A seminar Report

on
SEISMIC RETROFITTING 0F BRIDGE PIERS USING
FIBRE REINFORCED POLYMERS

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
IN
CIVIL ENGINEERING

P.RAJASEKHAR 14121A0181

Under the esteemed guidance of

Dr. O. Eswara Reddy
Professor and BOS Chairman
Department of Civil Engineering

SREE VIDYANIKETHAN ENGINEERING COLLEGE

(AUTONOMOUS)
(Affiliated to JNTUA, Ananthapuramu, Approved by AICTE, New Delhi, Accredited by NBA and NAAC A)
Sree Sainath Nagar, A. Rangampet, Tirupati 517 102, A. P.

2017 18

i
 CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the seminar report entitled

SEISMIC RETROFITTING 0F BRIDGE PIERS USING

FIBRE REINFORCED POLYMERS
is the bonafide work done and submitted by
P.RAJASEKHAR 14121A0181
in the department of Civil Engineering, Sree Vidyanikethan Engineering College,
A.Rangampet, affiliated to Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Anantapur,
Ananthapuramu in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of
Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering during 2017-18.

Guide: HOD:

Dr. O. Eswara Reddy, Dr. M. V. Subba Reddy,

Professor & BOS Chairman, Assistant Professor & Head,
Dept. of Civil Engg., Dept. of Civil Engg.,
SVEC. SVEC.

SREE VIDYANIKETHAN ENGINEERING COLLEGE

(AUTONOMOUS)
(Affiliated to JNTUA, Ananthapuramu, Approved by AICTE, New Delhi, Accredited by NBA and NAAC A)
Sree Sainath Nagar, A. Rangampet, Tirupati 517 102, A. P.

2017 18

ii
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Success is epitome of hard work, cogency for fulfilling the mission, indefatigable perseverance
and most of all encouraging guidance and steering.

I would like to express my profound sense of gratitude to our guide Dr. O. Eswara Reddy,
Professor and BOS Chairman, Department of Civil Engineering for his valuable guidance
and constructive suggestions made at various levels of the work.

I thankful to Dr. M. V. Subba Reddy, Assistant Professor and Head, Department of Civil
Engineering, for his constant encouragement and support.

I express my gratitude to beloved Principal Dr. P.C. KRISHNAMACHARY for his continuous
support and encouragement. Our heartfelt thanks to all our Teachers in the department of CE of
Sree Vidyanikethan Engineering College for their moral support and good wishes.

I would like to express my sincere thanks to all the faculty members for providing me an
opportunity to complete my seminar successfully, which is a part of course curriculum.

Finally, I would thank my parents and my team members for their support without which this
would not have been completed.

P.RAJASEKHAR

iii
 ABSTRACT
This state-of-the-art manuscript addresses seismic retrofit of deficient reinforced concrete
(RC) bridges whose vulnerability has been demonstrated repeatedly in previous seismic events.
A class of high performance materials, Fiber reinforced polymer composites (FRP), with
versatile applications in repair and rehabilitation has been used for this purpose.

Mechanical and durability properties of externally bonded FRPs, their merits over
conventional materials and retrofit techniques, general seismic flaws and failure modes, and the
effects of FRP wraps on the seismic performance of lateral load resisting components of RC
bridges are investigated, and practical solutions which help improve the efficiency of FRPs are
proposed.

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 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
Civil engineering sees advances in major measures in modern times. However, it has become
imperative to retain or restore structures presently believed to pose a suitable threat to habitation
especially in seismically active areas.

It is with this regards the field of retrofitting or post construction strengthening of structural
members came to be. The reasons for retrofitting vary from repair of structures damaged by a
natural disasters or earthquake to the repair of deterioration in historical buildings.

Retrofitting is in itself is broadly divided into global and local retrofitting strategies. Global
strategies are that which aim to stiffen the building by providing additional lateral load resisting
elements so that it has reduced lateral deformation. Local strategies on the other hand deal with
the local strengthening of individual structural members as and when they are found to be
deficient in dealing with expected loadings.

Confinement techniques mainly fall into the category of local retrofitting. Of the many prevalent
confinement techniques, Fibre reinforced composites have found a predominant place in the field
today because of their high strength to weight ratio, relative case of implementation and space
saving characteristics.

This paper deals with the application of fibre reinforced polymer sheets to improve the
performance characteristics of bridge piers against earthquakes.
 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

Advanced composite materials are generally used in the industrial fields like
aerospace, marine and automotive industries due to their excellent engineering
properties such as high strength, high stiffness, high durability, low density, high
fatigue endurance, low thermal coefficient, corrosion resistance, and good
strength-to-weight the civil infrastructure, civil engineers and the construction
industry have realized for many years the use of potential benefits of the
composites as materials for strengthening or retrofitting of the structures.

The use of Fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composites that are externally applied
for strengthening reinforced concrete structures such as beams, slabs, bridge piers
and columns has been done experimentally by many researchers and has been
applied in construction. A bridge pier is one of the essential elements in civil
engineering structures that transmits loads from the upper level to the lower levels
and then to the soil through the foundations. During their service life, bridge piers
can undergo deterioration caused by environmental effects or fatigue of its
constituent materials thus leading to the reduction retrofitting or strengthening can
be taken as an alternative way to maintain the piers. Retrofitting or strengthening
reinforced concrete bridge piers by using FRP composites is preferred than by
using other materials like steel due to its high strength-to-weight ratio and high
corrosion resistance. Several investigations on FRP retrofitted or strengthened
bridge piers have been undertaken for many years.

Core confinement of RC bridge piers provided by transverse reinforcement has

been extensively studied in codes, although some procedures are still under debate.

The strengthening of existing RC bridge piers using steel or FRP jacketing is based
on the well-established fact that the lateral confinement of concrete can
substantially enhance its axial compressive strength and ductility (pauly,1991).
Since the pioneering experimental work, many studies have been conducted on
compressive strength and stress-strain behaviour of FRP. These studies have
shown that FRP-confined concrete behaves differently from steel-confined
concrete, so design recommendations for steel-confined concrete bridge piers
cannot be applied to FRP confined bridge piers.