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.

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.

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.

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.

Detecting Damage in Reinforced Concrete Beams Using Vibrational Characteristics

This paper evaluates two methods of diagnosing damage, Natural frequency and Stiffness-Frequency change-Based damage detection method in reinforced concrete beams under load using vibration characteristics such as natural frequency and mode shape. The research uses finite element method with crack damage instead of deleting or reducing the bearing capacity of the element like in previous studies. First, a theory of the damage diagnosis method based on the change of natural frequency and mode shape is presented. Next, the simulation results of reinforced concrete beams using ANSYS will be compared with the experiment. Particularly, the investigated damage cases are cracks in reinforced concrete beams under loads. Finally, we will evaluate the accuracy of the damage diagnosis methods and suggest the location of the vibration data and specify the failure threshold of the methods.

Experimental study on shear behavior of reinforced concrete beams with web horizontal reinforcement

In determining the shear capacity of reinforced concrete beams, current codes do not provide any calculation method to evaluate the influence of web horizontal reinforcement, although they exist as structural reinforcements （or skin reinforcement）. The present paper comprises results of 11 reinforced concrete beams in an effort to investigate the influence of web horizontal reinforcement on the shear behavior of reinforced concrete beams. The primary design variables are the shear-span-depth ratio, different reinforcement ratio of stirrups and web horizontal reinforcement. Influence of web horizontal reinforcement on crack patterns and failure mode was studied. It was found that web horizontal reinforcement can increase the shear capacity of the beams and restrain growth of inclined cracks effectively. Test results are very valuable, as very few references of shear tests can be found focusing on the effect of web horizontal reinforcement on the shear capacity of the beams.

Experimental Shear Study on Reinforced High Strength Concrete Beams Made Using Blended Cement

With the increased application of High Strength Concrete(HSC)in construction and lack of proper guidelines for structural design in India,behavioral study of high strength concrete is an important aspect of research.Research on the behavior of HSC reinforced beams with concrete strength more than 60 MPa has been carried out in the past and is still continuing to understand the structural behavior of HSC beams.Along with the many benefits of the high strength concrete,the more brittle behavior is of concern which leads to sudden failure.This paper presents the behavior of reinforced HSC beams in shear with considering the effects of various factors like shear reinforcement ratio,longitudinal reinforcement ratio,l/d ratio(length to depth ratio),etc.Ten numbers Reinforced Concrete Beams of various sizes using concrete mix with three different w/c ratios(0.46,0.26 and 0.21)were cast for shear strength assessment.The beams were tested in simply supported condition over two fixed steel pedestals with load rate of 0.2 mm/minute in displacement control.Mid-point deflection was measured using LVDT.A comparative analysis of theoretical approaches of Euro code,extension of current IS code up to M90 and the experimental data was done to understand the behavior of beams.Shear capacities of beams without any factors of safety were used to assess the actual capacities and then was compared with the experimental capacity obtained.Results of this study can be used in the design of high strength concrete and will be more reliable in Indian continent as the regional materials and exposure conditions were considered.

Flexural Performance of Reinforced Concrete Beams Strengthened with Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Polymer(CFRP)under Hygrothermal Environment Considering the Influence of CFRP-Concrete Interface

As an important component,the bond behavior of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer(CFRP)-concrete interface for a reinforced concrete(RC)beam is very significant.In this study,a theoretical model was established to analyze the flexural behavior of CFRP-strengthened RC beams,and the CFRP-concrete interfacial bond-slip relationship under hygrothermal environment was unified into one model.Two failure criteria corresponding to two types of failure modes,i.e.,concrete crushing and intermediate crack(IC)-induced debonding,were developed.Through the theoretical model,the flexural behavior of deflection,interfacial shear stress distribution and ultimate load of a CFRP-strengthened RC beam under hygrothermal environment were obtained and predicted.Moreover,the theoretical model was verified by test results.The results showed that the hygrothermal environment had a significant impact on the CFRP-concrete interface behavior.Compared with the control beam without hygrothermal environment pretreatment,the deflection and ultimate load of the strengthened RC beam decreased by 51.9%and 20%,respectively.

