• Advances in concrete construction
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• 제12권6호
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• pp.499-505
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• 2021

Geopolymer binders fascinate the attention of researchers as a replacement to cement binder in conventional concrete. One-ton production of cement releases one ton of carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere. In the replacement of cement by geopolymer material, there are two advantages: one is the reduction of CO₂ in the atmosphere, second is the utilization of Fly ash and Ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) are by-products from coal and steel industries. This paper focuses on the mechanical properties of steel fiber reinforced geopolymer concrete. The framework considered in this research work is geopolymer source (Fly ash, GGBFS and crimped steel fibre) and alkaline activator which consists of NaOH and Na₂SiO₃ of molarity 8M. Here the Na₂SiO₃ / NaOH ratio was taken as 2.5. The variables considered in this experimental work include Binder content (360,420 and 450 kg/m³), the proportion of Fly ash and GGBS (70-30, 60-40 and 50-50) for three different grades of Geopolymer concrete (GPC) GPC 20, GPC 40 and GPC 60. The percentage of crimped steel fibres was varied as 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3%, 0.4% and 0.5%. Generally, the inclusion of steel fibres increases the flexural and split tensile strength of Geopolymer concrete. The optimum dosage of steel fibres was found to be 0.4% (by volume fraction).

• Advances in concrete construction
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• 제8권1호
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• pp.21-31
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• 2019

The rich recipe of ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) offers the higher mechanical, durability and dense microstructure property. The variable like cement/sand ratio, amount of supplementary cementitious material, water/binder ratio, amount of fiber etc. alters the UHPC hardened properties to any extent. Therefore, to understand the effects of these variables on the performance of UHPC, inevitably a stage-wise development is required. In the present experimental study, the effect of sand/cement ratio, the addition of finer material (fly ash and quartz powder) and, hybrid fiber on the fresh, compressive and microstructural property of UHPC is evaluated. The experiment is conducted in three phases; the first phase evaluates the flow value and strength attainment of ingredients, the second phase evaluates the efficiency of finer materials (fly ash and quartz powder) to develop the UHPC and the third phase evaluate the effect of hybrid fiber on the flow value and strength of ultra high performance hybrid fiber reinforced concrete (UHP-HFRC). It has been seen that the addition of fly ash improves the flow value and compressive strength of UHPC as compared to quartz powder. Further, the usage of hybrid fiber in fly ash contained matrix decreases the flow value and improves the strength of the UHP-HFRC matrix. The dense interface between matrix and fiber and, a higher amount of calcium silicate hydrate (CSH) in fly ash contained UHP-HFRC is revealed by SEM and XRD respectively. The dense interface (bond between the fiber and the UHPC matrix) and the higher CSH formation are the reason for the improvement in the compressive strength of fly ash based UHP-HFRC. The differential thermal analysis (DTA/TGA) shows the similar type of mass loss pattern, however, the amount of mass loss differs in fly ash and quartz powder contained UHP-HFRC.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제53권6호
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• pp.1067-1081
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• 2015

This study investigates structural and mechanical behaviors of RC (Reinforced concrete) beams strengthened with tapered CFRP (Carbon fiber reinforced polymer) sheets having various configurations. Toward this goal, experiments are performed on RC beams strengthened with four layers of CFRP sheets and each layer of the CFRP is prepared to have different length. Experimental results show that tapered CFRPs have better strengthening effect than non-tapered CFRP sheets and maximum loads of the beams with tapered CFRPs are governed by the length of first CFRP layer rather than total length of CFRP layers. In addition, analyses are performed using FE (Finite Element) models including cohesive elements to predict debonding behaviors between FRP and concrete elements. The predicted results from the FE models show good agreement with the experimental results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제31권2호
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• pp.159-172
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• 2019

Strengthening of civil infrastructure with advanced composites have recently become one of the most popular methods. The use of Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) strips plates and fabric for strengthening of reinforced concrete structures has well established design guidelines and standards. Research on the application of FRP composites to steel structures compared to concrete structures is limited, especially for shear strengthening applications. Whereas, there is a need for cost-effective system that could be used to strengthen steel high-way bridge girders to cope with losses due to corrosion in addition to continuous demands for increasing traffic loads. In this study, a parametric finite element study is performed to investigate the effect of applying thick CFRP strips diagonally on webs of plate girders on the shear strength of end-web panels. The study focuses on illustrating the effect of several geometric parameters on nominal shear strength. Hence, a formula is developed to determine the enhancement of shear strength gained upon the application of CFRP strips.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제14권3호
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• pp.299-313
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• 2014

