Retrofit of Non-Ductile RC Frames with Precast Concrete (PC) Wall Panels

An economic, structurally effective and practically applicable strengthening method had been developed for reinforced concrete (RC) framed buildings. This study presents the test results on strengthening of deficient RC frames by using high strength precast concrete (PC) panels. The idea of the method is to convert the existing hollow brick infill wall into a load carrying system by bonding PC panels on to the plastered hollow brick infills. For this purpose, six (two reference and four strengthened) one-third scale, one bay, two storey deficient RC frames were tested under reversed-cyclic lateral loads. Test frames were designed and constructed with common deficiencies observed in practice. Panels having two different shapes were used as strengthening agencies. Test results showed that both strength and stiffness of the test frames were significantly improved by the introduction of PC panels. Experimental results were compared with the analytical approaches suggested by the authors.