This paper summarizes an experimental investigation into the behaviour of high strength sand – lightweight concrete columns confined with rectangular ties. Fifteen reinforced and three unreinforced specimens were tested under monotonically increasing axial compression. Variables considered in this study were the longitudinal steel distribution and tie configuration, the tie steel spacing, the amount of tie steel, and the amount of longitudinal steel.The results indicated that unconfined high-strength lightweight aggregate concrete is a brittle material. The addition of lateral confining steel significantly improved the behaviour of this material, with a large amount of lateral steel resulting in very ductile behaviour. The tie configuration and resulting distribution of longitudinal steel contributed significantly to the confinement of concrete, with well-distributed steel resulting in improved behaviour. The ratio of specimen to cylinder concrete strength was observed to be 0.98, which is much higher than the commonly assumed value of 0.85.The test results were compared with results from selected theoretical confinement models. Based on the results of this investigation, existing models for concrete confinement give unconservative results for high-strength lightweight aggregate concrete and overestimate the ductility that can be achieved with this material. Key words: columns, confinement, ductility, high-strength concretes, lightweight aggregate concretes, reinforcement, stress–strain relationships, tests, ties, toughness.
Experimental Study of High-Strength Steel Fiber Lightweight Aggregate Concrete on Mechanical Properties and Toughness Index
