Rehabilitation & Retrofitting Of Structures Module-5 (part 2)

“REHABILITATION AND RETROFITTING OF

STRUCTURES (15CV753)”
MODULE-5 (part 2)
MATERIALS FOR REPAIR AND
RETROFITTING
FIBRE REINFORCED POLYMER
COMPOSITES
An FRP composite is defined as a polymer matrix which is
reinforced with a fibre.
➢ The primary function of fibre reinforcement is to carry load
along the length of the fiber and to provide strength and
stiffness in one direction.
➢ FRP represents a class of materials that falls into a category
referred to as composite materials. Composite materials consist
of two or more materials that retain their respective chemical
and physical characteristics when combined together.
➢ FRP composites are different from traditional construction
materials like steel or aluminium. FRP composites are
anisotropic (properties apparent in the direction of applied
load) whereas steel or aluminium is isotropic (uniform
properties in all directions, independent of applied load).
➢ CONSTITUENTS OF FRP

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1. Fibres
➢ The composite’s properties are mainly influenced by the choice
of fibres. In civil engineering three types of fibres are dominate.
They are carbon, glass, and aramid fibres and the composite is
often named by the reinforcing fibre, e.g. CFRP for Carbon Fibre
Reinforced Polymer. They have different properties.
➢ For strengthening purposes, carbon fibres are the most
suitable.
➢ All fibres have generally higher stress capacity than the
ordinary steel and are linear elastic until failure.
➢ The most important properties that differ between the fibre
types are stiffness and tensile strain.
➢ The three fibre types are schematically presented in figure in
comparison with an ordinary steel bar and a steel tendon.
Types of Fibres
Artificial Fibres
1. Glass Fibre or mineral fibre
2. Aramid Fibre
3. Carbon Fibre
Natural Fibres
1. Sisal Fibre
2. Jute Fibre

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Table Mechanical properties of common strengthening material

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Modulus of Compressive
Tensile Density
Material elasticity Strength
Strength[MPa] [kg/m³]
[GPa] [MPa]

Concrete 20-40 5-60 1-3 2400

Steel 200-210 240-690 240-690 7800

Carbon
200-800 NA 2500-6000 1750-1950
fibre

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2 Matrices
➢ The matrix should transfer forces between the fibres and
protect the fibres from the environment.
➢ In civil engineering, thermosetting resins (thermosets) are
almost exclusively used compared to thermoplastic. Of the
thermo sets vinyl ester and epoxy are the most common
matrices.
➢ Epoxy is mostly favored above vinyl ester but is also more
costly. Epoxy has a pot life around 30 minutes at 20degree
Celsius but can be changed with different formulations. The
curing goes faster with increased temperature.
➢ Material properties for polyester and epoxy are shown in table.
Epoxies have good strength, bond, creep properties and
chemical resistance.
➢ Table : Properties of matrix materials

Production Process of FRP Composites (Laminates)

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TYPES OF FIBRE REINFORCED POLYMERS

1. Glass fibre reinforced polymer
➢ Glass fibres are basically made by mixing silica sand, limestone,
folic acid and other minor ingredients.
➢ The mix is heated until it melts at about 1260°C.
➢ The molten glass is then allowed to flow through fine holes in a
platinum plate. The glass strands are cooled, gathered and
wound.
➢ The fibres are drawn to increase the directional strength. The
fibres are then woven into various forms for use in composites.
➢ Based on an aluminium lime borosilicate composition glass
produced fibres are considered the predominant reinforcement

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for polymer matrix composites due to their high electrical

insulating properties, low susceptibility to moisture and high
mechanical properties.
➢ Glass is generally a good impact resistant fibre but weighs
more than carbon or aramid. Glass fibres have excellent
characteristics equal to or better than steel in certain forms.

Typical Physical properties of Glass fibre

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➢ The polymeric matrix is required to fulfill the following main

functions: to bind together the fibres and protect their surfaces
from damage during handling,
fabrication and service life of the composite;
• To disperse the fibres and separate them and to transfer
stresses to the fibres.
• The matrix should be chemically and thermally compatible
with the reinforcing fibres.
2. Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer
➢ Carbon fibres have a high modulus of elasticity, 200-800 GPa.
➢ The ultimate elongation is 0.3-2.5 % where the lower
elongation corresponds to the higher stiffness and vice versa
➢ Carbon fibres do not absorb water and are resistant to many
chemical solutions.

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➢ They with stand fatigue excellently, do not stress corrode and

do not show any creep or relaxation, having less relaxation
compared to low relaxation high tensile prestressing steel
strands.
➢ Carbon fibre is electrically conductive and, therefore might
give galvanic corrosion in direct contact with steel.

