The Effect of Textile Fine Grained Mortar Layers on Reinforced Concrete Beam

Abstract

Textile fine grained mortar (TFGM) is combination of Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) in Fine Grained Mortar (FGM) and Alkali Resistant Glass (AR glass) fibres. TFGM serves as a new innovative of structure technology, which is to strengthen and repair concrete structures with thin layered mortar that can sustain load. This study investigated the effect of using TFGM layers when applying on reinforced concrete (RC) beams. This study aims on replacing the normal mortar with TFGM in order to enhance both the ultimate load carrying behaviour as well as the serviceability and delaying the extension of cracking. Two (2) of RC beams with dimension 150 mm x 200 mm x 2500 mm were strengthened with TFGM made of selected proportioning with 4 and 8 layers. Unstrengthen RC beams were also included as a control specimen with the same dimension. All specimens were tested for the flexural strengthening at 28 days by using BS EN 196-1:2005. The result indicates that TFGM increased the load carrying capacity of RC beams which is about 10 % increment comparison with control specimen. The layers of TFGM were significantly delaying the crack. 

Keywords: Textile fine grained mortar; palm oil fuel ash; alkali resistant glass; reinforced concrete; flexural strength