Published Paper Details:

Many reinforced concrete structures are deficient in stiffness, ductility, and strength capacity compared to current standards. When a powerful event, such as an earthquake, occurs, un-strengthened and inadequate concrete members may fail and produce catastrophic results. In order to counteract this problem, many different retrofit and repair methods have been studied, implemented and have produced a variety of results. This research is focused on comparing local retrofit and repair methods for reinforced concrete columns in order to analyze the efficacy of these methods. The primary methods compared are reinforced concrete jacketing, steel jacketing and FRP jacketing. A variety of constraints are compared across the methods including the loading capacity, connection methods, deformation, shear stress and shear strain in the member. Each retrofit method functions differently under each constraint, and the benefits and downsides of each were discussed and compared.