• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제43권5호
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• pp.623-636
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• 2012

The aim of the current work is to describe the flexural behaviour of simply supported concrete beams with tension reinforcement spliced at mid-span. The parameters included in the study were the type of the concrete, the splice length and the configuration of the hooked splice. Fifteen beams were cast using an ordinary concrete mix and two fiber reinforced concrete mixes incorporating steel and polypropylene fibers. Each concrete mix was used to cast five beams with continuous, spliced and hooked spliced tension steel bars. A test beam was reinforced on the tension side with two 12 mm bars and the splice length was 20 and 40 times the bar diameter. The hooked bars were spliced along 20 times the bar diameter and provided with 45-degree and 90-degree hooks. The test results in terms of cracking and ultimate loads, cracking patterns, ductility, and failure modes are reported. The results demonstrated the consequences due to short splices and the improvement in the structural behaviour due to the use of hooks and the confinement provided by the steel and polypropylene fibers.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• 제13권1호
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• pp.1-10
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• 2022

Concrete is a brittle material and weak in tension. Traditionally, web reinforcement in the form of vertical stirrups is used in reinforced concrete (RC) beams to take care of principal stresses that may cause failure when they are subjected to shear stresses. In recent decades, the potential of various types of fibers for improving post-cracking behavior of RC beams and replacing stirrups completely or partially have been studied. It has been shown that the use of steel fibers randomly dispersed and oriented in concrete has a significant potential for enhancing mechanical properties of RC beams. However, the studies on deep steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) beams are limited when compared to those focusing on slender beams. An experimental program consisting of three RC and nine SFRC deep beams without stirrups were conducted in this study. Besides, various models developed for predicting the ultimate shear strength and diagonal cracking strength of SFRC deep beams without stirrups were applied to experimental data obtained from the literature and this study.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제90권2호
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• pp.107-116
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• 2024

This study examined the changes in the mechanical properties of coral concrete under different coconut fiber admixtures. To accomplish this goal, the compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength and elastic modulus properties of coral concrete blocks reinforced with coconut fibers were measured. The results showed that the addition of coconut fiber had little effect on the cube and axial compressive strengths. With increasing coconut fiber content, the flexural strength and splitting tensile strength of the concrete changed substantially, first by increasing and then by decreasing, with maximum increases of 36.0% and 12.8%, respectively; additionally, the addition of coconut fibers resulted in a failure type with some ductility. When the coconut fiber-reinforced coral concrete was 7 days old, it reached approximately 74% of its maximum strength. The addition of coconut fiber did not affect the early strength of the coral concrete mixed with seawater. When the amount of coconut fiber was no more than 3 kg/m3, the resulting concrete elastic modulus decreased only slightly from that of a similar concrete without coconut fiber, and the maximum decrease was 5.4%. The optimal dose of coconut fiber was 3 kg/m3 in this study.

• Advances in Computational Design
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• 제8권2호
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• pp.113-131
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• 2023

The use of fibers has been commonly considered in engineered cementitious composites, but their behavior with coarse aggregate in concrete has not been studied significantly, which is needed to meet structural performance objectives for design, such as ductility. This research analyzes the behavior of fiber-reinforced concrete with coarse aggregate with 0.62%, 1.23%, and 2% PVA (Polyvinyl-alcohol) content, varying the maximum aggregate size. Tensile (direct and indirect) and compressive concrete tests were performed. The PVA fiber addition in coarse aggregate concrete increased the ductility in compression, especially for the fiber with a larger aspect ratio, with a minor impact on strength. In addition, the tensile tests showed that the PVA fiber increased the tensile strength of concrete with coarse aggregate and, more significantly, improved the ductility. A selected mixture was used to build short and slender reinforced concrete beams to assess the behavior of structural members. PVA fiber addition in short beams changed the failure mode from shear to flexure, increasing the deflection capacity. On the other hand, the slender beam tests revealed negligible impact with the use of PVA.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제14권1호
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• pp.1-18
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• 2014

The addition of steel fibers in concrete mixture is recognized as a non-conventional mass reinforcement scheme that improves the torsional, flexural, and shear behavior of structural members. However, the analysis of fiber reinforced concrete beams under combined torsion, bending, and shear is limited because of the complicated nature of the problem. Therefore, nonlinear 3D finite element analysis was conducted using the "ANSYS CivilFEM" program to investigate the behavior of fiber reinforced concrete L-beams. These beams were tested at different reinforcement schemes and loading conditions. The reinforcement case parameters were set as follows: reinforced with longitudinal reinforcement only and reinforced with steel bars and stirrups. All beams were tested under two different combined loading conditions, namely, torsion-to-shear ratio (T/V) = 545 mm (high eccentricity) and T/V = 145 mm (low eccentricity). Eight intermediate L-beams were constructed and tested in a laboratory under combined torsion, bending, and shear to validate the finite element model. Comparisons with the experimental data reveal that the program can accurately predict the behavior of L-beams under different reinforcement cases and combined loading ratios. The ANSYS model accurately predicted the loads and deformations for various types of reinforcements in L-beams and captured the concrete strains of these beams.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.75-86
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• 2017