3. Aramid Fibre Reinforced Polymer

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➢ Aramid is the short form for aromatic polyamide. A well-known

trademark of aramid fibres is Kevlar but there exists other
brands too, e.g. Twaron, Technora and SVM.
➢ The moduli of the fibres are 70-200 GPa with ultimate
elongation of 1.5-5% depending on the quality.
➢ Aramid has a high fracture energy and is therefore used for
helmets and bullet-proof garments.
➢ Aramid fibres are sensitive to elevated temperatures, moisture
and ultraviolet radiation and therefore not widely used in civil
engineering applications.
➢ Further aramid fibres do have problems with relaxation and
stress corrosion.
Advantages
• FRP can provide a maximum material stiffness to density ratio
of 3.5 to 5 times that of aluminum or steel.
• It has high fatigue endurance limits
• It can absorb impact energies
• The material properties can be strengthened where required
• The corrosion potential is reduced
• Joints and fasteners are eliminated or simplified.
Natural Fibres
➢ Natural fibres such as sisal, bamboo, coir and jute can be used
successfully in composite components in order to realize
reduction of weight and cost. These fibres are renewable, non-
abrasive to Process equipment, and can be incinerated at the
end of their life cycle for energy recovery as they possess a
good deal of calorific value.

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➢ The distinctive properties of natural fibre reinforced polymers

are improved tensile and bending strength, greater ductility
and greater resistance to cracking and hence improved impact
strength and toughness.
Sisal Fibres
➢ The plants look like giant pineapples, and during harvest the
leaves are cut as close to the ground as possible. The soft tissue
is scraped from the fibres by hand or machine. The fibres are
dried and brushes remove the remaining dirt, resulting in a
clean fibre.
➢ The use of 0.2% volume fraction of 25mm sisal fibres leads to
free plastic shrinkage reduction.
➢ Sisal fibres conditioned in a sodium hydroxide solution
retained respectively 72.7% and 60.9% of their initial strength
after 420 days.

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Properties of this fibre

Specific gravity [Kg/m3] 1370
Water absorption [%] 110
Tensile strength [M Pa] 347-378
Modulus of elasticity [G Pa] 15
Available countries:- India, East Africa, Bahamas, Antiqua, Kenya,
Tanzania.
Advantages
a) They are very well resistant against moist.
b) These fibres have a good tension resistance or tensile strength.
c) They are very well resistant against heat.
d) Sisal short fibres delay restrained plastic shrinkage controlling
crack development at early ages.
e) Sisal fibres conditioned in a sodium hydroxide solution retained
respectively 72.7% and 60.9% of their initial strength.
Jute Fibre

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➢ The fibres are extracted from the ribbon of the stem. When
harvested the plants are cut near the ground with a sickle
shaped knife. The small fibres, 5 mm, are obtained by
successively retting in water, beating, stripping the fibre from
the core and drying.
➢ To achieve better wet ability of jute with resin and to improve
strength properties, fibre pre-treatment is necessary. Simple
pre-treatment is done with low-condensed resins like
melamine resin, phenolic resin and CNSL modified phenol
formaldehyde resin.

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Properties of the fibre

Specific gravity [kg/m3] - 1460
Water absorption [%] -13
Tensile strength [MPa] - 400-800
Stiffness [KN/mm2] -10-30
Available countries - India, Egypt, Guyana, Jamaica, Ghana, Malawi,
Sudan, Tanzania
Advantages
a) It can withstand rotting very easily.
c) The fibres can easily withstand heat.
d) It has high tensile strength.
Disadvantages
a) Due to its short fibre length, Jute is the weakest stem fibre than
other fibres.

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b) Jute fibre based composites involve reactions with acetic

anhydride (acetylation).
c) The fibres are biodegradable.
Applications
a) It is used as packaging material (bags).
b) It is used as carpet backing, ropes, and yarns.
c) It is used for wall decoration.

ADHESIVE-EPOXY RESIN
➢ The various adhesives used are epoxy, polyester, acrylic,
polyurethane etc.
➢ Epoxy resin possess very high mechanical and adhesive
strength properties most desirable for civil engineering
applications.
➢ Epoxy resin when cured with different hardness it offers a wide
range of properties such as
• High adhesive strength.
• Low shrinkage during curing.
• Exceptional dimensional stability.
• Natural gap filling properties.
• Thermosetting
• Resistance to chemical and environment.
Epoxy for crack repair

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➢ The most appropriate method of crack depends on whether

crack is still actively moving or not.
➢ Active cracks may be due to inadequate provision of
movement joint in the structure.
➢ The injection of low-viscosity epoxy is a possible repair method
for cracks between 0.02mm to 6mm in width.
➢ There are wide range of low-viscosity epoxy systems and which
depends upon temperature of application, capability of
bonding to moist concrete, shrinkage, thermal & elastic
properties of the hardened resin.

