Nilesh Tharval

Abstract
The present paper highlights some of the important developments in the field of application
of textile materials in earth quake resistance constructions. Cement concrete reinforced
with Steel bars is an extremely popular construction material. One major flaw, namely its
susceptibility to environmental attack, can severely reduce the strength and life of these
structures. External reinforcements using steel plates have been used in earlier attempts to
rehabilitate these structures. The most important problem that limited their wider
application is corrosion: Recent developments in the field of fiber reinforced composites
(FRCs) have resulted in the development of highly efficient construction materials. The
(FRCs) are unaffected by electro-mechanical deterioration and can resist corrosive effects
of acids, alkalis, salts and similar aggregates under a wide range of temperatures. This
novel technique of rehabilitation is very effective and fast for earthquake affected
structures and retrofitting of structures against possible earthquakes. This technique has
been successfully applied in the earthquake-affected Gujarat.
Key Word: earthquake, Fiber reinforced composites, High Tenacity Polyester fiber, Glass
fiber, PVC

Introduction
Although hundreds of thousands of successful reinforced concrete and masonry buildings
are annually constructed worldwide, there are large numbers of concrete and masonry
structures that deteriorate, or become unsafe due to changes in loading, changes in use, or
changes in configuration. Also from the recent earthquake of Gujarat (2001) it is clear that
the old structures designed for gravity loads are not able to withstand seismic forces and
caused wide spread damages. Repair of these structures with like materials is often
difficult, expensive, hazardous and disruptive to the operations of the building. The
removal and transportation of large amounts of concrete and masonry material causes
concentrations of weight, dust, excessive noise, and requires long periods of time to gain
strength before the building can be reopened for service.
On the other hand, Fiber Reinforced Composite (FRC) materials, originally developed for
the aerospace industry, are being considered for application to the repair of buildings due to
their low-weight, ease of handling and rapid implementation. A major development effort
is underway to adapt these materials to the repair of buildings and civil structures.
Appropriate configurations of fiber and polymer matrix are being developed to resist the
complex and multi-directional stress fields present in building structural members. At the
same time, the large volumes of material required for building repair and the low cost of
the traditional building materials create a mandate for economy in the selection of FRP
materials for .building repair. Analytical procedures for reinforced and prestressed concrete
and masonry reinforced with FRC materials need to be developed, validated, and
implemented, through laboratory testing, computational analysis, full-scale prototyping,
and monitoring existing installations. This paper reports recent developments in research,
especially experiments that have been carried out to determine the efficacy of the system.
The authors understood that a good proportion of the audience is looking for a sound
rehabilitation and retrofitting technique for earthquake affected and vulnerable areas.
 Use of Textile in Earthquake Pron Area

Structural Damages Due to Earthquake

Earthquake generates ground motion both in horizontal and vertical directions. Due to the
inertia of the structure the ground motion generates shear forces and bending moments in
the structural framework. In earthquake resistant design it is important ensure ductility in
the structure, i.e. the structure should be able to deform without causing failure. The
bending moments and shear forces are maximum at the joints. Therefore, the joints need to
be ductile to efficiently dissipate the earthquake forces. Most failures in earthquake-
affected structures are observed at the joints. Moreover, due to the existing construction
practice, a construction joint is placed in the column very close to the beam-column joint
(fig. 1a). This leads to shear or bending failure at or very close to the joint. The onset of
high bending moments may cause yielding or buckling of the steel reinforcements. The
high compressive stress in concrete may also cause crushing of concrete. If the concrete
lacks confinement the joint may disintegrate and the concrete may spall (fig. 1 b, c). All
these create a hinge at the joint and if the number of hinges is more than the maximum
allowed maintaining the stability of the structure the entire structure may collapse. If the
shear reinforcement in the beam is insufficient there may be diagonal cracks near the joints
(fig. 1d). This may also lead to failure of the joint. Bond failure is also observed, in case,
lap splices are too close to the joints1. Indian codes suggest methods that attempt to delay
all these failures through a sound reinforcement detailing (IS 13920:1993). However, in
many structures these details have not been followed due to perceived difficulties at site. In
most of the structures in Gujarat lack of confinement and shear cracks have been found to
be most common causes of failure. Rehabilitation and retrofitting strategy must alleviate
these deficiencies from the structures.

