UC San Diego

With each seismic event, various degrees of damage are imparted to the quake area's superstructures. Concrete columns of these superstructures are often damaged or susceptible to collapse. Those columns exhibiting damage but still functioning under everyday use are structurally assessed. This evaluation considers the degree of remaining capacity the structure still maintains to carry future earthquake loading. Replacement or retrofitting the existing structure is the most common result once these evaluations have been undertaken. The following research consists of the application and testing of a new composite jacketing system proposed for use in this necessary retrofitting of damaged superstructures. The Highway Innovative Technology Evaluation Center (HITEC) of the Civil Engineering Research Foundation (CERF) has instrumented a process in which composite jackets may be tested to determine their effectiveness as a retrofit option. Using these HITEC evaluation guidelines for "FPR Composite Wrap Durability Evaluation", testing was conducted to assess the response of a novel, fabric- expansive foam sandwich panel jacket. This involved the construction and testing of 6 concrete columns and a structural response model to evaluate the material and its behavior. The new system performed well on square shear, circular and square continuously reinforced flexure and the circular lap spliced reinforced flexure columns, but failed due to inadequate ductility increase on the square lap spliced column and unexpected failure mechanism in the circular shear column