Strengthening of the concrete face slabs of dams using sprayable strain-hardening fiber-reinforced cementitious composites

Abstract

In this study, sprayable strain-hardening fiber-reinforced cementitious composites (FRCC) were applied to strengthen the concrete slabs in a concrete-face rockfill dam (CFRD) for the first time. Experimental, numerical, and analytical investigations were carried out to understand the flexural properties of FRCC-layered concrete slabs. It was found that the FRCC layer improved the flexural performance of concrete slabs significantly. The cracking and ultimate loads of a concrete slab with an 80 mm FRCC layer were 132% and 69% higher than those of the unstrengthened concrete slab, respectively. At the maximum crack width of 0.2 mm, the deflection of the 80-mm FRCC strengthened concrete slab was 144% higher than that of the unstrengthened concrete slab. In addition, a FE model and a simplified analytical method were developed for the design and analysis of FRCC-layered concrete slabs. Finally, the test result of FRCC leaching solution indicated that the quality of the water surrounding FRCC satisfied the standard for drinking water. The findings of this study indicate that the sprayable strain-hardening FRCC has a good potential for strengthening hydraulic structures such as CFRDs.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

strain-hardening cementitious composites / engineered cementitious composites / sprayable / shotcrete / strengthening / concrete-face rockfill dam / digital image correlation

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Acknowledgements

This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51978607 and 51878601). The authors would like to thank Mr. Xiao-Hua Ji and Dr. Fu-Jiang Mu at Zhejiang University for their support in the experiments.

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