(b) (c) (d) (e)

(a)

Fig. 1 (a) Failure at construction joint (b) Crushing of concrete

(c) Spalling of concrete (d) Diagonal shear crack (e) Bending of steel
Composite Materials as Post-Reinforcement
Recent developments in the field of fiber reinforced composites (FRCs) have resulted in the
development of highly efficient construction materials. They have been successfully used
in a variety of industries such as aerospace, automobile and ship building. The FRCs are
unaffected by electro-mechanical deterioration and can resist corrosive effects of acids,
alkalis, salts and similar aggregates under a wide range of temperatures. FRCs thus holds a
very distinct advantage over steel plates as an external reinforcing device. Moreover, FRCs

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 Use of Textile in Earthquake Pron Area

is available in the form of laminas and different thickness and orientation can be given to
different layers to tailor its strength according to specific requirements.
The difficulties encountered in using steel plates as reinforcement lead us to the use of fiber
reinforced composite materials as post-reinforcements. Due to their high specific strength
(strength/weight ratio) the composite reinforcements are very light and easy to handle. The
composite materials are available as unidirectional fibers of a huge length. Therefore, joints
in the reinforcement can be avoided very easily. Moreover, the corrosion of the
reinforcements can be avoided completely. Research work is gaining momentum on the
application of composite materials as post-reinforcement.The potential use of fiber
reinforced composites in civil structures is manifold. The scenario of the application of
composites is shown in Fig.2

FIBER REINFORCED
COMPOSITES
APLLICATIONS
Stand Alone Hybrid FRP-Concrete

Prestressed Nonpretressed

New Repair New Repair

Unbonde Platin
Bonded Wrapping Plating Wrapping
d g

Fig. 2 Application of fiber reinforced composites in structures

FRCs can be used in the concrete structures in the following forms:

 Plates -at a face to improve the tension capacity.
 Bars -as reinforcement in beams and slabs replacing the steel bars.
 Cables -as tendons and post tension members in suspension and bridge girders.
 Wraps -around concrete members to confine concrete and improve the
compressive strength

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 Use of Textile in Earthquake Pron Area

Materials for Strengthening of Structures

Carbon fibre, Kevlar®, Glass these fiber are the widely used in composite used for the
earthquake resistance constructions. Fig. 3 & Table 1 present a comparison of mechanical
behavior of materials that are available for strengthening of structures. It can be seen that
the nonmetallic fibers have strengths that are 10 times more than that of steel. The ultimate
strain of these fibers is also very high. In addition, density of these materials is
approximately one-third that of steel. Due to its corrosion resistance FRCs can be applied
on the surface of the structure without worrying about its deterioration due to
environmental attack. They in turn protect the concrete core from environmental attack.
FRPC sheets, being malleable, can be wrapped around the joints very easily. We shall
discuss the investigations on application FRP on concrete.

σ MP
a

Carbon

2500 Aramid
Polyester
2000

Glass
1500

1000

500 Steel

5 10 15
ε %
Fig. 3 material for strengthening of concrete

Table 1: Properties of commercially representative reinforcement fibers

Density Initial Tenacity Decomposition

Material
g/m3 Modulus (mN/tex) melt (0C)
Aramid standard 1.44 55 2065 550
Carbon HT 1.78 134 1910 3700
Carbon HM 1.83 256 1230 3700
E-Glass 2.58 28 780 825
Steel cord 7.85 20 330 1600

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 Use of Textile in Earthquake Pron Area

FRC Plates as Reinforcement to Concrete Beams

FRC for strengthening of structures can be glued to an old and deteriorated concrete
surface to improve its strength. This method is more convenient and durable than epoxy
bonded steel plates. Meier (1987) has examined the suitability of carbon fiber reinforced
epoxy laminates for rehabilitation of concrete bridges.

