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Technical Seminar Report

On
SEISMIC RETROFITTING
In Partial fulfillment of the
Academic requirement for Civil Engineering
At
SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING
GAUTAM BUDDHA UNIVERSITY

Under the Guidance of


Dr. Shilpa Pal
(HOD CIVIL DEPTT)
Submitted by
Priyanshu Varshney
(14/ICE/042)

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It is often said that life is a mixture of achievements, failures, experiences,
exposures and efforts to make your dream come true. There are people around you
who help you realize your dream.
I acquire this opportunity with much pleasure to acknowledge the invaluable
assistance of Dr. Shilpa Pal, who have helped me through the course of my journey
in successful completion of this project.
Secondly, I would like to thank my senior Sahil Chabbra and all my peers for
their continuous support in this project.
Last but not the least my parents, whose contribution is immeasurable.

Thank You all for being there always for me.


Regards

Priyanshu Varshney

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter No. Description Page No.

1 Introduction 1

1.1 What is retrofitting? 1


1.2 What is Seismic Retrofitting? 1
1.3 Goals
2
1.4 Objective
1.5 Retrofitting /Reconstruction? 2
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2 Seismic Retrofitting : Theory 4
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2.1 Deficiencies in Structure
2.2 Classification of Seismic Retrofitting Techniques 5
2.2.1 Conventional techniques 6
2.2.2 Advanced techniques 8
2.3 Steps of Seismic Retrofit
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2.3.1 Rapid Visual Screening
2.3.2 Seismic Evaluation 10
2.4 Carbon Fiber Polymer Composite 12

3 Literature review 14

4 Conclusion 15

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LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURE NO. DESCRIPTION PAGE NO.
Figure 1 Existing strength as a fraction of capacity 3
required by current standard for a new
building.
Figure 2 Various Local & Global Techniques 6
Figure 3 Shear Wall 6
Figure 4 Steel Bracing 7
Figure 5 Column Jacketing 7
Figure 6 Isolator component between the 8
superstructure & Foundation
Figure 7 Linear vs Non Linear analysis 12
Figure 8 Wall panel with carbon fiber mesh 13
reinforcement and carbon fiber shear
gird between outer and inner faces of
the panel
Figure 9 Laminates glued into the grooves 13

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Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
The aftermath of an earthquake manifests great devastation due to unpredicted or slight. This
damage to structures in its turn causes irreparable loss of life with a striking extensive
damage to innumerable buildings of varying degree i.e. either full or part of casualties. As a
result frightened occupants may refuse to enter the building unless assured of the safety of
the building from future earthquakes.
Many existing structures located in seismic regions are inadequate based on the current
seismic design codes. In addition, a number of major earthquakes during recent years have
underscored the importance of mitigation to reduce seismic risk.
Seismic retrofitting of existing structures is one of the most effective methods of reducing
this risk. In recent years, a significant amount of research has been devoted to the study of
various strengthening techniques to enhance the seismic performance of RC structures.
However, the seismic performance of the structure may not be improved by retrofitting or
rehabilitation unless the engineer selects an appropriate intervention technique based on
seismic evaluation of the structure. Therefore, the basic requirements of rehabilitation and
investigations of various retrofit techniques should be considered before selecting retrofit
schemes.
The purpose of this report is to present the various seismic retrofitting characteristics and
technical aspects of the major intervention methods for reinforced concrete (RC) building
structures and the detailed process to determine the decision of need of retrofitting.
Various case studies are taken into account for the purpose of better understanding.

1.1 WHAT IS RETROFITTING?


Retrofitting refers to the addition of new technology or features to the older systems.
Types of Retrofitting:
a. Power plant retrofitting
b. Home energy retrofitting
c. Seismic retrofitting

1.2 WHAT IS SEISMIC RETROFITTING?


Seismic retrofitting is the modification of existing structures to make them more resistant to
seismic activity, ground motion, or soil failure due to earthquakes. With better understanding
of seismic demand on structures and with our recent experiences with large earthquakes near
urban centers, the need of seismic retrofitting is well acknowledged.

