SEISMIC RETROFITTIMG

(RC Jacketing)
G rou p #8
M . E . S t r u c t u res

Earthquake
A sudden violent shaking of the ground, typically

causing great destruction, as a result of movements

within the earth's crust or volcanic action.

Structural failures

Civil engineers duty

Provide solutions

Safety
2. Practical
3. Cost efficient
4. List goes on
1.

Seismic Retrofit solutions

Retrofitting:

The strengthening and enhancement of the performance of

deficient structural elements in a structure or a structure as
a whole is referred to as retrofitting. Retrofitting means
structural strengthening of a building to a Pre- defined
performance level, whether or not an earthquake has
occurred.

Seismic Retrofit solutions (conti)

Seismic Retrofit solutions (conti)

Seismic Retrofit solutions (conti)

Introduction (conti)
Various Materials for Retrofitting

1. Grouts like cement sand grout, polymer grout

2. Bonding Agents like epoxy treatment
3. Replacement and Jacketing Material like FRP, steel
plate bonding and ferrocements.

When, why and how

When??

The need to rehabilitate a structure may arise at any

time from the beginning of the construction phase
until the end of the service life. During the
construction phase, it may occur because of
design errors;
deficient concrete production;
bad execution processes.

When??
During the service life, it may arise on account of:
an earthquake;
an accident, such as collisions, fire, explosions;
situations involving changes in the structure

functionality;
the development of more demanding code
requirements.

Why??
The decision to rehabilitate must be made only after

the inspection of the structure, its structural

evaluation and a cost/benefit study of the different
solutions
Non destructive testing

Why??

How?
The choice of the repair and/or strengthening

method depends on the structural behaviour

objectives.
The strengthening techniques for reinforced
concrete structures can be divided into:
1. addition of new structural elements;
2. strengthening of the existing structural elements.

Jacketing
Jacketing is the most popularly used method for

strengthening of building columns. The most

common types of jackets are steel jacket, reinforced
concrete jacket, fibre reinforced polymer composite
jacket, jacket with high tension materials like carbon
fibre, glass fibre etc.

Purpose of jacketing
To increase concrete confinement by transverse fibre

reinforcement, especially for circular cross-sectional

columns,
To increase shear strength by transverse fibre
reinforcement,
To increase flexural strength by longitudinal fibre
reinforcement provided.

Jacketing (Technical Considerations)

The main objective of jacketing is to increase the

seismic capacity of the moment resisting framed

structures. In almost every case, the columns as well
as beams of the existing structure have been jacketed.
In comparison to the jacketing of reinforced concrete

columns, jacketing of reinforced concrete beams with

slabs is difficult yielding good confinement because
slab causes hindrance in the jacket.

FRP Jacketing
Fibre-reinforced plastics are a category of composite

plastics that specifically use fibre materials to

mechanically enhance the strength and elasticity of
plastics.
The original plastic material without fibre
reinforcement is known as the matrix.

FRP Jacketing
Types of Fiber reinforced plastics
Carbon fiber material
Glass fibre material
Aramid fiber material

FRP Jacketing
fibre reinforced polymer composite jackets for

seismic strengthening of columns are winded with

high strength carbon fibres around column surface
to add spiral hoops

FRP jacketing
Confinement is of high degree because carbon fiber

is of high strength and high modules of elasticity are

used;
The carbon fibre has light weight and rusting does
not occur.

Steel Jacketing

Reinforced Concrete Jacketing

Reinforced concrete jacketing can be employed as a

repair or strengthening scheme. Damaged regions of

the existing members should be repaired prior to
their jacketing. Rehabilitated sections are designed
in this way so that the flexural strength of columns
should be greater than that of the beams.

Jacketing procedure of RC columns

Added longitudinal reinforcement.

1. Anchoring to footing: Generally, in the case of

RC jacketing, the steel longitudinal reinforcing bars
of the added jacket can be anchored to the original
footings.

2. Crossing the slab: When continuity between

floors of the RC jacketing is required, holes must be
provided in the slab to allow the longitudinal bars of
the jacket to pass through.

