BEHAVIOUR OF REINFORCED CONCRETE TEE- BEAMS RETROFITTED USING FERROCEMENT

Reinforced concrete structural components are found to exhibits distress, even before their service period that is often due to several causes. Such unserviceable structures require immediate attention, enquiry into the cause of distress and suitable remedial measures, so as to bring the structures back to their functional use again. This strengthening and enhancement of the performance of such deficient structural elements in a structure or a structure as a whole is referred to as retrofitting. All the important issue to be addressed in retrofitting is for life safety. Ferrocement is most commonly used as retrofitting material due to their easy availability, economy, durability, and their property of being cast to any shape without needing significant formwork. Ferrocement as a retrofitting material can be pretty useful because it can be applied quickly to the surface of the damaged element without the requirement of any special bonding material and also it requires less skilled labour, as compared to other retrofitting solutions presently existing. The Ferrocement construction has an edge over the conventional reinforced concrete material because of its lighter weight, ease of construction, low self weight, thinner section as compared to RCC and a high tensile strength which makes it a favorable material for prefabrication also. The present investigation on Preloaded Reinforced Concrete Tee Beams is retrofitted using Ferrocement to increase the strength Soffit of Beam and along the side faces of web, by placing the wire mesh along the longitudinal axis of the beam. From the study it is seen that the ultimate load carrying capacity of Reinforced concrete Tee beam elements retrofitted by Ferrocement is significantly increased when Welded Wire mesh are used for retrofitting