An experimental work was carried out to study the effect of hybrid fiber on the tension stiffening and cracking characteristics of geopolymer concrete (GPC). A total of 24 concentrically reinforced concrete specimens were cast and tested under uniaxial tension. The grade of concrete considered was M40. The variables mainly consist of the volume fraction of crimped steel fibers (0.5 and 1.0%) and basalt fibers (0.1, 0.2 and 0.3%). The load deformation response was recorded using LVDT's. At all the stages of loading after the first cracking, crack width and crack spacing were measured. The addition of fibers in hybrid form significantly improved the tension stiffening effect. In this study, the combination of 0.5% steel fiber and 0.2% basalt fiber gave a better comparison than the other combinations.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제8권5호
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• pp.525-539
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• 2011

This paper describes the development of a fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) unit cell for analyzing concrete structures by executing a multiscale analysis procedure using the theory of homogenization. This was achieved through solving a periodic unit cell problem of the material in order to evaluate its macroscopic properties. Our research describes the creation of an FRC unit cell through the use of concrete paste generic information e.g. the percentage of aggregates, their distribution, and the percentage of fibers in the concrete. The algorithm presented manipulates the percentage and distribution of these aggregates along with fiber weight to create a finite element unit cell model of the FRC which can be used in a multiscale analysis of concrete structures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제62권3호
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• pp.373-380
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• 2017

Concrete structures are often subjected to long-term static and short-term dynamic loads. Due to a relatively low tensile strength and energy dissipating characteristics, the impact resistance of concrete is considered poor. This study investigates the feasibility of using polypropylene fibers to improve the impact resistance of reinforced concrete slabs. Fourteen polypropylene fiber reinforced concrete slabs were fabricated and tested using a drop weight test. The effects of slab thickness, fiber volume fractions, and impact energy on the dynamic behaviors were evaluated mainly in terms of impact resistant, crack patterns, and failure modes. The post impact induced strains versus time responses were obtained for all slabs. The results showed that adding the polypropylene fiber at a dosage of 0.90% by volume of concrete leads to significant improvement in the overall structural behavior of the slabs and their resistance to impact loading. Interestingly, the enhancement in the behavior of the slabs using a higher fiber dosage of 1.2% was not as good as achieved with 0.90%.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제16권5호
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• pp.759-774
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• 2015

This study simulates the flexural behavior of ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) beams reinforced with steel and glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) rebars. For this, micromechanics-based modeling was first carried out on the basis of single fiber pullout models considering inclination angle. Two different tension-softening curves (TSCs) with the assumptions of 2-dimensional (2-D) and 3-dimensional (3-D) random fiber orientations were obtained from the micromechanics-based modeling, and linear elastic compressive and tensile models before the occurrence of cracks were obtained from the mechanical tests and rule of mixture. Finite element analysis incorporating smeared crack model was used due to the multiple cracking behaviors of structural UHPFRC beams, and the characteristic length of two times the element width (or two times the average crack spacing at the peak load) was suggested as a result of parametric study. Analytical results showed that the assumption of 2-D random fiber orientation is appropriate to a non-reinforced UHPFRC beam, whereas the assumption of 3-D random fiber orientation is suitable for UHPFRC beams reinforced with steel and GFRP rebars due to disorder of fiber alignment from the internal reinforcements. The micromechanics-based finite element analysis also well predicted the serviceability deflections of UHPFRC beams with GFRP rebars and hybrid reinforcements.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• 제13권 2호
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• pp.133-152
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• 2022

Ecological issues such as natural resource reduction and enormous waste disposals are increasingly leading in developing civilization toward sustainable construction. The two primary environmental issues are the depletion of natural resources and the disposal of trash in open landfills. Waste steel fiber (WSF) was investigated for usage as a cement-based concrete (CBC) constituent in this research. Recycling waste fibers both makes cement composites more long and cost-effective, also aids in pollution reduction. The objective of this study is to analyze the impacts of waste fiber on the fresh and mechanical features of concrete using recycled additives. A comparative research on the durability and mechanical qualities of fiber-reinforced concrete (FRC) constructed with natural aggregates was conducted for this aim. The obstacles to successful WSF recycling methods application in the building industry have been investigated, resulting that CBCs with these fibers make an economic and long lasting choice to deal with waste materials. The workability of fiber enhanced concrete was found to be comparable to that of normal concrete. Fibers have a considerable impact on the splitting tensile strength, flexural and compressive strength of recycled concrete. Fiber may enhance the water permeability. When the WSF content is 0.6 kg/m3, the water absorption is nearly half. Fibers would have no effect on its permeability.