Strengthening effects of BFRP on reinforced concrete beams

Reinforced concrete （RC） beams externally bonded with basalt fiber reinforced polymer （BFRP） are experimentally investigated by using different numbers of bonding plies, transverse anchorages as well as the initial conditions of strengthened beams. The performances of the BFRP strengthening are compared with those of the carbon fiber reinforced polymer （CFRP） and the glass fiber reinforced polymer （GFRP） under the same experimental condition. Experimental results indicate that the strength and ductility of the strengthened beam with two plies of the BFRP are improved remarkably than those with one ply. The strengthening effects of the BFRP lie between those of the CFRP and the GFRP. The BFRP strengthening is little influenced by pre-cracks of concrete. Most failures are caused by interfaciai debonding induced by flexural cracks in the experiment. Clamping of Uwraps along the whole beam is less efficient than endpoint anchorage for increasing the ultimate load of the strengthened beam. Finally, the models suggested by the five guidelines for predicting the debonding strain of the CFRP are extended to the BFRP and the conservative estimates of the debonding strain of the BFRP are given as well.

Durability of concrete beams reinforced with CFRP sheet under wet-dry cycles and loading

The test results of eight concrete beams reinforced with carbon fiber reinforced polymer （CFRP） sheets subjected to an aggressive environment under a sustained load are presented. The beams are 1 700 mm long with a rectangular cross-section of 120- mm width and 200-mm depth. The beams are precracked with a four-point flexural load, bonded CFRP sheets, and placed into wet-dry saline water（ NaCl） either in an unstressed state or loaded to about 30% or 60% of the initial ultimate load. The individual and coupled effects of wet-dry saline water and sustained bending stresses on the long term behaviour of concrete beams reinforced with the CFRP are investigated. The test results show that the coupled action of wet-dry saline water and sustained bending stresses appears to significantly affect the load capacity and the failure mode of beam strengthened with CFRP, mainly due to the degradation of the bond between CFRP and concrete. However, the stiffness is not affected by the coupled action of wet-dry cycles and a sustained load.

Comparison study on calculation methods of bending behavior of Chinese reinforced concrete beams from 1912 to 1949

In order to study the calculation methods of bending behavior of Chinese reinforced concrete beams from 1912 to 1949, tests on the mechanical performance of 66 rebars from different modem Chinese concrete buildings, the concrete compressive strength of 12 modem Chinese concrete buildings, and the concrete cover thickness of 9 modem Chinese concrete buildings are carried out; and the actual material properties and structural conformations of modem Chinese concrete buildings are obtained. Then, the comparison on calculation methods of bending behavior including the original Chinese calculation method, the present Chinese calculation method, the present American calculation method and the present European calculation method is studied. The results show that the original Chinese calculation method of bending behavior is based on the allowable stress calculation method, and the design safety factors are 3.55 to 4. 0. In term of the calculation area of longitudinal rebars of reinforced concrete beams, without considering earthquake action, the original Chinese structural calculation method is safer than the present Chinese structural calculation method, the present European structural calculation method, and the present American structural calculation method. The results can provide support for the structural safety assessments of modem Chinese reinforced concrete buildings.

Mechanical Characterization of Rhecktophyllum Camerunense (RC) Fiber Reinforced Concrete

This work presents the development and mechanical characterization of a concrete reinforced with plant fiber extracted from Rhecktophyllum Camerunense (RC), a plant found in the regions of Center and South Cameroon. A comparative study between ordinary concrete and concrete reinforced with RC fiber at different percentages (0.1%, 0.2% and 0.3%) was carried out. The mechanical characterization of the material consisted in studying the flexural, compressive and splitting tensile strength by using cylindrical specimens of dimensions 160 × 320 in accordance with standards EN 12390-3 and EN 12390-6. The study of the mechanical properties was completed by the three-point bending test using prismatic test specimens of dimension 40 × 40 × 160 made according to the EN 196 standard. It emerges from this work that the addition of RC fiber improves the mechanical properties of concrete up to 0.2% with a peak at 0.1% of fiber corresponding to respective increases of 9%, 16% and 6% of the values of mechanical resistance to compression, flexion and tension after 28 days. From 0.3% of fiber, the values of the mechanical characteristics of the composite drop to values lower than those of ordinary concrete. The density reduction rate at 28 days is about 10% compared to the mass of ordinary concrete. These results allow us to conclude that the RC fiber could be valorized for the production of lightweight concrete.