Effects of polypropylene (PP) fibers, steel fibers (SF) and hybrid on the properties of highstrength fiber reinforced self-consolidating concrete (HSFR-SCC) under different volume contents are investigated in this study. Comprehensive laboratory tests were conducted in order to evaluate both fresh and hardened properties of HSFR-SCC. Test results indicated that the fiber types and fiber contents greatly influenced concrete workability but it is possible to achieve self consolidating properties while adding the fiber types in concrete mixtures. Compressive strength, dynamic modulus of elasticity, and rigidity of concrete were affected by the addition as well as volume fraction of PP fibers. However, the properties of concrete were improved by the incorporation of SF. Splitting tensile and flexural strengths of concrete became increasingly less influenced by the inclusion of PP fibers and increasingly more influenced by the addition of SF. Besides, the inclusion of PP fibers resulted in the better efficiency in the improvement of toughness than SF. Furthermore, the inclusion of fibers did not have significant effect on the durability of the concrete. Results of electrical resistivity, chloride ion penetration and ultrasonic pulse velocity tests confirmed that HSFR-SCC had enough endurance against deterioration, lower chloride ion penetrability and minimum reinforcement corrosion rate.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제44권5호
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• pp.649-661
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• 2012

An experimental research was conducted to investigate the strength of biaxially loaded short and slender reinforced concrete columns with high strength concrete. In the study, square and L-shaped section reinforced concrete columns were constructed and tested to obtain the load-deformation behaviour and strength of columns. The test results of column specimens were analysed with a theoretical method based on the fiber element technique. The theoretical ultimate strength capacities and the test results of column specimens have been compared and discussed in the paper. Besides this, observed failure mode and experimental and theoretical load-lateral deflection behaviour of the column specimens are presented.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제7권4호
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• pp.303-315
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• 2010

In this paper, we present a new finite Timoshenko beam element with a model for ultimate load computation of reinforced concrete frames. The proposed model combines the descriptions of the diffuse plastic failure in the beam-column followed by the creation of plastic hinges due to the failure or collapse of the concrete and or the re-bars. A modified multi-scale analysis is performed in order to identify the parameters for stress-resultant-based macro model, which is used to described the behavior of the Timoshenko beam element. The micro-scale is described by using the multi-fiber elements with embedded strain discontinuities in mode 1, which would typically be triggered by bending failure mode. A special attention is paid to the influence of the axial force on the bending moment - rotation response, especially for the columns behavior computation.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제19권1호
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• pp.41-49
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• 2017

The use of external carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) wraps is one of the most effective techniques existing for the confinement of the circular concrete columns. Currently, several researches have been made to develop models for predicting the behavior of this type of confinement. The disadvantage of the most models, is to not take into account the contribution of the transverse steel reinforcements (TSR) effect, However, very limited models have been recently developed that considers this combined effect and gives less accurate results. This paper presents the development of a new model for the axial behavior of circular concrete columns confined by combining external CFRP warps-and-internal TSR (hoops or spirals) based on the existing experimental data. The comparison between the proposed model and the experimental results showed good agreement comparing to the several existing models. Moreover, the expressions of estimating the ultimate strength and the corresponding strain are simple and precise, which make it easy to use in the design applications.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제36권1호
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• pp.57-78
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• 2010

A novel flexibility-based 1D element that captures the material nonlinearity and second order P-$\Delta$ effects within a reinforced concrete frame member is developed. The formulation is developed for 2D planar frames in the modified fiber element framework but can readily be extended to 3D cases. The nonlinear behavior of concrete including cracking and crushing is taken into account through a modified hypo-elastic model. A parabolic and a constant shear stress distribution are used at section level to couple the normal and tangential tractions at material level. The lack of objectivity due to softening of concrete is addressed and objectivity of the response at the material level is attained by using a technique derived from the crack band approach. Finally the efficiency and accuracy of the formulation is compared with experimental results and is demonstrated by some numerical examples.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• 제4권4호
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• pp.319-332
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• 2016

In most cases strengthening reinforced concrete columns exposed to high strain rate is to be expected especially within weak designed structures. A special type of loading is instantaneous loading. Rapid loading can be observed in structural columns exposed to axial loads (e.g., caused by the weight of the upper floors during a vertical earthquake and loads caused by damage and collapse of upper floors and pillars of bridges).Subsequently, this study examines the behavior of reinforced concrete columns under rapid loading so as to understand patterns of failure mechanism, failure capacity and strain rate using finite element code. And examines the behavior of reinforced concrete columns at different support conditions and various loading rate, where the concrete columns were reinforced using various counts of FRP (Fiber Reinforcement Polymer) layers with different lengths. The results were compared against other experimental outcomes and the CEB-FIP formula code for considering the dynamic strength increasing factor for concrete materials. This study reveals that the finite element behavior and failure mode, where the results show that the bearing capacity increased with increasing the loading rate. CFRP layers increased the bearing capacity by 20% and also increased the strain capacity by 50% through confining the concrete.