An Experimental Study on Torsional Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Columns Retrofitted with Hybrid Concrete Jackets

The concrete jacketing method for retrofitting old reinforced concrete (RC) columns should secure confinement and seismic performance under torsion as well as unidirectional later loads. In a previous study, a hybrid concrete jacketing method was proposed using steel wire mesh (SWM), steel grid reinforcement (SGR), which can replace reinforcement of existing concrete jacketing method, and using steel fiber non-shrinkage mortar (SFNM). These details can simplify the retrofitting process of the existing concrete jacketing method, and seismic performance was evaluated by conducting a cyclic loading test under unidirectional loading. In this paper, the torsional behavior of RC columns retrofitted with the hybrid concrete jacketing method was investigated. Four specimens were fabricated and conducted cyclic loading tests under two types of loading schemes, unidirectional and bidirectional loading, to examine the effect of the loading path. The strength and energy dissipation capacity of retrofitted columns with hybrid concrete jackets increased approximately eight times compared to the old RC columns under torsional loading. Therefore, the hybrid concrete jacketing method can improve torsional resistance.