Analytical method on RC member strengthened by strain hardening cementitious composite in flexural failure.

Based on result of uniaxial tensile test for strain hardening cementitious composites, a tri-linear curve model considering fracture energy was proposed to evaluate the uniaxial tensile property of this material. A type of zero-span tensile model with a pair of fictitious was also proposed to reflect the crack propagation behavior of multiple fine cracks in strain hardening cementitious composites layer, used as a repair material for RC substrate member with existing crack. Moreover, the average tensile stress-strain curve of numerical element for strain hardening cementitious composites strengthening layer was obtained, considering the influence of multiple fine cracks (placed in one numerical element of strain hardening cementitious composites layer) limited in a ranged area adjacent to localized crack (in RC substrate member), and then the effect of RC member strengthened by strain hardening cementitious composites in flexural failure was evaluated numerically using the obtained average tensile stress-strain curve, which was considered as the uniaxial tensile property for strain hardening cementitious composites while strengthening RC member. This method avoided the dependency of numerical result on element size, and strain hardening cementitious composite flexural strengthening RC member could be analyzed with large mesh size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]