Experimental study on flexural behavior of stone slabs strengthened with ferrocement mortar

Stone slabs have been widely used as floor slabs and stairs in stone masonry buildings in southeast of China.It is significant to study the strengthening technology for stone slab to enhance its deformation ductility and avoid sudden rupture.Five full-scale stone slabs strengthened with ferrocement mortar and one unreinforced stone slab were tested under monotonic loading to investigate the effects of mortar type,reinforcement type and reinforcement ratio on the flexural behavior of specimens.Test results indicate that the failure mode of strengthened specimens is similar to the ductile flexural failure of RC beam while the unreinforced stone slab showed brittle failure in rupture.The flexural strength and deformation capacity of strengthened specimens are largely enhanced,and the flexural strength is increased along with the increase of reinforcement ratio.Test results show good interface bond behavior between stone slabs and reinforcement layer.No debonding failure is observed.Based on the test results and the plane section assumption,an analytical model is proposed to calculate the cracking moment and ultimate moment capacity of strengthened stone slabs.The proposed model shows excellent agreement with the experimental results,and can be referenced for engineering application.