Fatigue Performance of Partially Prestressed RC Beams with HRBF500 Bars
500 MPa level hot-rolled ribbed bars of fine grains (HRBF500) is a successfully developed new-type steel in Chain. The fatigue behavior of partially prestressed reinforced concrete (RC) beams with HRBF500 bars was investigated in fatigue tests of pre-tensioned T-beams. The beams are simply supported with the same overall dimensions, and the main parameter in the study is prestress degree and longitudinal steel ratio. Four beams were constructed and tested under constant-amplitude fatigue loading. All beams are initially cracked before the application of repeated loading. The stress evolution of HRBF500 bars and prestressed strands, the information about crack growth and the deflection developments of test beams were presented. The main factors that affect the fatigue properties of prestressed concrete test beams were fully discussed. Test results indicate that, the prestressed concrete beams reinforced with appropriate amount of HRBF500 bars and reasonable prestressing configurations can survive 2.5 millions cycles of constant-amplitude fatigue loading using an upper-bound fatigue load producing tensile stress of less than 150 MPa in HRBF500 bars. The results provide important guidance for the fatigue design of prestressed concrete beams with HRBF500 bars.