value of u, can be estimated by taking into finement levels the EC 8 results seem to be conservative.
account the arching action in elevation and by consid-
ering the clear spacing between the stirrup (strip) or the Bending tests
centre to centre spacing. The centre to centre spacing It is not possible to present all the results of the experi-
will be used in this paper for the calculations of u,, since mental programme in this paper and therefore two
it is the spacing used by the EC 8 code of practice. load-deflection curves, out of the six beams examined,
The parameter u, can be calculated by considering the are shown in the following.
arching action in elevation. Thus: The load deflection curve for specimen BC 2, before
and after repair, is shown in Figure 16, specimen BC 2
u, = AJA, (5) having been designed to fail in shear. According to
BS 81 lOlo, a stirrup spacing of 40 mm was required
where: in order to avoid shear failure, but instead an 80 mm
spacing was used. After failure, the crushed concrete
A, = (b - s/2) (d - s/2) was repaired by using an epoxy resin and was strength-
A, (total area) = bd ened externally by using Bryten metal strips to comply
with BS 8110 conditions for shear capacity, taking
Results from cylindrical specimens confined with into account the internal shear reinforcement that
Bryten and Extraten metal strips were compared with was present.
the analytical predictions from the above model. EC 8 The reduction in stiffness of the repaired section in
analytical results are in close agreement to the experi- relation to the original stiffness of the specimen,

264 Construction and Building Materials 1995 Volume 9 Number 5

 Structural repair/strengthening: M. Frangou et al.

very competitive for the repair and strengthening of

Rc columns.
A very important factor contributing to the success
of the strapping technique, is the fact that a ten-
sioning force is applied. The lack of such a force
could lead to a devastating reduction in the effec-
tiveness of confinement. This effect was observed in
experiment BC 4.
-20 Comparisons between experimental results and
-10 0 10 20 30 40 50 results obtained from equations given by Eurocode
Deflection (mm) 8 indicate that the latter are in good agreement, the
Figure 16 Load-deflection curve for specimen BC 2, before and after Code results being always conservative. Hence, the
repair equations given in EC 8 can be used for the design
of RC structures, repaired and strengthened with the
60 , I I I I 1
proposed technique, provided limits are imposed on
the spacing of strips and strip strength.
40
External reinforcement was successful in repairing
4
s
and strengthening beams which initially failed in
u 20 shear.
g More experiments should be carried out with larger
A
0 scale columns under a combination of axial and
bending load to verify the effectiveness of the tech-
-20 nique.
-io lb 40
Deflection (mm)
Figure 17 Loaddeflection curve for specimen BC 4, before and after Acknowledgements
repair
The authors would like to thank ACME Gerrard Ltd
for providing the strapping, sealing equipment and the
metal strips used for the experiments and for carrying
out a number of tests to determine the characteristics of
observed in all BC Repaired specimens, was due to the the metal strip provided.
reduction in stiffness of the longitudinal reinforcement We are also thankful to Dr J. Reynolds and MS B.
after yield and to a lower concrete contribution due to Wade of British Steel Swinden Laboratories
the large number of cracks remaining untreated after Rotherham, for the number of tests carried out to deter-
repairing the specimen. mine the characteristics of the metal strips used in the
The consequence of strengthening was to increase the experiments.
load carrying capacity of the specimen and enable it to We would also like to acknowledge L. J. Tabor of
reach high ductility levels without shear failure. FOSROC Expandite Ltd, who provided materials
In Figure 17, the load deflection curve for specimen needed for carrying out part of the repair experimental
BC 4, before and after repair, is presented. For speci- work.
mens BC 4 and BC 4 R, the same amount of shear rein- Finally we would like to express our deepest gratitude
forcement was provided as externally applied metal to the supervisor of the Heavy Structures Laboratory of
strips. Specimen BC 4 failed in shear because one of the Sheffield University, S. Waters and S. Smith for their
critical strips was not properly tightened. The loose technical support.
strip allowed the creation and propagation of a shear
crack that caused failure of the section. The above indi-
cates the importance of proper tightening of metal References
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Building, EC 8, Eurocode No. 8, Report EUR 12266 EN,
crushed concrete and by substituting the untightened Processes, Building and Civil Engineering,
Industrial
strip by a properly tightened one. The high ductility Commission of the European Communities, May I988
recorded for the repaired section was totally due to the Tassios, T.P. The mechanics of column repair with a reinforced
concrete jacket. In Proc. 7th European Conference on Earthquake
externally confined strips, since no internal stirrups were
Engineering, Athens, September 1982, pp. 249-251
present. Chronopoulos, M.P. Incorporated steel structures: a repair/
strengthening technique. In 7th European Conference on Earth-
quake Engineering, Athens, September 1982, pp. 331-339
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crete by epoxy-bonded steel plates. In Proc. 8th World
1 The strapping technique has been demonstrated to Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Vol I., San Francisco,
effectively strengthen specimens tested axially and in 1984
Assessment of concrete structures and design procedures for
bending. The low cost of the materials used, and the upgrading. Comitt Euro-International du BCton, Bulletin
ease and speed of application make this technique d’lnformation, No 162. Prague, October 1983

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6 Watson, R.J. Column retrotit of short and medium span bridges ~ocumrnt ftir Eurocode 8 - Port 1. Volume 2 Design Rule.r.
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266 Construction and Building Materials 1995 Volume 9 Number 5