Performance Evaluation of Polyurethane Cement Composite as a Retrofit Against Seismic Loading

Polyurethane Cement Composite (PUC) is an emerging material, versatile of all polymers. The stress-strain curve of PUC shows that it is equally strong in tension and compression and is an elastic material. It can be used for retrofitting purposes due to their excellent strength properties, light weight and ease of application. PUC also exhibit great ductility and durability properties due to the formation of dense microstructure. It has the combined properties of polyurethane and Portland cement. There is no need for adhesives as it excellent bonding characteristics. The only practical application was in the strengthening of T-Beam Bridge in Harbin, China (2016). The possibility of PUC as a retrofitting technique has not been explored yet. In this paper the static and dynamic response of the structure retrofitted using PUC, due to seismic loading is analyzed using finite element method. The finite element model is created in ANSYS software. The response of RC frame and RC frame strengthened using PUC composite and CFRP are also compared.