It is basically needed in two circumstances:-


o Earthquake damaged buildings

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o Earthquake vulnerable buildings (no exposure to earthquake).

1.3 GOALS
In the past, seismic retrofit was primarily applied to achieve public safety, with engineering
solutions limited by economic and political considerations. However, with the development
of Performance based earthquake engineering (PBEE), several levels of performance
objectives are gradually recognized:
Public safety only. The goal is to protect human life, ensuring that the structure will not
collapse upon its occupants or passersby, and that the structure can be safely exited. Under
severe seismic conditions the structure may be a total economic write-off, requiring teardown
and replacement.
Structure survivability. The goal is that the structure, while remaining safe for exit, may
require extensive repair (but not replacement) before it is generally useful or considered safe
for occupation. This is typically the lowest level of retrofit applied to bridges.
Structure functionality. Primary structure undamaged and the structure is undiminished in
utility for its primary application. A high level of retrofit, this ensures that any required
repairs are only "cosmetic" - for example, minor cracks in plaster, drywall and stucco. This is
the minimum acceptable level of retrofit for hospitals.
Structure unaffected. This level of retrofit is preferred for historic structures of high
cultural significance.

1.4 OBJECTIVES
Increasing the lateral strength and stiffness of the building.
Increasing the ductility and enhancing the energy dissipation capacity.
Eliminating Giving unity to the structure.
Sources of weakness or those that produce concentration of stresses.
Enhancement of redundancy in the number of lateral load resisting elements.
The retrofit scheme should be cost effective.
Each retrofit strategy should consistently achieve the performance objective.

1.5 RETROFIT/RECONSTRUCTION?
This is the question which is totally on the basis of economic consideration.
A decision on whether or not to retrofit an unsafe building depends on many factors.
Lifeline buildings, such as hospitals must necessarily be retrofitted, in view of their
extreme importance. It is likely that many ordinary buildings will be found
seismically unsafe. Retrofitting all such buildings is a major task that many building
corporations and government have to grapple with. The financial implication of such
a mammoth task can be mind boggling. Who will bear the cost?

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Usually, in the case of private buildings, the owners of the building will have to bear
the cost of seismic retrofit. This cost must be weighed against the cost of not
retrofitting. What is the risk involved? Studies have shown that the risk of collapse
of an existing building whose strength is less than that of a new building (designed to
current standard) can be correlated to that of the new building.
It is recommended that seismic retrofit be necessarily undertaken when the strength
of an existing building (in term of the total seismic load that it can resist without
collapsing) drops below about 70% of the capacity required by the current standard.

Fig.1

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Chapter 2
SEISMIC RETROFITTING

2.1 DEFICIENCIES IN STRUCTURE


The Local & Global are two common deficiencies observed in multistoried RC buildings in
India.
Local Deficiencies: Local deficiencies lead to the failure of individual elements of the
building. The observed deficiencies of the elements are summarized.
Columns
Inadequate shear capacity.
Lack of confinement of column core. Lack of 135 hooks, with adequate hook length.
Faculty location of splice just above the floor, with inadequate tension splice length.
Inadequate capacity of corner columns under biaxial seismic loads.
Existence of short and stiff columns.
Beams and Beam-to-Column Joints
Shear reinforcement not adequate for flexural capacity.
Inadequate anchorage of bottom rebar.
Inadequate plastic hinge rotation capability due to lack of confinement.
Slab-to-Column Connections
Absence of drag and chord reinforcement.
Inadequate reinforcement at the slab-to-beam connections.
Structural Walls
Lack of adequate boundary elements.
Inadequate reinforcement at the slab-to-wall or beam-to-wall connections.
Unreinforced Masonry Walls
Lack of out of -plane bending capacity.
Precast elements
Lack of tie reinforcement.
Deficient Construction
Frequent volume batching.
Additional water for workability.
c. Inadequate compaction and curing of concrete.
d. Top 100 to 200 mm of column cast separately, leading to deficient plastic hinge
region.
e. Inadequate side face cover, leading to rebar corrosion.
f. Poor quality control.
Global Deficiencies: Global deficiencies can broadly be classified as plan irregularities and
vertical irregularities, as per the Code. The items left out are listed under miscellaneous
deficiencies. Some of the observed irregularities are as follows.
Plan Irregularities
Torsional irregularity due to plan symmetry and eccentric mass from water tank.
Frequent re-entrant corners.

