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Retrofitting of Existing Columns of Buildings

and Bridges using Steel Jacketing

Conference Paper October 2012

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Sajjad Ahmad Zulqarnain Ali Sabir

Mirpur University of Science and Technology Universitt Stuttgart
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 R.A. Khushnood et al: RETROFITTING OF EXISTING COLUMNS OF BUILDINGS AND BRIDGES USING STEEL
JACKETING

RETROFITTING OF EXISTING COLUMNS OF BUILDINGS

AND BRIDGES USING STEEL JACKETING
Rao Arsalan Khushnoood1*, Sajjad Ahmad2 and Zulqarnain Ali Sabir3

Summary
External confinement of concrete significantly enhances its strength and ductility, resulting in
large energy dissipation capacity. Therefore, confined reinforced concrete (RC) columns
possess larger bending moment capacity and ductility, as well as larger axial load carrying
capacity than unconfined normal reinforced columns. In order to prevent loss of human life
and property due to earthquakes, the steel jacket retrofit has been investigated in this research,
as a method to enhance the axial strength and ductility of square and circular RC column
specimens. The present paper is focused on the load carrying capacity and deformation
capability of the retrofitted RC column specimens.

Key words: Column, Confinement, Retrofitting, Steel Jacketing, Strength Enhancement,

Ductility.

1. Introduction
The 1994 Northridge earthquake, the 1995 Hyogoken-Nanbu earthquake and the 2005
Kashmir earthquake have caused substantial damages to reinforced concrete bridge piers and
buildings. Some of the major problems involved with the damaged reinforced concrete
columns may be attributed to the poor transverse reinforcement detailing, which resulted in
inadequate shear strength and flexural ductility of columns. Therefore, in order to prevent loss
of human life and property from future earthquakes, methods to enhance the shear strength
and ductility of existing reinforced concrete columns have to be developed [1, 2].

According to the dictionary of architecture and construction by C. M. Harris retrofit is:

the addition of new building material, building elements and components not provided in the
original construction. Confining reinforced concrete column in steel jackets is one of the
effective methods to improve the earthquake resistance capacity. As compared with
conventional hoops or spirals, steel jacket has two more remarkable advantages; 1) to easily
provide a large amount of transverse steel, hence strong confinement to the compressed
concrete, and 2) to prevent spalling off of the shell concrete. Spalling of the shell concrete

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 R.A. Khushnood et al: RETROFITTING OF EXISTING COLUMNS OF BUILDINGS AND BRIDGES USING STEEL
JACKETING

may be considered as the main reason for deterioration of bond and buckling of longitudinal
bars of columns and is hardly prevented by conventional hoops [3]. The jackets provide a
passive confinement to the concrete core and react against the lateral dilation of the column
under compression, which delays the softening of the concrete and has shown to enhance both
strength and ductility of the column [4]. Extensive work has been done in the experimental
and analytical areas on concrete specimens of circular, rectangular and square columns
retrofitted with steel jackets and fiber reinforced polymer [5-8].
The main endeavour of this research is to experimentally scrutinize the effects of
upgrading the load carrying capacity and ductility of cirular and square reinforced concrete
columns subjected to axial compression by steel jacketing.

2. Experimental Programme
Total of 12 specimens of 18 height were casted for the testing and analysis purpose.
The specimens were classified in to three cases i.e. CASE A (base columns), CASE B
(confined by 1mm thick steel jacket) and CASE C (confined by 1.6 mm thick steel jacket).
The concrete used had a w/c of 0.60 and mix design of 1:2:4. The specimens were cured for
seven days under field conditions. Specimens detail is given in Table 1.

Table 1 Detail of specimens

S. No. Case Type Dim Bars Steel jackets Notations

1 Case A Circular 5 dia 4#3 - 5C-3
2 Case B Circular 5 dia 4#3 1mm thick 5C-3-S1
3 Case C Circular 5 dia 4#3 1.6mm thick 5C-3-S2
4 Case A Circular 5 dia 4#4 - 5C-4
5 Case B Circular 5 dia 4#4 1mm thick 5C-4-S1
6 Case C Circular 5 dia 4#4 1.6mm thick 5C-4-S2
7 Case A Square 5 side 4#3 - 5S-3
8 Case B Square 5 side 4#3 1mm thick 5S-3-S1
9 Case C Square 5 side 4#3 1.6mm thick 5S-3-S2
10 Case A Square 5 side 4#4 - 5S-4
11 Case B Square 5 side 4#4 1mm thick 5S-4-S1
12 Case C Square 5 side 4#4 1.6mm thick 5S-4-S2

2.1 Materials

2.1.1 Cement
ASTM Type I ordinary Portland cement having specific gravity of 3.10 was used in
concrete mixture.
2.1.2 Aggregates
Crushed limestone with a maximum size of 20 mm and a specic gravity of 2.60 was
used as a coarse aggregate. River sand with a neness modulus of 2.40 and a specic gravity
of 2.57 was used as a ne aggregate.
2.1.3 Steel reinforcement
#3 and #4 bars of grade 40 steel were used as longitudinal reinforcemnt and #3 bars
were used as ties as well to hold the longitudinal bars.
2.1.4 Steel Jackets
Steel jackets of 1 mm and 1.6 mm thickness were constructed of steel with Fy =40 ksi
as shown in Fig 1. Welding was done only from outside to match actual field condition.
Normal wielding procedure was followed.

