REHABILITATION OF REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAMS: MECHANICAL PERFORMANCE WITH ALKALI-ACTIVATED REPAIR MORTAR

The premature degradation of concrete structures is nowadays a common problem, and the use of repair materials to promote structural rehabilitation is usually necessary. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of cracked concrete structures repaired with alkali-activated mortar (AAM). A beam repaired with a polymer modified mortar (PM) was used as reference. Concrete beams of 120 mm wide x 250 mm high x 2100 mm long were initially loaded in bending until failure. Thereafter, the beams were repaired with AAM or PM and they were submitted to a new bending test, with some analysis: first crack load, maximum load, ultimate load, and crack formation. The results showed that the repair (AAM or PM) was efficient, although the repaired beams developed the first crack with low load than reference beams. AAM showed to be as efficient as PM in recovering the concrete cracked beams