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Diaphragm discontinuity due to large openings or staggered floors, along with the
absence of collector elements.
Out-of-plane offset for columns along perimeter.
Nonparallel lateral load resisting systems (not observed in the building studied).
Vertical Irregularities
Stiffness irregularity, soft storey due to open ground storey.
Mass irregularity (not observed in the building studied).
Vertical geometric irregularity from set-back towers.
In-plane discontinuity for columns along the perimeter of the building.
Weak storey due to open ground storey.
The miscellaneous deficiencies that were observed are as follows.
Deficiencies in Analysis
Buildings designed as only gravity load resisting system.
Neglecting the effect of infill walls.
Inadequate geotechnical data to consider near source effects.
Neglecting the P- effect.
Failure of stair slab if the stair slab is simply supported without adequate bearing length, a
collapse of the slab closes the escape route for the residents.
Pounding of buildings another poor design concept is not providing adequate spacing
between adjacent buildings or seismic joints between segments of a building.

2.2 CLASSIFICATION OF SEISMIC RETROFITTING TECHNIQUE


Retrofit strategies that are viable for the type of buildings considered, are grouped under
local and global strategies.
Local retrofit strategies include local strengthening of beams, columns, slabs, beam-to-
column or slab-to column joints, walls and foundations. Local strengthening allows one or
more under-strength elements or connections to resist the strength demands predicted by the
analysis, without affecting the overall response of the structure. This scheme tends to be the
most economical alternative when only a few of the buildings elements are deficient. The
local retrofit strategies are grouped according to the elements.
Global retrofit strategies aim to stiffen the building, by providing additional lateral load
resisting elements, or to reduce the irregularities or mass.

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Fig 2: Various Local & Global Techniques

2.2.1 Conventional Techniques


Conventional methods of retrofitting are used to enhance the seismic resistance of
existing structures by eliminating or reducing the adverse effects of design or
construction. The methods Include adding of shear wall, infill walls and steel braces.

ADDING NEW SHEAR WALLS One of the most common methods to increase
the lateral strength of the reinforced concrete is to make a provision for additional
shear walls. The technique of infilling/adding new shear walls is often taken as the
best and simple solution for improving seismic performance. Therefore, it is
frequently used for retrofitting of non-ductile reinforced concrete frame buildings.
The added elements can be either cast-in-place or pre-cast concrete elements. New
elements preferably be placed at the exterior of the building, however it may cause
alteration in the appearance and window layouts. Placing of shear walk in the
interior of the structure is not preferred in order to avoid interior moldings.

Fig 3 Shear wall


ADDING STEEL BRACINGS Another method of strengthening is the use of steel
bracing, which also has similar advantages. The structural details of connection
between bracing and column are shown I the fig. The installation of steel bracing
members can be an effective solution when large openings are required. This scheme

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of the use of steel bracing has a potential advantage over other schemes following
reasons:
Higher strength and stiffness can be proved
Opening for natural light can be made easily,
Amount of work is less since foundation cost may be minimized,
The bracing system adds much less weight to the existing structure,
Most of the retrofitting work can be performed with prefabricated elements and
disturbance to the occupants may be minimized.

Fig 4 Steel Bracing

Jacketing (Local Retrofitting Technique)


Local retrofit strategies refer to retrofitting of columns, beams, joints, slabs, walls
and foundations. Jacketing is the process whereby a section of an existing structural
member is restored to original dimensions or increased in size by encasement using
suitable materials. A steel reinforcement cage or composite material wrap can be
constructed around the damaged section onto which shotcrete or cast-in- place
concrete is placed.
Steel jacket: Steel jacketing of column refers to encasing the column with
steel plates and filling the gap with non-shrink grout. The jacket is effective
to remedy inadequate shear strength and provide confinement to the column
RCC jacket: Concrete jacketing involves addition of a layer of concrete,
longitudinal bars and closely spaced ties. The jacket increases both the
flexural strength and shear strength of the column or beam.
FRPC jacket: The studies of El-Amour and Ghobarah have shown that the
retrofitted specimens exhibit better efficiency in terms of strength, energy
dissipation, lesser rate of stiffness degradation and ductility levels.