MODIFICATON AND RESEARCH ON BENDING RIGIDITY FORMULA OF REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAM

Beam stiffness degrades with its age in service and its service performance is weakened.According to the fundamental characteristics of the reinforced concrete,the influence of stiffness degradation caused by different kinds of damage is obtained.Among them,the crack is the most direct and obvious factor.Furthermore,according to the analysis of bending rigidity formula presented in current standard,an influence parameter of crack development on the stiffness degradation,i.e.,nonuniformity coefficient of tensile steel strain φ,is extracted.Average crack distance and crack depth are taken as crack statistic parameters.Based on analysis and modeling with ANSYS,the modified bending rigidity formula related to crack is obtained.

Mechanical Characterization of Rhecktophyllum Camerunense (RC) Fiber Reinforced Concrete

This work presents the development and mechanical characterization of a concrete reinforced with plant fiber extracted from Rhecktophyllum Camerunense (RC), a plant found in the regions of Center and South Cameroon. A comparative study between ordinary concrete and concrete reinforced with RC fiber at different percentages (0.1%, 0.2% and 0.3%) was carried out. The mechanical characterization of the material consisted in studying the flexural, compressive and splitting tensile strength by using cylindrical specimens of dimensions 160 × 320 in accordance with standards EN 12390-3 and EN 12390-6. The study of the mechanical properties was completed by the three-point bending test using prismatic test specimens of dimension 40 × 40 × 160 made according to the EN 196 standard. It emerges from this work that the addition of RC fiber improves the mechanical properties of concrete up to 0.2% with a peak at 0.1% of fiber corresponding to respective increases of 9%, 16% and 6% of the values of mechanical resistance to compression, flexion and tension after 28 days. From 0.3% of fiber, the values of the mechanical characteristics of the composite drop to values lower than those of ordinary concrete. The density reduction rate at 28 days is about 10% compared to the mass of ordinary concrete. These results allow us to conclude that the RC fiber could be valorized for the production of lightweight concrete.

Flexural behaviors of steel reinforced ECC/concrete composite beams

An engineered cementitious composite （ECC） is introduced to partially substitute concrete in the tension zone of a reinforced concrete beam to form an ECC/reinforced concrete （RC） composite beam, which can increase the ductility and crack resisting ability of the beam. Based on the assumption of the plane remaining plane and the simplified constitutive models of materials, the stress and strain distributions along the depth of the composite beam in different loading stages are comprehensively investigated to obtain calculation methods of the load-carrying capacities for different stages. Also, a simplified formula for the ultimate load carrying capacity is proposed according to the Chinese code for the design of concrete structures. The relationship between the moment and curvature for the composite beam is also proposed together with a simplified calculation method for ductility of the ECC/RC composite beam. Finally, the calculation method is demonstrated with the test results of a composite beam. Comparison results show that the calculation results have good consistency with the test results, proving that the proposed calculation methods are reliable with a certain theoretical significance and reference value.

Behavior of reinforced concrete beams and columns subjected to blast loading

In this study, the blast performance of steel reinforced concrete(RC) beams was experimentally and analytically investigated. The experiment consists of a total of 10 one-half-scale beams subjected to different levels of blast loading using live explosives. The reflected pressure-time histories were recorded and different damage levels and modes were observed. The blast resilience of the damaged beams was quantified by measuring the time-dependent displacements. Experiment results show that the damage in steel reinforced concrete beams with higher explosive mass is enhanced compared with that of the beams with smaller explosive mass at the same scaled distance. Based on the experiment data, an empirical expression is developed via dimensional analysis to correct the relationship between the midspan displacement and scaled distance. Besides, a complex single degree of freedom model(SDOF)incorporating complex features of the material behavior, high strain-rate effect and the column geometry was proposed and validated by test results.

