Biaxial testing of repaired concrete

The repair of existing highways and bridges as they approach the end of their design life has become of paramount importance, especially with the decline of the economy. Little is known about the testing and selection of proper brittle repair material and specifications for these materials have become increasingly needed. The strength of the repaired system, especially in biaxial tension-compression stress states, plays a major role in these specifications. In this work, a special biaxial testing setup is designed and used along with some simplified test techniques to study the behavior of repaired concrete. Patched and nonpatched specimens are investigated under biaxial tension-compression states of stress. Different patch configurations, transition and rectangular, along with different patch depths are considered. It is concluded that higher strength is achieved using specimens of transition patch shapes than in the rectangular ones. In both cases, it is noticed that the strength of the patched concrete specimens deceases as the patch depth increases.