A REVIEW ON STRENGTHENING OF REINFORCED CONCRETE ARCHES
Abstract
Durability and serviceability are one of the primary concerns of reinforced cement concrete (RCC) structures. The RCC structures require periodic monitoring and strengthening with time to enhance the structural performance degraded by varieties of reasons. Arches are one of the extensively used structural elements and can be found in many structures which face the challenges of inadequacy to carry the new loading condition requirements. Furthermore, they suffer from degradation of structure, corrosion of reinforcement steel bars, bad conditions of weather and etc. Therefore, this paper focuses and reviews the materials, methods and processes for strengthening of reinforced concrete arches. The review includes the historical development of repair and strengthening techniques including the state of art material usage. A comparative study is carried out on the success ratio of different processes employed in the strengthening and repair of damaged arch. It is observed that the modern materials and techniques have raised the success ratio of strengthening of the RCC arches. The paper also investigates the current gap of the knowledge and limitations of the area of study and prospects on the future scope of experimental studies.
