Strengthening of the concrete face slabs of dams using sprayable strain-hardening fiber-reinforced cementitious composites

doi:10.1007/s11709-022-0806-4

Front. Struct. Civ. Eng.

2022, Vol. 16

Issue (2) : 145-160 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-022-0806-4

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Strengthening of the concrete face slabs of dams using sprayable strain-hardening fiber-reinforced cementitious composites

Qinghua LI, Xing YIN, Botao HUANG(

), Yifeng ZHANG, Shilang XU

Institute of Advanced Engineering Structures and Materials, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China

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Abstract

In this study, sprayable strain-hardening fiber-reinforced cementitious composites (FRCC) were applied to strengthen the concrete slabs in a concrete-face rockfill dam (CFRD) for the first time. Experimental, numerical, and analytical investigations were carried out to understand the flexural properties of FRCC-layered concrete slabs. It was found that the FRCC layer improved the flexural performance of concrete slabs significantly. The cracking and ultimate loads of a concrete slab with an 80 mm FRCC layer were 132% and 69% higher than those of the unstrengthened concrete slab, respectively. At the maximum crack width of 0.2 mm, the deflection of the 80-mm FRCC strengthened concrete slab was 144% higher than that of the unstrengthened concrete slab. In addition, a FE model and a simplified analytical method were developed for the design and analysis of FRCC-layered concrete slabs. Finally, the test result of FRCC leaching solution indicated that the quality of the water surrounding FRCC satisfied the standard for drinking water. The findings of this study indicate that the sprayable strain-hardening FRCC has a good potential for strengthening hydraulic structures such as CFRDs.

Keywords strain-hardening cementitious composites engineered cementitious composites sprayable shotcrete strengthening concrete-face rockfill dam digital image correlation

Corresponding Author(s): Botao HUANG

About author:

Mingsheng Sun and Mingxiao Yang contributed equally to this work.

Just Accepted Date: 28 January 2022 Online First Date: 22 March 2022 Issue Date: 20 April 2022

Cite this article:

Qinghua LI,Xing YIN,Botao HUANG, et al. Strengthening of the concrete face slabs of dams using sprayable strain-hardening fiber-reinforced cementitious composites[J]. Front. Struct. Civ. Eng., 2022, 16(2): 145-160.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fsce/EN/10.1007/s11709-022-0806-4
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fsce/EN/Y2022/V16/I2/145

Fig.1 Strengthening of concrete-face rockfill dam.

Fig.2 Spray process of high-toughness FRCC.

Fig.3 Direct tension of sprayable FRCC: (a) setup and (b) tensile behavior. The tensile strength and ultimate tensile strain of sprayable FRCC are 2.9 MPa and 2.0%, respectively.

Fig.4 Specimen dimensions and test setup.

Fig.5 Load–deflection curves of (a) RC, (b) S50, and (c) S80. (d) The FRCC layer can enhance the flexural performance of the concrete slabs.

Fig.6 Cracking and ultimate loads of RC, S50, and S80. The cracking and ultimate loads of the concrete slabs increase with increase of thickness of the FRCC layer.

Fig.7 Failure modes of (a) RC-1, (b) S50-1, and (c) S80-2. The cracks in the concrete layer are controlled by the FRCC layer effectively.

Fig.8 Strain fields at different deflections: (a) RC-1, (b) S50-1, and (c) S80-2. Multi-cracking behavior was observed in FRCC and the sprayable FRCC layer effectively controlled the cracking of the concrete layer.

Fig.9 (a) Load–maximum crack width relations and (b) mid-span deflection–maximum crack width relations of RC, S50, and S80. The maximum crack widths of the slabs strengthened with FRCC layers (S50 and S80) were significantly lower than that of the slab without an FRCC layer (RC) at the same load or mid-span deflection.

Fig.10 Constitutive models of sprayable FRCC (a) in compression and (b) in tension; and concrete (c) in compression and (d) in tension.

Tab.1 Parameters in constitutive models of sprayable FRCC and concrete

Fig.11 Interface behavior in FE simulation: (a) bond-slip model of steel reinforcement and concrete; (b) traction-separation constitutive law of the FRCC/concrete interface.

Tab.2 Parameters of bond-slip model

Fig.12 3D FE model of the reinforced concrete slab strengthened with an FRCC layer.

Fig.13 Simulation results of (a) RC, (b) S50, and (c) S80. The simulated load–deflection behaviors indicate good agreement with the test ones and the FE strain fields are similar to the DIC results in Fig. 8.

Fig.14 Strain and stress distributions of the FRCC-layered reinforced concrete slab (a) before and (b) after the cracking of concrete.

Fig.15 Comparison of the test and calculated loads. The calculated loads show good agreement with the test loads.

Fig.16 (a) Effect of the FRCC modulus (E_F) on the cracking load and (b) effect of the tensile strength of FRCC (f_t-F) on the ultimate load. For the strengthened concrete slabs, the cracking load increases with an increasing FRCC modulus, and the ultimate load increases with an increasing FRCC tensile strength.

Tab.3 VOC levels in the leaching solution of FRCC and ordinary concrete (mg/L)

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