Fig 5 Column Jacketing

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2.2.2 Advance techniques
Current research on advanced materials has mainly concentrated on FRP composites
& Base Isolation. Studies have shown that externally bonded FRP composites can be
applied to various structural members including columns, beams, slabs, and walls to
improve their structural performance such as stiffness, load carrying capacity, and
ductility.
Base isolation, also known as seismic base isolation or base isolation system, is one
of the most popular means of protecting a structure against earthquake forces. It is a
collection of structural elements which should substantially decouple a
superstructure from its substructure resting on a shaking ground thus protecting a
building or non-building structure's integrity. Base isolation is one of the most
powerful tools of earthquake engineering pertaining to the passive structural
vibration control technologies. It is meant to enable a building or non-building
structure to survive a potentially devastating seismic impact through a proper initial
design or subsequent modifications. In some cases, application of base isolation can
raise both a structure's seismic performance and its seismic sustainability
considerably. Contrary to popular belief base isolation does not make a building
earthquake proof.
Fiber Reinforced Polymer Sheet Wrapping The use of Fiber Reinforced Polymer
(FRP) sheets is becoming popular in India (Mukherjee and Joshi [9]). FRP sheets are
thin, light and flexible enough to be inserted behind service ducts, thus facilitating
installation. In retrofitting of a column there is no significant increase in the size.
The main drawbacks of FRP are high cost, brittle behavior and fire resistance.
FRP bars can be attached to the web of a beam for shear strengthening (Lorenzis
and Nanni [12]). FRP bars can be used as tendons for external prestressing.

Fig 6

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2.3 STEPS OF RETROFITTING
A retrofit programme for a building refers to the complete process of retrofitting. For a
systematic approach, it is necessary to be aware of the steps of a retrofit programme before
undertaking the retrofit project. The implementation of each step requires a certain time
schedule and finance. All the listed steps may not be applicable for all projects. Similarly,
there may be detailed sub-divisions of one step for a particular project.
The steps are as follows:
i) Reviewing initial considerations: The initial considerations relate to the type of
structure, the seismic zone location of the structure, occupancy, economic
considerations, historic status, and local jurisdiction, social and administrative issues.
Given the requirement of vulnerability reduction for many buildings within a
jurisdiction, the Rapid Visual Screening procedure is undertaken to identify the
buildings which are expected to be more vulnerable under an earthquake. If the
project targets one major building, the screening phase is skipped.
ii) Obtaining information of the building: The construction documents, including the
architectural and structural drawings, are to be collected from the archives. The
collection of relevant data is explained in the chapter on Rapid Visual Screening,
Data Collection and Preliminary Evaluation. For a proper evaluation, the actual
condition of the building is to be assessed. The Condition Assessment describes
the process of assessing the actual condition of the building in relation to its use.
iii) Seismic evaluation: The seismic evaluation identifies the deficiencies of a building.
Broadly, the evaluation can be performed in the following phases.
a) Preliminary Evaluation: For an engineered building, the preliminary evaluation
involves a set of initial calculations and identifies areas of potential weaknesses in the
building.
b) Detailed Evaluation The detailed evaluation refers to the structural analysis of the
building. The method of analysis is to be finalized at this stage.The methods of
structural analysis are briefly described in the chapter on Structural Analysis for
Seismic Retrofit.
iv) Selection and design of retrofit strategies: A retrofit strategy or retrofit
technique refers to any option of increasing the strength, stiffness and/or ductility of
the members or of the whole building. For a building, several retrofit strategies may
be selected under a retrofit scheme. The selection of retrofit strategies depends on
the available technical expertise and inconvenience during the intervention. The
retrofit strategies can be grouped under global and local strategies. A global retrofit
strategy targets the seismic resistance of the building. A local retrofit strategy targets
the seismic resistance of a member, without significantly affecting the overall
resistance of the building.

