Flexural Behavior of Fire-Damaged Prefabricated RC Hollow Slabs Strengthened with CFRP versus TRM

In this paper, carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) and textile reinforced mortar (TRM) strengthening techniques were proposed to retrofit and strengthen fire-damaged prefabricated concrete hollow slabs. A total of six slabs, from an actual multi-story masonry building, were tested to investigate the flexural performance of reinforced concrete (RC) hollow slabs strengthened with TRM and CFRP. The investigated parameters included the strengthening method (CFRP versus TRM), the number of CFRP layers, and with or without fire exposure. One unstrengthened slab and one TRM strengthened slab served as the control specimens without fire exposure. The remaining four slabs were first exposed to ISO-834 standard fire for 1 h, and then three of them were strengthened with CFRP or TRM. Through the four-point bending tests at ambient temperature, the failure modes, load and deformation response were recorded and discussed. Both CFRP and TRM strengthening methods can significantly increase the cracking load and peak load of the fire-damaged hollow slabs, as well as the stiffness in the early stage. The prefabricated hollow slabs strengthened by CFRP have better performance in the ultimate bearing capacity, but the ductility reduced with the increase of CFRP layers. Meanwhile, the TRM strengthening technique is a suitable method for the performance improvement of fire-damaged hollow slabs, in terms of not only the load capacity, especially the cracking load, but also the flexural stiffness and deformation capacity.