The main advantages of carbon fiber composite laminates have been found to be
 no corrosion and therefore,
 no corrosion protection is necessary
 no problem of transportation as it is available in rolls
 higher ultimate strength
 higher Young's modulus
 very good fatigue properties low weight
 endless tapes available, therefore no joints

The main disadvantages are

 Erratic plastic behavior and less ductility -susceptible to local unevenness

 high cost
The first repair work of a concrete bridge using CFC laminates has been carried out at
Ibach Bridge, Lucerne, Switzerland (Meier and Deuring, 1991, Meier 1988). The 228m
long bridge was designed as a continuous beam of span 39m several prestressing tendons
of the bridge were accidentally severed preventing the bridge to operate at its full capacity.
The bridge was repaired with a 2mm thick 150mm wide CFRP laminate. It was found that
the repair work became particularly easy due to the use of composite materials. Owing to
its light weight 175 kg steel could be replaced by only 6.2 kg of CFC. As a result the work
could be carried out from a traveling hydraulic lift and the cost of scaffolding could be
avoided. The composite is held in position by means of a vacuum bag, thereby avoiding
pressers required in case of steel plates. Although CFC was 40 times more expensive than
steel plates, it was estimated that the process saved 20% in cost.

FRC’S as Wrapping on Concrete Elements

The tensile strength of concrete is much less in comparison to its compressive strength As a
result; even the compression members often fail due to the tensile stress that develops in
the perpendicular direction of the compressive load. If such a concrete element is confined
using a wrapping (Fig 4) the failure due to tensile crack can be prevented. The compressive
strength of the wrapped concrete element is several times higher than the unwrapped
concrete element. Although this is known for a long time effective application of
confinement could not be achieved due to a lack of suitable wrapping material. If the
wrapping is torn the capacity of the element reduces dramatically. Therefore, the durability
of the wrapping material is of utmost importance. In addition, the wrapping material
remains exposed to environmental attack. Therefore, steel is unsuitable for this purpose.

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 Use of Textile in Earthquake Pron Area

FRCs due to their non-corrosive nature offers an attractive alternative. Moreover, the light
weight FRC fibers can be very easily wrapped around an old concrete column.
However, typical stress-strain curve of cylindrical specimens wrapped with FRPC of
varying number of layers is presented in figure 5. It may be noted that with one layer of
FRPC wrap the ultimate strength of the specimens increased by a factor of 2.5. The
ultimate strength went on to increase up to 8 times when 8 layers of the wrap were used.
The ultimate strain increased by 6 times with one layer of wrap. This feature is particularly
attractive for earthquake resistant structures. Due to higher ultimate strain the ductility of

Wrapping

Tension crack

Concrete section

Fig.4. FRC wrapping around concrete elements

the structure also increases. It may be noted that the ultimate strain of the specimens is
insensitive to the number of layers of wrap.
Therefore, for earthquake resistance a thin wrap that offers high ultimate strain but low
stiffness is desirable. Glass fibers that have considerably lower stiffness than the carbon
fibers and higher ultimate strain is desirable. The unfavorable creep behavior of glass fiber
poses little adversity in earthquake resistant applications as earthquake forces are seldom
encountered. Moreover, glass fiber is much less expensive than carbon fiber. Therefore,
glass fiber has been used in rehabilitation and retrofitting of structures in Gujarat.

