AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON THE ULTIMATE STRENGTH OF EPOXY-REPAIRED BRACED PARTIAL INFILLED RC FRAMES

Due to earthquake, buildings are damaged partially or completely. Particularly, structures with soft storey are mostly affected. In general, such damaged structures are repaired and reused. In this regard, an experimental investigation was planned and conducted on models of single bay, single storey of partial concrete infilled reinforced concrete (RC) frames up to collapse with corner, central, and diagonal steel bracings. Such collapsed frames were repaired with epoxy resin and retested. The initiative was to identify the behavior, extent of restored ultimate strength, and deflection of epoxy-retrofitted frames in comparison with the braced RC frames. The performance of such frames has been considered only for lateral loads. In comparison with bare RC frames, epoxy-repaired partial infilled frames have significant increase in lateral load capacity. Central bracing is more effective than corner and diagonal bracing. For the same load, epoxy-repaired frames have comparable deflection than similar braced frames.