Experimental Research on Compressive Behavior of Short Concrete Columns Strengthened with Basalt Textile Reinforced Concrete (BTRC)

In order to investigate the compressive behaviors of the concrete columns strengthened with basalt textile reinforced concrete (BTRC), a total of 6 square column specimens, including 2 un-strengthened columns and 4 BTRC-strengthened columns were prepared for axial compressive tests. The effect of the number of textile layers, concrete strength and short fibers were evaluated. The results indicated that the bearing capability and the displacement ductility of the columns were improved obviously with the increasing of the number of textile layers. The improvement of the bearing capability and the displacement ductility were 46.9% and 88.3% respectively when 4 textile layers were wrapped. Moreover, the improvement of the bearing capability and displacement ductility was affected by core concrete strength. The columns with lower concrete strength obtained a more effective increment. Besides, short fibers played an important role in improving the confinement behavior of the columns. The cracking load could increase up to 19.4% when short fibers were added into the BTRC jacket. In conclusion, BTRC is a very promise composite material to strengthen concrete columns.