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 Use of Textile in Earthquake Pron Area

Stress in MPa

“t” is thickness of wrap

200

t=3.2 mm

150

t=1.6 mm

100
t=0.8 mm

50 t=0.4 mm

Bare
0
0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05
Axial Strain

Fig. 5: Axial strain circular columns with different. Levels of confinement

Glass Fiber Jackets to Protect Bridge from Earthquake

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 Use of Textile in Earthquake Pron Area

Thousands of bridges columns in California are to be wrapped with jackets containing high
performance glass fiber in order to protect the structure from sever earthquakes. The jacket
are made form industries glass fibers & isotophthalic polyester resin in contrast to the
conventional sheet steel wraps and are designed to reduce the risk of serious seismic
damage. Previous technology consisted of concrete or steel jackets. Although effective,
these techniques are costly, time consuming, and require their own maintenance as well.
Following major earthquake damage to bridges and overpasses in 1989, the California
Department of Transportation identified 1,039 bridges that were in need of seismic
retrofitting to prevent spalling and catastrophic failure during earthquakes4. After the 1994
Northridge earthquake, another 1,325 bridges were added to the list. The need for a more
cost effective and user friendly system was imminent.
Technology
The Snap Tite Composite Column Reinforcement strengthens a concrete column by
confining it in an external composite jacket, which prevents the concrete from expanding
during seismic activity or prolonged freeze-thaw cycles3. The pre-manufactured fiberglass
jacket is comprised of glass fibers and corrosion resistant isopolyester resins. The resin

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 Use of Textile in Earthquake Pron Area

completely encapsulates the reinforcing fiber network, which, for most applications, is
conventional E-glass woven roving and bi-directional fabric. Each Snap Tite component is
a single-seamed, cylindrical jacket that "snaps on" the column. The column is cleaned and
prepared with a high performance urethane adhesive before the first jacket is applied. More
jackets are applied until the desired thickness for the job is achieved. Adhesive is applied
between layers, and the vertical and horizontal jacket seams are symmetrically alternated.
A typical column will require 3 to 4 layers of jackets, with a nominal jacket thickness of
around 1/8 inch thick. Each nested jacket is bound with belt clamps until the adhesive
cures.
Benefits of snap tile
Snap Tite is recognized as one of the most cost effective and user friendly solutions for
rehabilitating or upgrading existing steel reinforced concrete columns or structures. Snap
Tite replaces steel, the conventional material used for column reinforcement, reducing
installation and long-term maintenance costs. For example, Snap Tite, because of its light
weight, can typically be installed in three hours vs. three days for steel, and can be lifted in
place by workers using only a few pieces of light, mobile equipment. Snap Tite won't rust
and never needs to be painted, even when installed in corrosive environments.
The other market challenge to Snap Tite is the epoxy resin composite column wrap.
Although this composite does meet performance requirements, it is much more expensive
to manufacture. The current manufacturer of this resin also uses extensive equipment for
installation, Snap Tite does not. Full-scale tests at two major universities have verified that
columns reinforced with Snap Tite withstand three-to-eight times the deflection of columns
without reinforcements. Preliminary tests indicate that Snap Tite can improve earthquake
capability three times beyond that of a steel jacket. Snap tite jackets work by increasing the
resistance to the phenomenon of spalling which occurs when an earthquake causes the
concrete columns to shatter. This expose the steel reinforcement bars which then bend
outward. The jacket also allow for greater deflection when a bridge column bends, so
reducing the risk shear failure. John stone composite reinforcements then stitches the glass
fiber strand into non crimp fabric to form a continuous – strand mat. Finally CMIInc
embeds the mat in the isophthalic polyester resin to form what are essentially sheet of
reinforced plastic. The material can be molded continuously and custom made to fit snugly
around the bridge columns.