Research on Flexural Behavior of Coral Aggregate Reinforced Concrete Beams

Through the flexural behavior test of coral aggregate reinforced concrete beams(CARCB) and ordinary Portland reinforced concrete beams(OPRCB), and based on the parameters of concrete types, concrete strength grades and reinforcement ratios, the crack development, failure mode, midspan deflection and flexural capacity were studied, the relationships of bending moment-midspan deflection, load-longitudinal tensile reinforcement strain, load-maximum crack width were established, and a calculation model for the flexural capacity of CARCB was suggested. The results showed that with the increase in the reinforcement ratio and concrete strength grade, the crack bending moment(Mcr)and ultimate bending moment(Mu) of CARCB gradually increased. The characteristics of CARCB and OPRCB are basically the same. Furthermore, through increasing the concrete strength grade and reinforcement ratio, Mcr/Mu could be increased to delay the cracking of CARCB. As the load increased, crack width(w) would also increase. At the beginning of the loading, w increased slowly. And then it increased rapidly when the load reached to the ultimate load, which then led to beam failure. Meanwhile, with a comprehensive consideration of the effects of steel corrosion on the loss of steel section and the decrease of steel yield strength, a more reasonable calculation model for the flexural capacity of CARCB was proposed.

Dynamic responses of reinforced concrete beams under double-endinitiated close-in explosion

The reinforced concrete(RC) structural component might suffer a great damage under close-in explosion.Different from distant explosions, blast loads generated by the close-in explosion are non-uniformly distributed on the structural component and may cause both local and structural failure. In this study,an experimental study was conducted to investigate the dynamic responses of RC beams under doubleend-initiated close-in explosions. The experimental results show that the distribution of blast loads generated by the double-end-initiated explosion is much more non-uniform than those generated by single-point detonation, which is caused by the self-Mach-reflection effects. A 3 D finite element model was developed and validated in LS-DYNA by employing the modified K&C model. Intensive numerical calculations were conducted to study the influences of the initiation way, scaled distance and longitudinal reinforcement ratio on the dynamic responses and failure modes of RC beams. Numerical results show that the RC beam suffers greater damage as the cylindrical explosive is detonated at its double ends than the scenario in which the cylindrical explosive is detonated at its central point. RC beams mainly suffer flexural failure and flexure-shear failure under the double-end close-in explosion, and the failure modes of RC beams change from the flexural damage to flexure-shear damage as the scaled distance or the longitudinal reinforcement ratio decreases. The direct shear failure mode is not usually observed in the double-end-initiated explosion, since the intense blast loads is basically concentrated in the midspan of RC beam, which is due to self-Mach-reflection enhancement.

Prediction of Load Carrying Capacity of Corroded Reinforced Concrete Beam

A novel method for prediction of the load carrying capacity of a corroded reinforced concrete beam (CRCB) is presented in the paper. Nine reinforced concrete beams, which had been working in an aggressive environment for more than 10 years, were tested in the laboratory. Comprehensive tests, including flexural test, strength test for corroded concrete and rusty rebar, and pullout test for bond strength between concrete and rebar, were conducted. ne flexural test results of CRCBs reveal that the distribution of surface cracks on the beams shows a fractal behavior. The relationship between the fractal dimensions and mechanical properties of CRCBs is then studied. A prediction model based on artificial neural network (ANN) is established by the use of the fractal dimension as the corrosion index, together with the basic information of the beam. The validity of the prediction model is demonstrated through the experimental data, and satisfactory results are achieved.

