Investigating the flexural performance of reinforced concrete beams using eco-friendly geotextile and wire mesh reinforcements

This paper presents an experimental investigation on the flexural performance of reinforced concrete (RC) beams strengthened with eco-friendly materials, specifically steel wire mesh and geotextiles, in conjunction with carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Two strengthening techniques were investigated: (1) internal strengthening by embedding geotextile or steel wire mesh along the longitudinal reinforcement; (2) external strengthening by U-wrapping geotextile or steel wire mesh on the beam surface. Additionally, CNTs were incorporated into the concrete matrix as a third strengthening mechanism. Seven small-scale RC beams (600 × 150 × 150 mm) were tested under one-point bending. The findings demonstrate that all strengthened RC beams exhibited enhanced load-carrying capacity (up to 45% increase), ductility (up to 184% increase), and total energy absorption compared to un-strengthened specimens. Internal wire mesh (WF1) achieved the highest ultimate load (56.2 kN). External geotextile (PGF2) exhibited exceptional deformation capacity (32.7 mm deflection, 1376.9 kN·mm toughness). CNT-modified concrete demonstrated pseudo-ductile behavior with distributed micro-cracking and 666.3 kN·mm total toughness.