Flexural behavior of composite reinforced concrete elements


Altun F., Haktanir T.

JOURNAL OF MATERIALS IN CIVIL ENGINEERING, cilt.13, sa.4, ss.255-259, 2001 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

Özet

Although structural light-weight concrete has enjoyed frequent application in Europe and the United States since the 1950s, it has not been used at all in Turkey despite abundant and economical sources of natural light-weight aggregates. The reason for this reluctance is lack of confidence and technical ignorance. In order to allay, to some extent, the fear in the construction sector of using pumice as a concrete aggregate, composite reinforced concrete (CRC) is suggested. The CRC element consists of two layers, the lower being cast as normal-weight concrete (NWC) and the upper as a layer of light-weight concrete (LWC), both of which are placed in the fresh phase, the LWC overlying the NWC. Hence, bond strength will be close to that in normal reinforced concrete elements, which is important for Turkey, where usage of plain steel reinforcement bars is still common. The depth of the LWC layer will be,greater than that of the NWC layer. Because of the widespread practice of ready-mixed concrete suppliers, it is practicable for some mixers to carry LWC while others handle NWC. In this study, theoretical ultimate strength analysis of such a CRC element is done and its mechanical behavior is experimentally investigated by subjecting many prototype CRC elements to bending in a conventional four-point loading-frame setup. It is observed that the CRC elements behave similar to normal reinforced concrete elements with the advantage of reduction in dead weight.
ABSTRACT: Although structural light-weight concrete has enjoyed frequent applications in Europe and USA since 1950's, it has not been used at all in Turkey despite abundant and economical sources of natural light-weight aggregates. The reason for this reluctance is lack of confidence and technical ignorance. In order to allay, to some extent, the fear in the construction sector of using pumice as a concrete aggregate, composite reinforced concrete (CRC) is suggested. The CRC element consists of two layers, the lower one being cast as normal-weight concrete (NWC) and the upper one as a layer of light-weight concrete (LWC), both of which are placed in the fresh phase, the LWC overlying the NWC. Hence, bond strength will be close to that in normal RC elements, which is important for Turkey where usage of plain steel reinforcement bars is still common. Depth of the LWC layer will be greater than that of the NWC layer. Because of widespread practice of ready-mixed concrete suppliers, it is practicable for some mixers to carry LWC while some others handle NWC. In this study, theoretical ultimate strength analysis of such a CRC element is done and its mechanical behavior is experimentally investigated by subjecting many prototype CRC elements to bending in a conventional four-point loading-frame setup. It is observed that the CRC elements behave similar to normal RC elements with the advantage of reduction in dead weight.