Flexural behavior of reinforced concrete beams with high performance fiber reinforced cementitious composites

This article presents an experimental study on the flexural performance of reinforced concrete(RC)beams with fiber reinforced cementitious composites(FRCC)and hybrid fiber reinforced cementitious composites(HFRCC)in the hinge portion.Beam specimens with moderate confinement were used in the study and tested under monotonic loading.Seven diverse types of FRCC including hybrid composites using fibers in different profiles and in different volumes are employed in this study.Companion specimens such as cylindrical specimens and prism specimens are also used to study the physical properties of composites employed.The moment?curvature,stiffness behavior,ductility,crack pattern and modified flexural damage ratio are the main factors considered in this study to observe the efficacy of the employed hybrid composites.The experimental outputs demonstrate the improved post yield behavior with less rate of stiffness degradation and better damage tolerance capacity than conventional technique.

Strain coordination of quasi-plane-hypothesis for reinforced concrete beam strengthened by epoxy-bonded glass fiber reinforced plastic plate

The testing of thirteen reinforeed concrete （RC） beams strengthened by epoxy-bonded glass fiber reinforced plastic plate （GFRP） shows that the RC beam and the GFRP plate with epoxy bonding on it can work fairly well in coordination to eaeh other. But there is relative slipping between RC beam and GFRP plate. And the strain of GFRP and steel rebar of RC beam satisfies the quasi-plane-hypothesis, that is, the strain of longitudinal fiher that parallels to the neutral axis of plated beam within the scope of effective height （ h0 ） of the cross section is in direct proportion to the distance from the fiber to the neutral axis. The strain of GFRP and steel rebar satisfies the equation： εGFRP=Kεsteel.

Experimental research on refractory performance of reinforced concrete beams strengthened with CFRP sheets bonded with an inorganic adhesive

To meet the requirement of fire endurance for concrete structures strengthened with CFRP sheets, this study develops an inorganic adhesive whose strength at 600 ℃ is not lower than that at normal room temperature. The inorganic adhesive is then used to bond CFRP sheets on reinforced concrete beams in order to strengthen them. The fire protection of the CFRP sheets is done using the thick-type fireproofing coatings for tunnel ( TFCT) and steel structure ( TFCSS) respectively. Four specimens are tested in the furnace together. Specimens are exposed to fire for 1. 5 h in according to the ISO834 standard fire curve,and then naturally cooled for 1 h. In the tests,the largest displacements at the mid-span positions of specimens are only from 1 /1400 to 1 /318 of actual span corresponding to the highest temperatures from 300 ℃ to 470 ℃. After the specimens are naturally cooled to the normal temperature and the fireproofing coatings are then removed,it can be seen that the CFRP sheets keep in a good state,which indicates that CFRP sheets can be tightly bonded on the concrete and work well together with the concrete beams during and after fire. Besides,the tests also verify that the fire performance of TFCT is superior to TFCSS for the strengthened beams.

Crack elongation and its width of large depth reinforced concrete beams

In order to meet the requirement of structural inspection,the crack spacing and crack width at various heights in the tensile zone of six large depth reinforced concrete beams were measured under several loading levels of serviceability state.The effects of the depth of normal section beams on the crack spacing and crack width were analyzed,and the modified model is proposed for calculating the average crack spacing by thinking about the depth of normal section,the reinforcement arrangement and the effective reinforcement ratio.The relationships of crack widths at any position in the tensile zone and at the reinforcement level on the side surface of beam were studied.By theoretical and statistical analysis,a method is proposed to calculate the ratios of crack widths between any position and the reinforcement level on the side surface of large depth reinforced concrete beams.

