The performance of composite prestressed concrete beam topped with reinforced concrete flange structures in fire depends upon several factors, including the change in properties of the two different materials due to fire exposure and temperature distribution within the composition of the composite members of the structure. The present experimental work included casting of 12 identical simply supported prestressed concrete beams grouped into 3 categories, depending on the strength of the top reinforced concrete deck slab (20, 30, and 40 MPa). They were connected together by using shear connector reinforcements. To simulate the real practical fire disasters, 3 composite prestressed concrete beams from each group were exposed to high temperature flame of 300, 500, and 700°C, and the remaining beams were left without burning as reference specimens. Then, the burned beams were cooled gradually by leaving them at an ambient lab condition, after which the specimens were loaded until failure to study the effect of temperature on the residual beams serviceability, to determine the ultimate load-carrying capacity of each specimen in comparison with unburned reference beam, and to find the limit of the temperature for a full composite section to remain composite. It was found that the exposure to fire temperature increased the camber of composite beam at all periods of the burning and cooling cycle as well as the residual camber, along with reduction in beam stiffness and the modulus of elasticity of concrete in addition to decrease in the load-carrying capacity.
Non-biodegradability of rubber tires contributes to pollution and fire hazards in the natural environment. In this study, the flexural behavior of the Rubberized Reactive Powder Concrete (RRPC) beams that contained various proportions and sizes of scrap tire rubber was investigated and compared to the flexural behavior of the regular RPC. Fresh properties, hardened properties, load-deflection relation, first crack load, ultimate load, and crack width are studied and analyzed. Mixes were made using micro steel fiber of the straight type, and they had an aspect ratio of 65. Thirteen beams were tested under two loading points (Repeated loading) with small-scale beams (1100 mm, 150 mm, 100 mm) size.
The fine aggregate
... Show MoreFour simply supported reinforced concrete (RC) beams were test experimentaly and analyzed using the extended finite element method (XFEM). This method is used to treat the discontinuities resulting from the fracture process and crack propagation in that occur in concrete. The Meso-Scale Approach (MSA) used to model concrete as a heterogenous material consists of a three-phasic material (coarse aggregate, mortar, and air voids in the cement paste). The coarse aggregate that was used in the casting of these beams rounded and crashed aggregate shape with maximum size of 20 mm. The compressive strength used in these beams is equal to 17 MPa and 34 MPa, respectively. These RC beams are designed to fail due to flexure when subjected to lo
... Show MoreThis paper focuses on Load distribution factors for horizontally curved composite concrete-steel girder bridges. The finite-element analysis software“SAP2000” is used to examine the key parameters that can influence the distribution factors for horizontally curved composite steel
girders. A parametric study is conducted to study the load distribution characteristics of such bridge system due to dead loading and AASHTO truck loading using finite elements method. The key parameters considered in this study are: span-to-radius of curvature ratio, span length, number of girders, girders spacing, number of lanes, and truck loading conditions. The results have shown that the curvature is the most critical factor which plays an important
A composite section is made up of a concrete slab attached to a steel beam by means of shear connectors. Under positive and negative bending moment, part of the slab will act as a flange of the beam, resisting the longitudinal compression or tension force. When the spacing between girders becomes large, it is evident that the simple beam theory does not strictly apply because the longitudinal stress in the flange will vary with distance from the girder web, the flange being more highly stressed over the web than in the extremities. This phenomenon is termed "shear lag". In this paper, a nonlinear three-dimensional finite element analysis is employed to evaluate and determine the actual effective slab width of the composite steel-concrete
... Show MoreTwo novel demountable shear connectors for precast steel-concrete composite bridges are presented. The connectors use high-strength steel bolts, which are fastened to the steel beam with the aid of a special locking configuration that prevents slip of bolts within their holes. Moreover, the connectors promote accelerated construction and overcome typical construction tolerances issues of precast structures. Most importantly, the connectors allow bridge disassembly, and therefore, can address different bridge deterioration scenarios with minimum disturbance to traffic flow, i.e. (1) precast deck panels can be rapidly uplifted and replaced; (2) connectors can be rapidly removed and replaced; and (3) steel beams can be replaced, while precast
... Show MoreThis research is carried out to investigate the behavior of self-compacting concrete (SCC) two-way slabs with central square opening under uniformly distributed loads. The experimental part of this research is based on casting and testing six SCC simply supported square slabs having the same dimentions and reinforcement. One of these slabs was cast without opening as a control slab. While, the other five slabs having opening ratios (OR) of 2.78%, 6.25%, 11.11%, 17.36% and 25.00%. From the experimental results it is found that the maximum percentage decrease in cracking and ultimate uniform loads were 31.82% and 12.17% compared to control slab for opening ratios (OR
... Show MoreThis study aimed at evaluating the torsional capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) beams externally wrapped with fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) materials. An analytical model was described and used as a new computational procedure based on the softened truss model (STM) to predict the torsional behavior of RC beams strengthened with FRP. The proposed analytical model was validated with the existing experimental data for rectangular sections strengthened with FRP materials and considering torque-twist relationship and crack pattern at failure. The confined concrete behavior, in the case of FRP wrapping, was considered in the constitutive laws of concrete in the model. Then, an efficient algorithm was developed in MATLAB environment t
... Show MoreThe design of reinforced concrete spread foundations mainly depends on soil bearing capacity, loading value, and column size. So for each design case, tiresome calculations and time consumption are needed. In this paper, generalized design charts are presented and plotted according to derivations based on the ACI 318 M-2019 Code. These charts could be used directly by the structural designers to estimate the column size, foundation thickness, and dimensions as well as the foundation reinforcement under a certain given concentric load assuming a uniformly distributed contact pressure underneath the foundation. Of noteworthy, these charts are oriented to deal with square isolated footings with a square concentric column, covering reasonable r
... Show MoreThe present study aims to get experimentally a deeper understanding of the efficiency of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets applied to improve the torsional behavior of L-shaped reinforced concrete spandrel beams in which their ledges were loaded in two stages under monotonic loading. An experimental program was conducted on spandrel beams considering different key parameters including the cross-sectional aspect ratio (