The strengthening and rehabilitation of concrete members is an important issue which arises worldwide. Carbon, aramid and glass fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites are mainly used for strengthening and rehabilitation. However, its use is limited on a small scale because of its high price, lack of availability and environmental impacts. The solution of this issue gives rise to the use of locally available natural fibers and low-cost synthetic fibers. This paper presents the experimental and analytical results of circular and square concrete columns confined with jute–polyester hybrid FRP composites. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the viability and performance of concrete confined with the hybridization of jute and polyester (FRP) composite sheets to utilize its superior properties. A novel hybrid technique has been applied for the wrapping of fiber sheets. The fiber sheets were applied in such a way that a uniform bond between the inner and outer layer was achieved. A total of 32 plain, standard size circular and square concrete specimens, externally wrapped with a jute–polyester FRP (JPFRP) composite, were tested under monotonic axial compressive loads. The result shows that JPFRP confinement increased the strength, strain and ductility index ranged between 1.24 and 2.61, 1.38 and 8.97, and 4.94 and 26.5 times the un-jacketed specimen, respectively. Furthermore, the wrapping has a significant effect on the low-strength specimens, having a circular cross-section. For high strength specimens, the post-peak stress-strain behavior was dominated by the outer polyester jacket because of its large rupture strain. Additionally, the test results were used to evaluate the existing strength-strain models derived for conventional FRPs. The models predicted values either underestimating or overestimating the compressive strength and strain of JPFRP-confined specimens. However, the strength models performed better than the strain models. The JPFRP wrapping significantly enhanced the strength, fracture energy, ductility index, and post-peak response. Therefore, JPFRP confinement can be used for a small-scale application, where little strength and high ductility is demanded. Moreover, it can be used to prevent the peeling of the concrete cover and moisture penetration into the concrete.

Reinforced concrete (RC) Pile cap, a thick reinforced concrete block, is constructed to provide a connection between a structure and multiple single piles. In the existing design methods, the behavior of RC pile cap is usually considered as a rigid body and resulting forces or reactions on piles are assumed equal. However, in actual conditions, there is a possibility of bending of pile cap and un-equal reactions or forces on piles. This study represents a detailed finite element analysis of RC eight-pile cap by using a computer program ATENA. ATENA serve as rational tools to explain the behavior of RC structures. Research parameters included different types of loading conditions, analysis types such as linear and non-linear, support conditions, length of pile, strength of concrete and thickness of pile cap. The finite element analysis results indicate that the behavior of RC pile cap is not a rigid body and resulting forces or reactions are unequal. Also, it was observed that, support conditions, analysis type and thickness of RC pile cap had a significant effect on the global behavior of RC pile caps.

This paper presents the strengthening technique for interior reinforced concrete beam-column joint based on joint expansion concept. The beam-column joint is expanded two-dimensionally by cast-in-situ concrete around the corners of the joint. Experiment has been conducted on interior beam-column specimens with expanded joint zone. Experimental results demonstrate a good performance of this method to upgrade the joint shear strength, energy dissipation and ductility. It has been found that by increasing the joint size, the joint shear failure can be prevented. The joint expansion is shown to reduce the joint shear stress. This method is effective to change failure mode from brittle joint shear failure to flexural failure in beams