Stress redistribution of simply supported reinforced concrete beams under fire conditions

This study presents experimental and numerical investigations of simply supported steel reinforced concrete(RC)beams under fire.The temperature field of cross sections,the vertical deflection at mid-span,and specifically the axial expansion displacement at beam-ends were measured during the fire tests.A novel finite element(FE)model of a RC beam under fire was developed,in which the water loss in the heat transfer analysis and the concrete transient strain in the mechanical analysis were considered.Based on the validated FE model proposed in this study,parametric studies were conducted to investigate the effects of the beam type,the protective layer thickness,and the load ratio on the thermal and mechanical behavior of simply supported RC beams.It was found that greater fire resistance and fire performance of girder beams in comparison to secondary beams contributed to the non-structural reinforcements,which effectively compensated for the reduced tensile capacities of structural reinforcements because of the degradation of the material properties.In addition,the history of normal stress distributions of concrete under fire can be divided into three phases:expansion,stress redistribution and plateau phases.

Comparison on construction of strut-and-tie models for reinforced concrete deep beams

With consideration of the differences between concrete and steel,three solutions using genetic evolutionary structural optimization algorithm were presented to automatically develop optimal strut-and-tie model for deep beams.In the finite element analysis of the first method,the concrete and steel rebar are modeled by a plane element and a bar element,respectively.In the second method,the concrete and steel are assigned to two different plane elements,whereas in the third method only one kind of plane element is used with no consideration of the differences of the two materials.A simply supported beam under two point loads was presented as an example to verify the validity of the three proposed methods.The results indicates that all the three methods can generate optimal strut-and-tie models and the third algorithm has powerful capability in searching more optimal results with less computational effort.The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm III has also been demonstrated by other two examples.

Performance of Epoxy-Repaired Corroded Reinforced Concrete Beams

Reinforcement corrosion has a serious impact on the durability and safety of reinforced concrete structures.Six reinforced concrete(RC)beam specimens are constructed.After beam specimens are subjected to accelerated corrosion with the constant current,beam specimens are repaired with epoxy mortar and the flexural test of beams is investigated.Then the behaviors of repaired corroded reinforced concrete beams are evaluated.The experimental results show that cracking and ultimate loads of corroded RC beams are enhanced after being repaired.And the strain distributions measured across sections of beam specimens still obey the assumption of plane section.After being repaired,the number of cracks decreases and the crack spacing increases.

Structural Behavior of Continuous Prestressed Steel Fiber Reinforced High Strength Concrete Beam

The flexural behaviors of continuous fully and partially prestressed steel fiber reinforced high strength concrete beams are studied by experiment and nonlinear finite element analysis. Three levels of partial prestress ratio （PPR） are considered, and three pairs of two-span continuous beams with box sections varying in size are designed. The major parameters involved in the study include the PPR and the fiber location. It is concluded that the prestressed high strength concrete beam exhibits satisfactory ductility; the influences of steel fiber on the crack behaviors for partially prestressed beams are not as obvious as those for fully prestressed ones; steel fibers can improve the structural stiffness after cracking for fully prestressed high strength concrete beams; the moment redistribution from mid-span to intermediate support in the first stage should be mainly considered in practical design.

Long term behavior of self-compacting reinforced concrete beams

Tests were carried out on 8 self-compacting reinforced concrete(SCC) beams and 4 normal reinforced concrete beams. The effects of mode of consolidation,load level,reinforcing ratio and structural type on long term behavior of SCC were investigated. Under the same environmental conditions,the shrinkage-time curve of self-compacting concrete beam is very similar to that of normal concrete beam. For both self-compacting reinforced concrete beams and normal reinforced concrete beams,the rate of shrinkage at early stages is higher,the shrinkage strain at 2 months is about 60% of the maximum value at one year. The shrinkage strain of self-compacting reinforced concrete beam after one year is about 450×10-6. Creep deflection of self-compacting reinforced concrete beam decreases as the tensile reinforcing ratio increases. The deflection creep coefficient of self-compacting reinforced concrete beam after one and a half year is about 1.6,which is very close to that of normal reinforced concrete beams cast with vibration. Extra cautions considering shrinkage and creep behavior are not needed for the use of SCC in engineering practices.