Experimental Study on the Static and Fatigue Performance of Corroded RC Beams Strengthened with AFRP Sheets

In order to research the strengthening effects of aramid fiber reinforced polymer （AFRP） sheets on the flexural performance of corroded reinforced concrete （RC） beams, the static and fatigue performance of corroded RC beams strengthened with non-prestressed AFRP sheets under different degrees of corrosion （minor： reinforcement mass loss is 2.0%, medium： reinforcement mass loss is 6.0%） have been researched experimentally in this paper, to compare with that of the control beams （un-strengthened and un-corroded） and un-strengthened corroded beams, and additionally compare with fatigue performance of those medium corroded RC beams strengthened with prestressed AFRP sheets with permanent anchors. The results show that, （1） compared with un-strengthened corroded beams under the same degrees of corrosion, the cracking, yield and ultimate monotonic loads of the minor corroded RC beam strengthened with non-prestressed AFRP sheets is respectively increased by 20%, 27% and 60%, whereas for the medium corroded RC beam strengthened with non-prestressed AFRP sheets increased by 15%, 36% and 83% respectively. The ultimate deflection of the medium corroded beam strengthened with non-prestressed AFRP sheets is 166% larger than that of the corroded un-strengthened beam under the monotonic load. （2） The fatigue life of the non-prestressed AFRP strengthened medium corroded beam is 10.4 times more than that of the un-strengthened corroded beam, but lower than that of the unstrengthened-uncorroded （virgin） beam. （3） Fatigue experiments of the beams strengthened with prestressed AFRP sheets and with those non-prestressed AFRP sheets show that the fatigue life of the retrofit RC beams increase with increasing prestress level of AFRP sheets.（4） The use of AFRP sheets for strengthening corroded RC beams is an efficient technique that can maintain the structural integrity and enhance the structural behavior of such beams.

Investigation of the parameters affecting the behavior of RC beams strengthened with FRP

Three-point bending tests were carried out on nineteen Reinforced Concrete(RC)beams strengthened with FRP in the form of completely wrapping.The strip width to spacing ratios,FRP type,shear span to effective depth ratios,the number of FRP layers in shear,and the effect of stirrups spacing were the parameters investigated in the experimental study.The FRP contribution to strength on beams having the same strip width to spacing ratios could be affected by the shear span to effective depth ratios and stirrups spacing.The FRP contributions to strength were less on beams with stirrups in comparison to the tested beams without stirrups.Strengthening RC beams using FRP could change the failure modes of the beams compared to the reference beam.In addition to the experimental study,a number of equations used to predict the FRP contribution to the shear strength of the strengthened RC beams were assessed by using a limited number of beams available in the literature.The effective FRP strain is predicted by using test results,and this prediction is used to calculate the FRP contribution to shear strength in ACI 440.2R(2017)equation.Based on the statistical values of the data,the proposed equation has the lowest coefficient of variation(COV)value than the other equations.

Experimental study of structural damage identification based on modal parameters and decay ratio of acceleration signals

A novel damage assessment method based on the decay ratio of acceleration signals(DRAS)was proposed.Two experimental tests were used to show the efficiency.Three beams were gradually damaged,and then the changes of dynamic parameters were monitored from initial to failure state.In addition,a new method was compared with the linear modal-based damage assessment using wavelet transform(WT).The results clearly show that DRAS increases in linear elasticity state and microcrack propagation state,while DRAS decreases in macrocrack propagation state.Preliminary analysis was developed considering the beat phenomenon in the nonlinear state to explain the turn point of DRAS.With better sensibility of damage than modal parameters,probably DRAS is a promising damage indicator in damage assessment.

Applying the spectral stochastic finite element method in multiple-random field RC structures

This paper uses the spectral stochastic finite element method(SSFEM)for analyzing reinforced concrete(RC)beam/slab problems.In doing so,it presents a new framework to study how the correlation length of a random field(RF)with uncertain parameters will affect modeling uncertainties and reliability evaluations.It considers:1)different correlation lengths for uncertainty parameters,and 2)dead and live loads as well as the elasticity moduli of concrete and steel as a multi-dimensional RF in concrete structures.To show the SSFEM’s efficiency in the study of concrete structures and to evaluate the sensitivity of the correlation length effects in evaluating the reliability,two examples of RC beams and slabs have been investigated.According to the results,the RF correlation length is effective in modeling uncertainties and evaluating reliabilities;the longer the correlation length,the greater the dispersion range of the structure response and the higher the failure probability.