Seismic Performance of RC Columns Strengthened with Textile-Reinforced Concrete in Chloride Environment

Abstract

To analyze the seismic performance of reinforced concrete columns strengthened with textile-reinforced concrete (TRC) and subjected to a chloride environment, ten TRC-strengthened columns were prepared, and cyclic loading tests were carried out after exposing the columns to chloride dry–wet cycles. The effect of the number of dry–wet cycles, axial compression ratio, shear span ratio, and stirrup spacing was studied. The results showed that chloride dry–wet cycles had little effect on the seismic performance of the TRC-strengthened columns and that a certain number of dry–wet cycles (not more than 180) may be beneficial to seismic performance. With an increase in the axial compression ratio, the stiffness of the strengthened columns degraded rapidly, and the energy dissipation and deformation capacity also decreased. Strengthened columns with higher shear span ratios performed better in terms of ductility and cumulative energy consumption than those with lower shear span ratios. However, TRC effectively improved the deformation capacity of strengthened columns with low shear span ratios. The higher the stirrup ratio was, the better the behavior of the strengthened columns was in terms of ductility, deformability, and energy dissipation capacity. Therefore, the seismic performance of RC columns in a chloride environment can be improved by strengthening with TRC.