Epoxy mortars/Concrete
➢ Epoxy resin systems are superior in almost all properties to
concrete. The adhesive strength of the epoxy resin is 50 times
more than that of cement concrete.
➢ The use of epoxy in mortar is recommended only in emergency
repair, since they have low modulus of elasticity and high creep
than most Portland cement products.
➢ Fillers such as fly ash or silica fume are must when workability
is to be improved and to minimise the use of resin.
1. Water Reducer
➢ Water-reducing admixtures are used to reduce the quantity of
mixing water required to produce concrete of a certain slump,
reduce water-cement ratio, reduce cement content, or increase
slump.
➢ Typical water reducers reduce the water content by
approximately 5% to 10%. Adding a water-reducing admixture

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to concrete without reducing the water content can produce a

mixture with a higher slump.
➢ An increase in strength is generally obtained with water-
reducing admixtures as the water-cement ratio is reduced.
2. Retarders
➢ A retarder is an admixture that slows down the chemical
process of hydration so that concrete remains plastic and
workable for a longer time than concrete without the retarder.
➢ Retarders are the chemicals that delay the setting of concrete
by an hour or more.
➢ These are used in hot weather to counter the rapid setting
caused by high temperature.
➢ An increase in strength is generally obtained with water-
reducing admixtures as the water-cement ratio is reduced.
➢ The most common known retarder is calcium sulphate. It is
interground to retard the setting of cement.
➢ Sugar is also one of the retarder
3. Accelerators
➢ Accelerating admixtures are added to concrete to increase the
rate of early strength development in concrete to
· Permit earlier removal of formwork;
· Reduce the required period of curing;
· Advance the time that a structure can be placed in service;
· Partially compensate for the retarding effect of low temperature
during cold weather concreting;
· Emergency repair work

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➢ The commonly used materials as an accelerator were calcium

chloride. But, now a day it is used. Instead, some of the soluble
carbonates, silicates fluosilicates and some of the organic
compounds such as triethnolamine are used.
4. Air entraining agents
➢ Air entraining agents are liquid are added during batching to
produce microscopic bubbles, called entrained air
➢ These air bubbles improve the resistance to damage caused by
freezing & thawing and deicing salt application.
➢ It reduces bleeding and segregation and improves workability.
➢ It is not necessary for interior structural concrete.
➢ In high cement content concretes, entrained air will reduce
strength by about 5% for each 1% added but in low cement
content concrete adding air has less effect and may even cause
modest increase in strength.
➢ SPECIAL ELEMENTS FOR ACCELERATED STRENGTH GAIN
➢ In repairs of certain structures, particularly roadways and
bridges, it may be desired that early strength gain should be as
rapid as possible.
➢ Formerly high doses of calcium chloride were advocated but
this procedure has been rejected on the basis of corrosion,
problems associated with calcium chloride use.
➢ The time of setting of Portland cement concrete and its
strength gain may be shortened by the use of calcium
aluminate cement. Because of problems associated with the
conversion, under hot humid conditions, of the calcium
aluminate hydrates from one form to another, and the
resultant strength losses, other types of cements have been
preferred.
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➢ Regulated set cement is a modified Portland cement which

contains a substantial amount of calcium fluoro-aluminate. The
cement meal contains a substantial amount of fluorite as a
substitute for limestone. The burning process has a problem
due to the release of small amounts of fluoro compounds.
When prepared and ground the initial and final set of this type
of cement occurs almost simultaneously and therefore the time
between mixing and set is often referred to as the handling
time. As a rule, this varies between 2 to 45 minutes.

➢ Special cements based on chemical reactions which are

completely different from those of normal Portland or similar
cements are now part of the technology. These include fast-
setting magnesium phosphate and aluminium –phosphate
cements, which when used for concrete patching for
pavements allow traffic flow after only 45 minutes.
➢ SPECIAL MORTAR
➢ Cement-clay mortar: Here clay is introduced as an effective
finely ground additive in quantities ensuring a cement-clay
proportion of not over 1:1. The addition of clay improves the
grain composition, the water retaining ability and the
workability of mortar and also increases the density of mortar.
➢ Lightweight and Heavy mortars
Light weight mortars: These are prepared form light porous
sands from pumice and other fine aggregates. They are also
prepared by mixing wood powder, wood shavings or saw dust with
cement mortar or lime mortar. In such mortars, fibres of jute coir
and hair, cut into pieces of suitable size, or asbestos fibres can also
be used. These mortars have bulk density less than 15KN/m3.
Heavy weight mortars: These are prepared from heavy quartz or

