STRENGTHENING OF DEFICIENT RC COLUMNS BY STEEL ANGLES AND BATTENS UNDER AXIAL LOAD

This paper presents the effectiveness of the strengthening technique for deficient reinforced concrete columns using steel angles and battens. The compressive strength of concrete was chosen as 9 MPa to represent poor concrete quality. The experiment consisted of a control reinforced concrete column and columns that were strengthened by steel angles and battens. In this study, the effectiveness of different configurations of battens was investigated; different amounts of battens as well as different spacing while maintaining amount of steel. The results showed that both load carrying capacity and ductility of the strengthened columns could be significantly improved. While maintaining the same amount of battens, different spacing does not show significant difference in load carrying capacity but affects ductility. The experimental results showed that using steel angles and battens is effective for strengthening reinforced concrete even when the compressive strength of the concrete is very low