Reinforced concrete construction is very common recently and extensively used both in industrial and commercial buildings. With the gradual rise in occurrences of fire accidents in recent years, a more thorough and quantitative understanding of the damage phenomenon in concrete structures is required. However, the mechanical behavior of concrete could actually be more complex under high temperature conditions than at room temperature. Restoration and reinforcement of the structures exposed to fire may have to be based on residual strength analysis and therefore require a correlation between temperature and mechanical properties. Thus, in order to meet the modern challenges of rapid engineering advances and societal development, further research on the concrete material and its structural behavior at high temperatures becomes extremely important.
The present paper deals with investigations on the effect of high temperature exposure on the compressive strength of natural aggregate concrete. Experiments were conducted to study the compressive strength variations with increasing temperatures, up to 700 °C, and the subsequent cooling modes such as natural and spray cooling. Results show that the compressive strength gradually decreases with increasing temperatures. And micro-structural observations of the concrete specimens by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were obtained. These test methods and results can be used for analyzing and investigating the behavior of recycled aggregate concrete with increasing temperatures.
Mechanical Behavior of Recycled Aggregate Concrete-Filled Steel Tubular Columns before and after Fire