Retrofitting Walls for Seismic Loads using Kevlar Fibers

Existing medical facility buildings, particularly those in the eastern United States,
commonly have inadequate strength and to resist strong earthquake ground shaking. The
retrofit of existing buildings to mitigate seismic loads can be most difficult and expensive.
High strength fibers and elastometric polymer bonded to walls can significantly strengthen
walls against wind, seismic and blast loads4.
Two solutions exist to protect people on the inside of a building. First, the exterior walls
can be strengthened to withstand the blast, wind, seismic forces. Another solution, for non
load bearing walls, is to allow the wall to fail and to catch the debris. The application of
high strength fibers bonded to walls is an excellent solution to strengthening a wall to

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 Use of Textile in Earthquake Pron Area

prevent failure. Fig. 6 shows a test wall with Kevlar matting. Kevlar fibers are encased
in a 0.03 inch thick layer of resin and placed parallel to the direction of the wall span
between supports. Additional vertical Kevlar reinforcement is placed around openings to
make up for the area of mats interrupted by the openings. The high strength fiber can be
placed on one or both sides of the wall; however, load bearing walls must have the fiber
attached to both sides. E-glass or carbon fibers are optional high strength fibers that can be
used in place of Kevlar. High strength fiber can be applied to the inside (i.e., non blast
loaded side), or to both sides of masonry walls. In the case of load bearing walls, high
strength fibers must be attached to both sides of the wall to prevent wall failure during
rebound. Concrete masonry units (CMU) walls strengthened with high strength fibers must
typically be grouted so that the wall capacity is not controlled by the relatively low shear
strength of ungrouted masonry. Ungrouted walls can be grouted by removing face shells at
various locations and pumping grout into the voids of the CMU blocks. The shear capacity
of grouted walls can limit the strength of retrofitted walls against very high blast loads. The
compression strength of the CMU that forms a resisting couple with the high strength fibers
in tension may also limit the flexural strength, since the strength of any high strength fibers
on the compression side of the wall can be limited by buckling within the surrounding resin
mat.
The Mid-America Earthquake Center (MAEC) is conducting an extensive investigation of
FRP applications to the seismic strengthening of unreinforced brick masonry walls. Fig. 7
shows the apparatus for testing unreinforced masonry wall component specimen. MAEC
has confirmed that because of the high tensile strength of FRP materials, a fairly thin sheet
can provide substantial strength and confinement to the masonry. However, MAEC
cautions though lateral strength of the unreinforced masonry wall can be enhanced several
fold using FRP sheets; inelastic deformation capacity may be limited as a result of
debonding of the sheets which occurs suddenly with little ductility. FRP application to both
sides of masonry walls may be necessary in seismic retrofits because of reversed out of
plane bending demands.

Fig. 6 Attachment of Kevlar Mat with Epoxy Figure 7. Testing Unreinforced Masonry Pier Specimens

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 Use of Textile in Earthquake Pron Area

A new Fiber-reinforced concrete may enhance earthquake readiness

Now research on Fibre-reinforced concrete (FRC), which can remarkably enhance the
seismic properties of buildings, has been initiated by the Japanese government & is making
significant progress. In Japan Dr. Fukuyama has developed the ductile concrete to
reinforce& enhance the seismic properties of buildings. Generally, concrete is strong
against compressive force, but weak against tensile force. Because conventional concrete
elements tend to suffer brittle shear failure, in the kobe earthquake it is seen that concrete
cracked heavily or spalled, which eventually collapsed the building itself. The beam
columns connections are critical region for the seismic safety of buildings. The plastic
hinging zones must undergo inelastic deformations when overloaded so, new concrete
material which would exhibit ductile behavior like iron. The newly developed FRC offers
high ductility in flexural & tensile behavior2.

As shown in Fig.8, the concrete plate which is believed to be brittle, shows high flexural
capacity when load is added. The result of this test is shown in fig. 9

Fig. 8 High-flexural deformability of PVA-ECC (over 3% strain)

Fig. 9 Third point flexural test

result.