Jacketing procedure of RC columns

Jacketing procedure of RC columns

Interface surface treatment

1. Increasing surface roughness: hand chipping, sand-blasting,

jack-hammering, electric hammering, water demolition, iron

brushing, etc
2. Surface pre wetting: . It has been indicated that an excessively dry
substrate can absorb too much water from the repairing material,
causing excessive shrinkage. Excessive humidity on the substrate can
close the pores and prevent the absorption of the repairing material. A
saturated substrate with a dry surface may be considered the best
solution.
3. Application of bonding agents:The values of the shear and tension
strength of the interface reduced when the epoxy resin was applied on
the sand-blasted surfaces, contrarily to what happened when other
roughening methods were used.

Jacketing procedure of RC columns

Addition of steel connectors: The use of steel

connectors is of extreme importance in the case of

precast RC beams with in situ cast slabs
Addition of concrete: Normally the added concrete
has a maximum aggregate dimension of about 2mm
because of the lack of space in the jacket. This is due
to its diminished thickness associated with the
volume occupied by the added steel reinforcement. It
is also for this reason that a self-compacting concrete
(SCC) is frequently used.

Jacketing procedure of RC columns

RC jacketing : Structural behaviour

With this rehabilitation method, a significant increase of

strength and/or ductility can be achieved. This technique can

consequently be used to achieve these objectives, but also to
correct the overall behaviour of the structure.
Alcocer & Jirsa(1990) studied the response of RC frames
redesigned by jacketing. The specimens were tested applying a
bi-directional cyclic loading. The authors have concluded that
jacketing may change the structural concept from a strong
beamweak column to a strong columnweak beam concept.
They state that, by jacketing the most damaged element, the
column, the strength and the stiffness were 35 and 45%,
respectively, of the values obtained with the redesigned
undamaged structure.

RC jacketing : Structural behaviour

Alcocer(1993) states, in his experimental study on

RC frame connections rehabilitated by jacketing,

that, by jacketing the most damaged elements, the
columns and joint, the strength at 2% drift and the
stiffness at 0.5% drift were 63 and 52%, respectively,
of the values obtained with the undamaged
specimen.

RC jacketing : Structural behaviour

Rodriguez & Park(1994), performed simulated seismic

load tests on damaged and undamaged RC columns

strengthened by jacketing to investigate the increase
of strength, stiffness and ductility achieved. They state
that the strength and stiffness of the columns repaired
by jacketing were up to three times those of the asbuilt columns
The effect of previous damage and the different
reinforcing details used, had no significant influence
on the overall seismic performance of the jacketed
columns.

Conclusion
The RC jacketing strengthening method, unlike other techniques,

leads to a uniformly distributed increase in strength and stiffness

of columns. The durability of the original column is also
improved, in contrast to the corrosion and fire protection needs
of other techniques where steel is exposed or where epoxy resins
are used. Finally, this rehabilitation procedure does not require
specialized workmanship. All those reasons make RC jacketing an
extremely valuable choice in structural rehabilitation. The
structural behaviour of a building rehabilitated by RC jacketing of
the columns, like any other strengthening technique, is highly
influenced by details.
a non shrinkage concrete should be adopted with characteristics
of a selfcompacting, high-strength and high-durability concrete.

References
Aguilar J, Juarez H, Ortega R & Iglesias J. The Mexico earthquake of

September 19, 1985. Statistics of damage and retrofitting techniques in reinforced

concrete buildings affected by the 1985 earthquake. Earthquake Spectra 1989: 5(1):
145151.
Alcocer SM. RC frame connections rehabilitated by jacketing. Journal of Structural
Engineering 1993: 119(5): 14131431.
Alcocer S & Jirsa J. Assessment of the response of reinforced concrete frame
connections redesigned by Jacketing. Proceedings of the 4th US National Conference
on Earthquake Engineering 1990: 3: 295304.
Rodriguez M & Park R. Seismic load tests on reinforced concrete columns
strengthened by jacketing. ACI Structural Journal, MarchApril 1994: 91(2): 150
159.
Rodriguez M & Park R. Repair and strengthening of reinforced concrete buildings
for earthquake resistance. Earthquake Spectra 1991: 7(3): 439459.
www.google.com
www.sciencedirect.com