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Near-surface mounted reinforcement system using fibre reinforced polymer bars has been widely considered as an accepted system for strengthening of reinforced concrete columns, particularly with respect to increasing the flexural resistance. It involves cutting grooves into the concrete cover and bonding laminates inside the grooves with fillers (either epoxy resin or cement mortar) ensuring proper bond between fibre reinforced polymer laminate and concrete to prevent premature failure (debonding of laminate). Near-surface mounting does not require extensive surface preparation and takes minimum installation time than externally bonded fibre reinforced polymer. Unlike conventional fibre reinforced polymer jacketing technology, the efficiency of near-surface mounted bars does not depend on the geometry of the column cross-section as well. Previous experimental studies indicate that strengthening using near-surface mounting increases the lateral strength capacity and energy dissipation capacity of reinforced concrete columns. However, the scope of employing a strengthening system for structural retrofits is constrained by the limitations of the material used for strengthening. The lack of adequate confinement results in reduced ductility and energy dissipation capacity for columns strengthened using near-surface mounted technique, particularly under increased loading eccentricities. Jacketing of columns using fibre reinforced polymer increases confinement; however, the efficiency was observed to be reduced at increased loading eccentricities. Similarly, the flexural capacity and drift capacity under low levels of axial load were not observed to be significantly enhanced by the use of fibre reinforced polymer jacketing. Previous studies have indicated that a combination of these two systems could provide effective behaviour for reinforced concrete columns under eccentric loading. Therefore, this research focuses on utilizing a combination of these two methods in the form of a hybrid fibre reinforced polymer reinforcing system consisting of near-surface mounted bars and fibre reinforced polymer confinement to study the structural response of strengthened reinforced concrete columns under eccentric axial compression.

Indian construction industry, especially in the past few years, is evolving through a phase of transition towards modern innovative construction methods. Constraints in land utilization and challenges in the real estate industry resulted in finding ways for more effective space utilization leading to the change of focus from horizontally distributed to vertically distributed structures including tall buildings. Also, large-scale residential projects are being established involving mass affordable housing schemes. Under these circumstances, prominence is being given to the timely execution of projects and this marked the advent of innovative technologies in India. The use of tunnel form construction and aluminium formwork-based concrete construction systems in projects, especially residential buildings, has paved way for distributed monolithic reinforced concrete walls as the principal structural system. International codes have identified the benefits of using such systems under seismic actions with respect to the structural redundancy and overstrength achieved. These considerations have also been positively utilized by the codal provisions by allowing the design of these systems with less stringent detailing requirements and providing behaviour factors equivalent to ductile systems, or by reducing the seismic demand thus making the design of these systems more economic. Under mass affordable housing schemes, a reduction in the construction cost could achieve significant economic savings. In this context, this paper looks at the advent of new construction practices in India resulting in lightly reinforced monolithic distributed wall systems, the specific advantages of these systems under seismic actions and how international standards adequately take advantage of the structural redundancy and overstrength offered by these systems.

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