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 Use of Textile in Earthquake Pron Area

The concrete also has high tensile ductility. When uni-axial load is added (fig.10 a,), a fine
crack develops perpendicular to the load axis (Fig.10 step b)
The reinforcing fibers in the material bridge this crack. If the bridging ability of the
reinforcing fiber- like tensile strength, elastic modulus, & bonding strength with matrix- are
high enough, this first crack doesn’t cause catastrophic rupture of material but the second
fine crack close to the frist crack (c). in this manner, multiple cracks develop close together
on the concrete, perpendicular to the load axis (d,e) and pseudo-strain hardening behavior.
Secrete to the high ductile concrete material is short cut PVA fibers. The concrete realized
unprecedented ductility by way of optimization of matrix, fiber, and fiber/matrix interface
through a micromechanical approach. Controlling the interaction between PVA fibers and
calcium ions in the cement is important to obtaining the optimal frictional bond, which
leads to excellent strain hardening behavior.
According to ACM-MRI in advance fiber-reinforced, cementitious composites & their
applications in building, ECC structural members are expected to exhibits ductile behavior
due to its unique high tensile shear, high strain capacity, and anti spalling ability of the
material. Besides its high ductile, which leads to high tensile strain capacity and high
fracture resistance, the PVA-ECC has shown other major properties that makes it more
suitable for creating earthquake proof buildings than conventional FRC. Traditionally PVA
fiber has been used for FRCs due to its affinity to the cement matrix and its good alkaline

Fig. 10 Typical uni- axial tensile behavior of PVA-ECC

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 Use of Textile in Earthquake Pron Area

resistance. It is hardly damage by an alkaline matrix. It is a very good method, but it is too
costly. Using the PVA-ECC for building walls would cost about one tenth of the steel
frame system and yet have a similar effect against earth quakes. The ECC wall itself
absorbs energy from the earth quake. this is not only reduces the tremble of the, building
but also, because walls wont collapse, the hinging zones of columns and beams will not
have to bear such large loads which will eventually save buildings. PVA offers cost
effectiveness compared to other aramide and carbon fibers. And it has good workability as
well4.

Conclusion
The actual choice of fiber type, composite type, and number of layers of composite tiles for
an earthquake resistance construction particular depends on the collaborative expertise of
textile technologist, engineers and structural engineers. Engineers design the overall
structure and the supporting systems, and work out the required levels of tensile properties
& ductile properties to be achieved in the enveloping composites. Textile fibers and coating
systems to meet these levels and to perform satisfactorily need to be incorporated for use
over many years. The choice also, of course, depends on general economics. The
collaborative efforts of the two types of experts have enabled revolutionary possibilities to
be developed in the earthquake resistance construction, shape, and appearance of major
building structures.

Reference

1. Mukherjee A., “Recent Advances in Repair and Rehabilitation of RCC Structures

with Nonmetallic Fibers”, Indian Concrete Journal, 2002, Vol.76 (8), pp 496-502
2. “Glass fiber jackets to protect bridge from earth quake”, Technical Textile
International, May 1998.
3. M. Reza Esfahani, “Axial Compressive Strength of Reinforced concrete columns
Wrapped with FRP”, 1st Conference on Application of FRP Composites in
Construction & Rehabilitation of Structure, May 2004, Tehran, Iran
4. Tagawa Kikuko, “Positive reinforcement”, Industrial Fabric Product Review, May
2001, pp 20-27.
5. Henrik Stang, Victor C. Li. “Classification of Fiber Reinforced Cementitious
Materials for Structural Applications”, 6thRILEM Symposium on fiber-Reinforced
Concretes (FRC)-BEFIB 2004,Italy, pp197-218
6. B. Kasal et al, “Seismic Performance of Laminated Timber Frames with Fibre-
Reinforced Joints”, Earthquake Engg. Struct. Dyn., 2004, vol. 33, pp633-646
7. Victor C.Li, “Large volume, High Performance Applications of Fibers in Civil
Engineering”, Journal of applied Polymer Science, Vol. 83, pp 660-686.
8. “Glass Reinforced Plastic Bridge Opens”, Technical Textile International, July
/Aug 1997.

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