Investigation of reinforced concrete jacketed columns under different loading conditions

The behaviour of existing buildings depends upon the original structural design and the inadequacies associated with it. But, over the time such types of buildings become susceptible to the existing load and to the loads that it is going to be exposed to in the near future. Therefore, it becomes immensely important to strengthen or retrofit the vulnerable members to keep the whole structure safe. The objective of this study was to determine the strength enhancement of an existing Reinforced Concrete (RC) column after RC jacketing. In order to achieve the objective, the present study investigates the effectiveness of RC jacketing by evaluating the existing column as well as the strengthened column under three loading conditions viz. pure compression, eccentric compression and pure bending. The simulation has been performed in a finite element software ABAQUS whose results have been compared with the previously available experimental works. The results obtained post-simulation indicate a significant increase in the load carrying capacity of the strengthened columns under all three loading conditions.