2.3.1 Rapid Visual Screening(RVS)


The Rapid Visual Screening involves a quick assessment of a building based on
visual inspection alone. It is a kind of statistical guideline to the inspectors to
identify and inventory the vulnerable buildings.

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The Rapid Visual Screening (RVS) procedures are simple enough to be used by an
inspector with proper training. The steps of RVS are planning for the survey,
execution of the survey and interpretation of the results.

The main uses of RVS are as follows.


1. To identify if a particular building requires further evaluation for its seismic
vulnerability.
2. To assess the seismic damageability (probability of damage) of the building and
seismic retrofit needs.
3. To identify simplified retrofit schemes for the buildings for which further
evaluation is not considered necessary or not found to be feasible.

2.3.2 Seismic Evaluation


It involves two type of evaluation:
Preliminary
Detailed
Preliminary Evaluation: The purpose of the preliminary evaluation is
to identify the areas of seismic deficiencies in an engineered building
before a detailed evaluation is undertaken.
In the preliminary evaluation, first some calculations are done to study
the seismic vulnerability of the building. The checks to be investigated
are classified into two groups: configuration related and strength-related.
The checks presented below are based on the draft document Seismic
Evaluation and Strengthening of Existing Reinforced Concrete
Buildings.
Strength-related Checks

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Detailed evaluation: Structural analysis is a part of the detailed evaluation of an
existing building. A detailed evaluation is decided based on the results of
preliminary evaluation. Structural analysis can be linear or non-linear, elastic or
inelastic, static or dynamic. In a linear elastic analysis, the deformation in a member
is considered to be proportional to the internal force and recoverable when the
applied force is removed. In a non-linear inelastic analysis, the deformation in a
member need not be proportional to the internal force. There is plastic deformation
(deformation that cannot be recovered when the applied forces are removed) and
energy absorption in a member for higher levels of internal force. This type of non-
linear behavior is referred to as material non-linearity. In addition, geometric non-
linearity due to P- effect can be incorporated. The P- effect refers to the increase
in moment in the columns due to its lateral deflection or due to the drift of a storey.
In a static analysis, the vibration mode shapes or the time-wise variation of the
quantities are not considered. In a dynamic analysis these are considered to a certain
extent.

Fig 7 Linear vs Non Linear Analysis


2.4 CARBON FIBRE POLYMER COMPOSITE
To choose suitable materials for building purposes we should mention its properties, which
properties can help us to reach our goals and which proved to be useless or adverse? Each
material is not ideal and has its own fields of application. That is why we should consider the
advantages and disadvantages of carbon fibers.
The advantages are:

ectrical resistivity

Using of carbon fiber in precast concrete:


A carbon fiber grid is used in the panel faces to replace steel mesh reinforcement, and as a
mechanical link to the outer and inner sections of the concrete wall. Non-corrosive carbon

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fiber grid reinforcement in the wall panel face allows less use of concrete, which reduces
weight and raw material usage. The wall panels with carbon fiber grid reinforcement can
weigh about 40% less than conventional precast panels.

Fig 8 Wall panel with carbon fiber mesh reinforcement and carbon fiber shear gird between
outer and inner faces of the panel

Gluing the laminates:


Laminate can be glued to the outer surface of the structure and into the grooves in the
structure. The preparing procedures are the same like for textiles and tapes. Before gluing
laminates, cover the surface with a thin layer of adhesive (about 1-1.5 mm), and the
strengthening surface also should be covered with the same layer of adhesive. Then the
laminate is placed on the structure, and rolling provides close contact between the laminate
and the strengthening structure. Excess adhesive should be removed from the edge of the
laminate.

