Experimental studies on the seismic behavior of earthquake-damaged circular bridge columns repaired by using combination of near-surface-mounted BFRP bars with external BFRP sheets jacketing

• This paper proposes a rapid and practical repair technique for the damaged circular bridge columns.
• The repaired columns are compared with the original columns in the seismic behavior.
• The flexural strength of the repaired columns is restored and even enhanced.
• The stiffness and the ductility of repaired columns are restored to meet the needs of a temporary repair.
• The proposed technique is applicable to repairing earthquake-damaged circular bridge columns.

Rapid repair and retrofitting is increasingly urgent and significant for the earthquake-damaged columns. To restore the flexural strength, and also attempt to restore stiffness and deformation capacity of damaged columns, this paper proposes a repair technique using near-surface-mounted (NMS) basalt fiber reinforced polymer (BFRP) bars and BFRP sheets jacketing, and then four one-fourth scale earthquake-damaged reinforced concrete circular bridge columns repaired by the proposed technique are retested under the similar cyclic lateral load as the corresponding original columns. The repaired columns are compared with the original columns in the seismic behavior finally, and the results have shown that the flexural capacity of the repaired columns was restored and even enhanced; furthermore, the stiffness and the displacement capacity of repaired columns were restored to an extent that can meet the needs of a temporary repair and allow emergency service use after an earthquake. This implies that the repair technique is effective in restoring the flexural performance of the damaged circular bridge columns.