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other sands. They have bulk density of 15 KN/m3 or more. They are
used in load bearing capacity.
3. Decorative mortars: These mortars are obtained by using- Colour
cements or pigments and Fine aggregate of appropriate color,
texture and surface.
4. Air-entrained Mortar: The working qualities of lean cement-sand
mortar can be improved by entraining air in it(air serves as a
plasticizer producing minute air bubbles which helps in flow
characteristics and workability)/ The air bubbles increase the volume
of the binder paste and help to fill the voids in the sand. The air
entraining also makes the mortar weight and a better heat and
sound insulator.
5. Gypsum Mortar: These mortars are prepared from gypsum
binding materials such as building gypsum and anhydrite binding
materials.
6. Fire Resistant Mortar: It is prepared by adding aluminous cement
to a finely crushed power of firebricks (Usually proportion being one
part of aluminous cement to two parts of powder of fire-bricks).
7. Sound Absorbing mortar: These mortars may have binding
materials such as cement, lime, gypsum slag etc. and aggregate (light
weight porous materials (such as pumice, cinders etc. The bulk
density of such a mortar varies from 6 to 12KN/m3. Noise level can
be reduced by using sound absorbing plaster formed with the help of
sound absorbing mortar.
TECHNIQUES FOR REPAIR
1. Rust Eliminators
 Cement paste normally provides a highly alkaline environment
that projects embedded steel against corrosion.

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 Concrete with a low water/cement ratio, well compacted and

well cured, has a low permeability and hence minimizes the
penetration of atmospheric moisture as well as other
components such as oxygen, chloride ion, carbon dioxide and
water, which encourage corrosion of steel bar.
 In very aggressive environments, the bars may be coated with
special materials developed for this purpose.
 Coating on reinforcing steel, therefore, servers as a means of
isolating the steel from the surrounding environment.
 Common metallic coatings galvanizing zinc.
 High chloride concentration around the embedded steel
corrodes the zinc coating, followed by corrosion of steel.
 Hence, this treatment used for moderately aggressive
environments.
 For high corrosive atmospheres caused by chloride ions from
the de-icing salts applied to protect against sodium chloride
and calcium chloride, usually near seashores, epoxy coating is
applied to protect the steel reinforcing bars from corrosion.
 Such bars have acceptable bond and creep characteristics.
 The coat normally applied is 150 um thick.
 The reinforcement is epoxied in the factory itself, where the
steel rods are manufactured. Such reinforcement are known as
fusion-bonded epoxy coated steel.
 Steel manufactures also manufacture CTD bars with better
corrosion resistance, termed as Corrosion resistance steel
(CRS).

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 The performance of the CRS CTD bars is better in resisting

corrosion compared to plain CTD bars. However, the use of CRS
CTD bars will only delay the process of corrosion.
TECHNIQUES FOR REPAIR
2. Polymer based coating
➢ These are generally of two types
➢ Resins blended with organic solvents
➢ Solvent free coating
➢ Solvent based coating are subdivided into single and two
component coatings.
➢ The coatings on drying produce a smooth dense continuous
film that provides a barrier to moisture and mild chemical
attack of the concrete.
➢ Because of the resistance to moisture penetration, staining,
and ease of cleaning, they are preferred for locations of high
humidity and those in which a lot of soiling occurs.
➢ Most products are low solids content materials which require
multiple coats to produce a continuous film over concrete,
since materials are thermoplastic, and have a significant degree
of extensibility they are capable of bridging minor cracks which
may be develop in the concrete surface if they are applied in
sufficient thickness.
➢ The number of coats required depends on the surface texture,
porosity and the targeted dry film thickness.
➢ Although some of the newer products have some moisture
tolerance, enabling them to be applied over damp surfaces, in
normal usage they should be applied over dry surfaces.

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➢ Due their relative in permeability to water vapor, they could

blister when applied to concrete surfaces with high moisture
content or where the opposite surface of the concrete is in
constant contact with moisture.
➢ Careful control of wet film thickness is therefore necessary
during application.
➢ Two component polymer coatings consist of a solution of a
compounded polymer with or without solvent and a reactive
chemical component called the curing agent hardener or
catalyst.
➢ The materials are usually mixed just prior to use in accordance
with the manufacturer’s instructions.
➢ When using two components polymer based coatings the
following items are of importance to the application of the
materials.
1. Most produces are supplied as a kit containing the two
components in the required proportions. Therefore, in order to
realize the full potential of the product the correct mix ratio of the
two components must be used.
2. To ensure a complete reaction of the two components they must
be mixed thoroughly.
3. Some two component material require an induction period of 15
to 40 min after mixing. Therefore, such products cannot be used
immediately after mixing
4. Viscosity reduction by the use of thinners should be resorted to
only after the manufacturers are consulted.
5. The storage temperature of solvent based coatings is not critical.
They should be stored are a temperature 16 to 32◦c just prior to use.

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