This paper describes flexural behavior of two spans continuous rectangular concrete beams reinforced with mild steel and partially prestressing strands, to evaluate using different prestressing level and prestressing area in continuous prestressed beams at serviceability and ultimate stages. Six continuous concrete beams with 4550 mm length reinforced with mild steel reinforcement and partially prestressed with two prestressing levels of (0.7fpy or 0.55fpy.) of and different amount of 12.7 mm diameter seven wire steel strand were used. Test results showed that the partially prestressed reinforced beams with higher prestressing level exhibited the narrowest crack width, smallest deflection and strain in both steel and concrete at ultimate service load, the deflection decreased by (3.60% & 32.49%) and the crack width decreased by (20.0%) and (75.0%) when increasing the prestressing level from (0.55fpy.) to (0.7fpy.) for beams reinforced with one and two strands respectively. Deflection of beams with two strands decreased by (44.81% & 22.2%) compared with beams of one strand at prestressing level of (0.7fpy.) and (0.55 fpy.), respectively. At ultimate load, using ACI-Code recommended moment redistribution led to more agreement between theoretical and experimental loads for both ordinary reinforced and partially prestressed beams.
The aim of this study is to propose mathematical expressions for estimation of the flexural strength of plain concrete members from ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) measurements. More than two hundred pieces of precast concrete kerb units were subjected to a scheduled test program. The tests were divided into two categories; non-destructive ultrasonic and bending or rupture tests. For each precast unit, direct and indirect (surface) ultrasonic pulses were subjected to the concrete media to measure their travel velocities. The results of the tests were monitored in two graphs so that two mathematical relationships can be drawn. Direct pulse velocity versus the flexural strength was given in the first relationship while the second equation des
... 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 MoreThis paper examines the impact of flexural strengthening on the percentage of damaged strands in internally unbonded tendons in partially prestressed concrete beams (0, 14.28%, and 28.57%) and the recovering conditions using CFRP composite longitudinal laminates at the soffit, and end anchorage U-wrap sheets to restore the original flexural capacity and mitigate the delamination of the soffit of longitudinal Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) laminates. The composition of the laminates and anchors affected the stress of the CFRP, the failure mode, and thus the behavior of the beam. The experimental results revealed that the usage of CFRP laminates has a considerable impact on strand strain, particularly when anchors are employed
... Show MoreConstruction joints are stopping places in the process of placing concrete, and they are required because in many structures it is impractical to place concrete in one continuous operation. The amount of concrete that can be placed at one time is governed by the batching and mixing capacity and by the strength of the formwork. A good construction joint should provide adequate flexural and shear continuity through the interface.
In this study, the effect of location of construction joints on the performance of reinforced concrete structural elements is experimentally investigated.
Nineteen beam specimens with dimensions of 200×200×950 mm were tested. The variables investigated are the location of the construction joints
... Show MoreThis paper reports a comprehensive study on the behavior of concavely curved soffit reinforced concrete (RC) beams strengthened in flexure with carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites under static loading. The main objective of this paper is to explore the effect of surface concavity on the bond performance of externally bonded wet layup CFRP sheets and laminates. An experimental program consisting of flexural strengthening of 24 RC beams with concavely curved soffits was carried out. All specimens were simply supported RC beams tested under three-point bending. Of the 24 beams, 6 beams were flat soffit RC beams, and the remainder were fabricated with concavely curved soffits with a degree of curvature that is ranging from 5 mm/m
... Show MoreReinforcing asphalt concrete with polyester fibers considered as an active remedy to alleviate the harmful impact of fatigue deterioration. This study covers the investigation of utilizing two shapes of fibers size, 6.35 mm by 3.00 mm and 12.70 mm by 3.00 mm with mutual concentrations equal to 0.25 %, 0.50 % and 0.75 % by weight of mixture. Composition of asphalt mixture consists of different optimum (40-50) asphalt cement content, 12.50 mm nominal aggregate maximum size with limestone dust as a filler. Following the traditional asphalt cement and aggregate tests, three essential test were carried out on mixtures, namely: Marshall test (105 cylindrical specimens), indirect tensile strength test (21 cylindrical specimens)
... Show MoreThe present investigation focuses on the response of simply supported reinforced concrete rectangular-section beams with multiple openings of different sizes, numbers, and geometrical configurations. The advantages of the reinforcement concrete beams with multiple opening are mainly, practical benefit including decreasing the floor heights due to passage of the utilities through the beam rather than the passage beneath it, and constructional benefit that includes the reduction of the self-weight of structure resulting due to the reduction of the dead load that achieves economic design. To optimize beam self-weight with its ultimate resistance capacity, ten reinforced concrete beams having a length, width, and depth of 2700, 100, and
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