Retrofitting of damaged reinforced concrete beams with a new green cementitious composites material

Overloading of concrete structures is one of the predominant problems in civil engineering. In extreme cases, this problem may cause structural failure and even collapse. A new green retrofitting material, called Green-USM-Reinforced Concrete (GUSMRC), is currently under development at the Universiti Sains Malaysia. The special characteristics (i.e., high tensile, flexural, and compressive strengths) of GUSMRC make it particularly suitable for retrofitting existing damaged concrete structures. The current study investigates the flexural behavior of damaged concrete beams caused by overloading when retrofitted by precast GUSMRC strips. The results show that the precast GUSMRC strips do not only increase the load carrying capacity by 37% over that of the control beams, but also significantly improve the serviceability of the damaged beams.