Near Surface Mounted (NSM) is a technique performed for the installation of strengthening material into grooves cut into the concrete cover of reinforced concrete (RC) beams bonded using a bonding agent. This technique is becoming more widely recognized because of its efficiency, effectiveness, and ease of application. We investigated flexural strengthening of RC beams with the NSM technique using bamboo reinforcements, through both experimental tests and a finite element analysis (FEA). The experimental tests were carried out on three RC beams, one consisting of a control beam, and the other two strengthened by the NSM technique with two steel reinforcements, and four bamboo reinforcements. From the experimental tests, we found that the flexural strength of the beam with NSM bamboo reinforcements was increased by 41.7% and the deflection ductility index was reduced by 21.55%. The mode of failure observed in all the strengthened beams was a flexural failure. Finally, the result of FEA behaved similarly to the results of the experimental test.
Flexural strengthening of RC beams by using a near surface mounted T-section profiles