Cyclic Shear Performance of Reinforced Concrete Columns Strengthened by External Steel Rods

This study presents a strengthening method for reinforced concrete (RC) columns. The proposed method, which consists of a pair of steel rods, two reverse-threaded couplers, and four corner blocks, is feasible and straightforward. A quasi-static cyclic loading test was performed on the columns externally strengthened by the steel rods. It was found that the corner blocks and the external steel rods with a low prestress level effectively confined the concrete on the compression side of plastic hinges, which eventually induced flexural failure with a ductility higher than three in the strengthened columns. In addition, an analytical approach to predict the shear strength and ultimate flexural strength of the externally strengthened columns was applied. The comparison of analytical and experimental results showed that the analytical approach provided highly accurate predictions on the maximum strength and the failure mode of the externally strengthened columns. It is expected that the application of the proposed method will improve the seismic performance of damaged or deteriorated RC structures, thereby increasing their lifespan expectancy and sustainability.

Physical Simulation Test on Surrounding Rock Deformation of Roof Rockburst in Continuous Tunneling Roadway

To study the occurrence process, as well as the temporal and spatial evolution laws, of rockburst disasters, the roof deformation of continuous heading roadways during rockburst was studied through a physical similarity simulation test with a high similarity ratio and low strength. The deformation and failure evolution law of the roadway roof in the process of rockburst were analyzed by using detection systems, including a strain acquisition system and a high-power digital micro-imaging system. The results show that the rockburst of the roadway roof can be divided into four stages: equilibrium, debris ejection, stable failure, and complete failure stage. According to the stress state of a I–II composite crack, the theoretical buckling failure strength of the surrounding rock is determined as 1.43 times the tensile strength. The flexural failure strength of a vanadium-bearing shale is 1.29–1.76 times its compressive strength. With continuous advancement in the mining time, the internal expansion energy of the roadway roof-surrounding rock in the equilibrium stage continuously accumulates. The fracture network continuously increases, developing to the stable failure stage, with bending deformation, accompanied by continuous particle ejection until the cumulative stress in the failure stage increases, and the tensile state of the rock surrounding the roof expands radially into deep rock. A microscopic damage study in similar material demonstrated that the deformation of the roadway roof is non-uniform and uncoordinated. In the four stages, the storage deformation of the rock surrounding the roadway roof changes from small accumulation to continuous deformation, to the left (or deep rock). Finally, the roadway roof-surrounding rock becomes completely tensioned. The research results presented in this study provide a reference for the prediction and control of rockburst in practical engineering.

Nonlinear Numerical Assessment of Exterior Beam-Column Connections with Low-Strength Concrete

The ductility and capacity of reinforced concrete beam-column connections depend mainly on the concrete’s strength and the provided reinforcements. This study investigates numerically the role of low-strength concrete in beam-column joints utilizing ABAQUS software. In this simulation, a newly developed stress-inelastic strain relationship for both confined and unconfined low-strength concrete is used. This study recommended a specific value of the concrete dilation angle for both substandard and standard joints. Also, stirrups’ yield strength value was found to play an insignificant role in improving the shear resistance of such joints with low-strength. In addition, the joint shear strength prediction using empirical models that implicitly consider the stirrups contribution in improving joint resistance was found to be better than the prediction of other models that explicitly consider the stirrups’ presence. The numerical results also showed that the use of a diagonal steel haunch as a joint retrofitting technique significantly increases the joint shear capacity and changes its brittle shear failure into a ductile beam flexural failure.

COMBINING EBR CFRP SHEET WITH PRESTRESSED NSM STEEL STRANDS TO ENHANCE THE STRUCTURAL BEHAVIOR OF PRESTRESSED CONCRETE BEAMS

In this study, a combined strengthening technique is used to improve the flexural performance of prestressed concrete beams using CFRP sheets as EBR and prestressed steel strands as NSM. Seven prestressed beams were tested under four-point loading with one control specimen, one EBR CFRP sheet strengthened specimen, one NSM steel strand without prestress strengthened specimen and four specimens strengthened with a combination of EBR CFRP sheet and NSM steel strands prestressed from 0% to 70% of their tensile strength. The flexural responses and failure modes of the specimens were investigated and the variations due to the level of prestressing force in the PNSM steel strands were also assessed. A finite element model (FEM) was developed using ABAQUS to verify the flexural responses of the strengthened specimens. The test results revealed that the combined strengthening technique remarkably enhanced the flexural performance of the specimens. The serviceability, first crack, yield, and ultimate load capacities improved up to 44%, 49%, 55% and 70%, respectively when compared with the control specimen. The combined technique also ensured the flexural failure of the specimens with significant enhancement in stiffness and energy absorption. The results of the FEM model exhibited excellent agreement with the experimental results.

