Reinforced concrete (RC) beams are often vulnerable to damage from mechanical and environmental factors, necessitating effective strengthening techniques. Advanced cementitious composites, such as ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) and engineered cementitious composites (ECC), are promising candidates for strengthening RC beams. These materials can replace steel plates and fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs), which have poor bond strength, corrosion issues, and low fire resistance. The present review focuses on the flexural strengthening of RC beams using externally bonded cementitious composites. The performance of the strengthened beams has been evaluated by researchers based on load-carrying capacity, stiffness, ductility, fatigue life, and failure mode. The reviewed studies showed that RC beams strengthened with UHPC/UHPFRC can enhance the ultimate flexural capacity by up to 202%, and those strengthened with ECC can enhance the ultimate load capacity by about 5–48% depending on the strengthening configuration and hybrid reinforcement used. In fatigue loading, the fatigue life of UHPFRC layers increased by around 2–2.5 times, and the fatigue performance of ECC layers improved up to three orders of magnitude over that of conventional concrete beams. The results of this study indicate the potential of UHPC, UHPFRC, and ECC systems to enhance the durability and service life of RC beams under static and cyclic loading.
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Ghalehnoei et al. (2026) studied this question.
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