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 R.A. Khushnood et al: RETROFITTING OF EXISTING COLUMNS OF BUILDINGS AND BRIDGES USING STEEL
JACKETING

Fig 1 Square and circular steel jackets

2.2 Testing of specimens

The specimens were tested using universal testing machine of 200 tons capacity. After
placing the specimens in the testing machine, vertical alignment was adjusted to eliminate any
eccentricity. All the specimens were tested for axial loads only. The readings were taken at a
loading increment of 3 tons. The load was applied incrementally till the failure occurred.
Cracking load, cracking pattern, stress strain behaviour and ductility characteristics were
invesigated for each specimen during testing.

3. Test Results And Discussions

3.1 Axial compressive strength

The experimental results clearly demonstrate that steel jacketing enhances the
structural performance of RC columns under axial loading as shown in Figs 2-5.

Fig 2 Axial strength comparision of specimen Fig 3 Axial strength comparision of

5C-3 specimen 5S-4

Fig 4 Axial strength comparision of specimen Fig 5 Axial strength comparision of

5S-3 specimen 5S-4

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 R.A. Khushnood et al: RETROFITTING OF EXISTING COLUMNS OF BUILDINGS AND BRIDGES USING STEEL
JACKETING

The reinforced concrete column specimens without retrofitting had a brittle failure and the
ultimate load recorded was close to expected ultimate load. Failure was initiated by spalling
of the concrete cover followed by local buckling of the reinforcing steel and immediately
crushing of concrete core as shown in Figure 6. Retrofitting of reinforced concrete columns
with steel jackets of 1mm and 1.6mm thickness enhances the compressive strength of these
columns more than double and triple the strength of the original column respectively. Failure
of members occurred due to the local buckling of the steel jacket accompanied by yielding of
the jacket in compression and subsequently crushing of the concrete core as shown in Figure
7. In most cases the failure occured along the weld being a weaker link in the steel jacket.

Fig 6 Cracking pattern of retrofitted specimen Fig 7 Cracking pattern of unretrofitted

5C-4S1 specimen 5S-4

3.2 Stress strain behaviour

Stress-strain behaviour of various RCC column specimens, with and without steel
jackets, under axial compression are graphically shown in Figs 8-11. Test results show that
the steel jacketed column specimens display high strain capacity which indicate high ductility.

Fig 8 Stress-strain curve for specimen 5C-3 Fig 9 Stress-strain curve for specimen 5C-4

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 R.A. Khushnood et al: RETROFITTING OF EXISTING COLUMNS OF BUILDINGS AND BRIDGES USING STEEL
JACKETING

Fig 10 Stress-strain curve for specimen 5S-3 Fig 11 Stress-strain curve for specimen 5S-4

Steel jackets just like fiber reinforced polymer resist lateral deformations due to the axial
loading, resulting in a confining stress to the concrete core, delaying rupture of the concrete
and thereby enhancing both the ultimate compressive strength and the ultimate compressive
strain of the concrete.

4. Conclusions
Based on the experimental investigations carried out the following conclusions are made:-
a. Steel jacketing is a cheapest way of retrofitting the existing damaged/weakened columns.
b. Retrofitted columns with steel jackets had better ductility and higher maximum load
carrying capacity.
c. There is a significant increase in the axial strength and peak load strain of retrofitted
column specimen with increase in the thickness of steel jackets.
d. The ultimate strain of the confined concrete increases due to jacketing. Consequently, the
tensile reinforcement steels undergo strain hardening range resulting in increment of the
bending moment carrying capacity and the ductility. Increment in the ductility provides
higher reliability of the confined columns.
e. Percentage increase in axial strength and ductility of circular column specimens retrofitted
with steel jackets is more than that of square columns due to lack of stress concentration
in the corners.

References

[1] K. Sakino1 and Y. Sun2 Steel Jacketing For Improvement Of Column Strength And
Ductility 12th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, 2000, Newzealand.
[2] Nanni and N.M. Bradford, "FRP Jacketed Concrete under Uniaxial Compression"
Construction and Building Materials, vol. 9, pp. 115-124, 1995.
[3] K.C. Tsai and M.L. Lin, "Seismic Jacketing of RC Columns for Enhanced Axial Load
Carrying Capacity" Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, vol. 25, pp. 389-402,
2002.
[4] M. Sivaraja, J. Poornima, Performance Enhancement of Concrete Structures using
Natural Fiber Composites European Journal of Scientific Research, Vol.80 No.3 (2012),
pp.397-405.
[5] Bsisu, K.I. 2002, Retrofitting of square reinforced concrete columns with steel jackets,
Ph.D Thesis, University of Jordan.

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JACKETING

[6] H. Saadatmanesh, et al., "Strength and Ductility of Concrete Columns Externally

Reinforced with Fiber Composite Straps" ACI Structural Journal, vol. 91, pp. 434-447,
1994.
[7] Memon, M. S. and Sheikh, S. A. (2005), Seismic Resistance of Square Concrete
Columns Retrofitted with Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polymer, ACI Structural Journal, Vol.
102, No. 5, 774-783.
[8] Haroun, M. A. and Elsanadedy, H. M. (2005), Fiber-Reinforced Plastic Jackets for
Ductility Enhancement of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Columns with Poor Lap Splice
Detailing, ASCE Journal of Bridge Engineering, Vol. 1, No. 6, 749-757.

1* PhD Student, Politecnico di Torino, Italy. Email: rao_nust@yahoo.com

(Corresponding Author)
2 PhD Student, Politecnico di Torino, Italy. Email: pc277@yahoo.com
3 MS Student, University of Stuttgart, Germany. Email: zulqarnainalisabir@yahoo.com