Flexural Capacity of RC Beams with Opening Strengthened using CFRP Sheet

The use of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) in strengthening has found to be an effective material which comprises of characteristic that comply to the requirement of structural component. CFRP was selected as strengthening material because of the capability to resist the corrosion and could regain the loss capacity due to presence of opening. The opening in structural member was essential in order to provide the route for the utility pipe, air conditioning, water supply and electrical conduit. However, the presence of opening has contributed to the reduction of stiffness, increase of deflection and extension of cracking of the beams. Therefore, this research was conducted to overcome the problem where the flexural capacity and the load deflection behavior of RC beam with opening strengthened by using CFRP sheet was analyzed. A total of five beam have been casted and tested. The specimens consist of beams with different type of opening which are rectangular and circular. The size of all specimen was 200 mm width, 250 mm height and 2000 mm for total length. The size of circular opening was 150 mm in diameter while rectangular opening was 150 x 200 mm. Bi-directional CFRP sheet were applied at the opening area as strengthening material and all beams were tested until failure. All of specimen were produced with the designed using 30 mm concrete cover, 6 mm link size and 10mm main bar size. The testing of specimens comprises of cube compressive test and four-point load for beam testing in order the determine the flexural strength of RC beam. The result from this research indicated that strengthened beam with circular opening which is SBOC-BI exhibit the highest ultimate load of 71.5 kN with flexural failure as the mode of failure.

Experimental Investigation of an RC Slab Culvert Rehabilitated with Grouted CSPs

The rehabilitation of an existing culvert with corrugated steel plates (CSPs) has been an emerging technology in recent years, but engineers and researchers are not particularly clear about the working principle of the rehabilitated structure. To investigate the mechanical properties of reinforced concrete (RC) slabs rehabilitated with CSPs, laboratory tests were carried out to explore the calculation method and influencing factors of load-carrying capacity of RC slab culverts rehabilitated with grouted CSPs. The results revealed the following: the flexural failure of the prerehabilitated RC slab has little influence on the test-loading capacity of the rehabilitated system; shear failure will occur in the RC slab and grout, and an arch effect will be formed in the CSP and grout after rehabilitation; the higher the shear strength of the concrete of the RC slab and grout, the greater the test-loading capacity of the rehabilitated system: the RC slab and grout greatly contribute to the test-loading capacity of the rehabilitated system; CSP changes the ductility of the rehabilitated system at the failure stage. It was found that the estimation method for the test-loading capacity of the rehabilitated system based on the shear capacities of the RC slab and grout and the flexural capacity of the CSP is reasonable; the maximum difference between the theoretical and experimental results was less than 30%, and the minimum difference between them was 0%.

Experimental Ductility of Compression-Controlled Flexural Members Using CFRP Grid to Confine Concrete

Concrete members are typically designed so that flexural failure initiates with steel yielding and ends with concrete crushing in compression in order to take advantage of the yielding property of steel that allows for large deformations prior to any fracture of the material. On the other hand, if a large percentage of steel or linear elastic non-yielding reinforcement (i.e., FRP composite) is used, the member flexural failure typically initiates and ends with concrete crushing in compression. These members are known as compression-controlled members and typically exhibit brittle behavior. This study proposes a new approach in improving the flexural behavior of over-reinforced members through concrete confinement using carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) grid tubes in the compression zone. The concept was experimentally tested using rectangular beams. Beam 1 (control beam) had no grid reinforcement and beam 2 (tube beam) had two 152 mm grid tubes embedded in its compression zone. Experimental results indicate improvement in the ductility of the tube beam compared to the control beam of approximately 20–30% depending on the criteria used. Considering the low amount and mechanical properties of the CFRP grid, the improvement is significant, which shows that the proposed approach is valid and improves the ductility of compression-controlled members.

Structural Efficiency of Hollow Reinforced Concrete Beams Subjected to Partial Uniformly Distributed Loading

Reinforced concrete (RC) beams containing a longitudinal cavity have become an innovative development and advantage for economic purposes of light-weight members without largely affecting their resistance against the applied loads. This type of openings can also be used for maintenance purposes and usage space of communication lines, pipelines, etc. RC beams are primarily loaded in the plane of the members, which are two-dimensional in a plane stress state and the dominant structural behaviours include bending, shear, or combination of both. In the present study, six numerical models of RC beams with and without openings were simulated by using commercial finite element software ANSYS to evaluate the structural behaviours of those beam models under the partial uniformly distributed load. Different parameters were assessed, including opening dimensions and shear reinforcement ratios. The obtained numerical results were analysed and verified and were found very close to those obtained from the experimental investigations in the literature. The increase of shear reinforcement ratio could enhance the flexural and shear capacities of the RC beams, and the results also showed that some models sustained flexural failure while the others sustained failure of combined bending and shear.