Existing reinforced concrete buildings with seismically deficient details have premature failure under earthquake loads. The fiber-reinforced polymer column jacket enhances the lateral resisting capacities with additional confining pressures. This paper aims to quantify the retrofit effect varying the confinement and stiffness-related parameters under three earthquake scenarios and establish the retrofit strategy. The retrofit effects were estimated by comparing energy demands between non-retrofitted and retrofitted conditions. The retrofit design parameters are determined considering seismic hazard levels to maximize the retrofit effects. The critical parameters of the retrofit system were determined by the confinement-related parameters at moderate and high seismic levels and the stiffness-related parameters at low seismic levels.

This study develops finite element models for seismically-deficient reinforced concrete building frame retrofitted using fiber-reinforced polymer jacketing system and validates the finite element models with full-scale dynamic test for as-built and retrofitted conditions. The bond-slip effects measured from a past experimental study were modeled using one-dimensional slide line model, and the bond-slip models were implemented to the finite element models. The finite element model can predict story displacement and inter-story drift ratio with slight simulation variation compared to the measured responses from the full-scale dynamic tests.

This research presents effectiveness of fiber-reinforced polymer column jacketing system for a non-ductile reinforced concrete building frame constructed before the 1970s. To investigate the retrofit effects, a series of full-scale dynamic tests for the retrofitted test frame was conducted, and the dynamic responses were compared to those of the non-retrofitted test frame. The effectiveness of the retrofit system was investigated in terms of response reductions, damage mechanisms and drift concentration factors.