Fig 9 Laminates glued into the grooves

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Chapter 3

LITERATURE REVIEW
Many authors in their investigations and case studies have reported that carbon fiber when
use as a retrofitting material over other retrofitting techniques for column has its obvious
advantages of higher strength/weight ratio, better tensile strain capacity, lower coefficient of
thermal expansion, and superior heat and sound insulation characteristics due to air voids of
the steel fiber concrete.
Also, the reduced dead weight may make steel fiber concrete preferable for structures in
seismic zones, because of the reduced dynamic action.
An exhaustive research has been carried out to study the various properties of carbon fiber
wrapping, which are as follows:

H.KATSUMATA 1996 et al in their research work describes the carbon fiber winding is
superior to steel plate jacketing or reinforced concrete jacketing in cost and simplicity of
construction, which recently results in widely spreading this method in actual projects. In the
experiment they carried out the Shear Capacity Test over the specimens which are the
columns made up concrete retrofitted with carbon fiber at different proportions of carbon
fibers in transverse reinforcement ratio. Various proportion are pw =0.0%, pw =0.06%, pw
=0.12%, pw =0.24%. Further they carried out ductility test over the specimens.

Anusha Rani et al in their case study of analysis show the use of Fiber reinforced polymer
composite in columns to strengthening, by carrying out an analysis of a damaged structure
(which is a school building) in the 2011 Sikkim Earthquake India in order to determine the
suitable technique for the retrofitting of premise, whose columns are critically damaged
mainly. In their analysis they carried out a linear (modal frequency analysis) and nonlinear
analysis (Pushover analysis) by modelling of the previous structure on the SAP 2000
software.

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Chapter 4

CONCLUSION

Seismic Retrofitting is a suitable technology for protection of a variety of structures.

1. It has matured in the recent years to a highly reliable technology.


2. But, the expertise needed is not available in the basic level.
3. The main challenge is to achieve a desired performance level at a minimum cost, which can
be achieved through a detailed nonlinear analysis.
4. Optimization techniques are needed to know the most efficient retrofit for a particular
structure.
Not only the knowledge of technique but also of process of evaluation to determine whether
the structure need retrofitting or not, make a wholesome part of the retrofitting.

Carbon fiber is a relatively new and expensive material, but it does not mean that we cannot
use it for construction. In many cases, the cost of this material is reasonable by its properties,
working expenses, life-time expenses, special cases, and when use of any other materials is
impossible. For example, carbon fiber would be a good solution, if we change the purpose of
the room from classroom to storage. Using carbon fiber we can make strengthening faster,
easier and by less skilled worker, and with less amounts of materials.

For providing retrofit measures for the deficient members, carbon fiber polymer composite
was found to be a suitable method for retrofitting of columns.

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REFERENCES
Agarwal, P. and Shrikhande, M., Earthquake Resistant Design of
Structures, 2nd Edition, Prentice-Hall of India Private Limited, New
Delhi,2006
IS 1893 (Part 1):2002, Criteria for Earthquake Resistant Design of
Structures
IS 13935:1993, Repair and Seismic Strengthening of Buildings-Guidelines
CPWD&IBC, Handbook on Seismic Retrofit of the building, 2007
Litvinov Artem, Applying carbon fiber in building structures Saimaa
University of Applied Sciences, Lappeenranta Technology, Degree
Programme in Civil and Construction Engineering,2010.
Katsumata .H and Kobatake. Y, Seismic retrofit with carbon fiber for
reinforced concrete column, Elsevier Science ltd, Tokyo 204, Japan, 1995
Sheth. Alpa, Chaudhari.R, Khan.Ejaz and Gupta.Divay, Seismic retrofitting
of Mani Mandir complex at Morbi, GUJARAT, INDIA,13th WCEE,2004
Rani.Anusha, Paul.D.K, Seismic retrofitting of a damaged school
building, IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and
Technology, eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308.
FEMA 273 (1997), NEHRP Guidelines for the Seismic Rehabilitation of
Buildings, Applied Technology Council, USA
FEMA 356 (2000), Prestandard and Commentary for the Seismic
Rehabilitation of Buildings, American Society of Civil Engineers, USA

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