International Concrete Abstracts Portal

Serviceability, safety, and resilience are core components of a sustainable structure. This paper will discuss the key issues related to economic, social, and environmental factors. Structural efficiency plays an important role in reducing material usage while maintaining the necessary serviceability (including durability) of a structure. Resilience against both manmade events (such as terrorist attacks) and forces of nature (such as tsunamis, hurricanes, tornados, and flooding) has come to the forefront in recent years since longevity of a structure is central to sustainability. Wrapped into each of these decisions related to serviceability and safety/resilience are the potential environmental concerns related to choice of materials. Each of these topics is discussed within the context of concrete structures.

On major highways, bridge deck replacement often involves a diversion of traffic by shifting the travel lane adjacent to the repaired roadway. Thus, any traffic vibration or differential deflection, induced transversely due to truck traffic in the adjacent lanes, can affect the fresh concrete. Although there is very little evidence that traffic vibration in the adjacent lanes has affected the serviceability of concrete bridges in the past, more recently there have been some concerns about pouring high-performance concrete (HPC) in adjacent lanes because transverse cracking has been observed on newly repaired bridge decks. This paper examines the impact of traffic diversions and deflections that are induced transversely by truck traffic in adjacent lanes on the serviceability of bridge decks. In addition to field monitoring and laboratory testing, finite element analyses were used to simulate various bridge deck systems, traffic patterns, and truck loads to determine their effects on the serviceability of bridge decks. Results indicated that traffic loads and patterns can adversely affect the serviceability of concrete bridge decks. The results revealed that specific modifications to construction procedures and materials can significantly reduce the degree of transverse cracking in bridge decks.

Deflection of reinforced concrete (RC) beams is affected by the mechanical properties of concrete, which directly affect the structural stiffness of the element and indirectly define the moment redistribution due to cracking. Therefore, it is important to incorporate uncertainty of the mechanical properties of concrete in deflection calculations for robust prediction of RC deflection. In this study, inherent variations of mechanical properties of concrete are evaluated using the finite element (FE) method. Considering concrete as discrete particles of aggregate and cement paste connected by interfacial transition zone (ITZ), a non-linear representative volume element (RVE) of concrete is developed based on concrete section images. Tension and compression behaviors in concrete are simulated by modeling the cohesive response of ITZ and considering contact mechanics within the RVE. The concrete RVE is validated with a theoretical concrete constitutive model based on compressive strength. The proposed RVE model is then used to describe the constitutive properties of concrete. The mechanical properties of cement paste and ITZ are used as sources of uncertainties in concrete. The homogenization approach allows for considering uncertainties due to concrete microstructure randomness. These uncertainties are reflected in the macro properties of concrete derived from the RVE. The deflection variations of RC beams are then propagated from the variations in macro properties of concrete using Monte Carlo (MC) simulation based on a non-linear FE beam model incorporating cracking and tension stiffening.

The drift of multi-story flat plate buildings due to lateral loads of wind or earthquake affects the serviceability and the strength. The analysis for the drift has to be preceded by designating the components of the lateral force-resisting system (LFRS). Only the shear walls may be designated as the LFRS; alternatively, the LFRS can comprise all monolithic components of the building: shear walls, flat plates, columns and outriggers if any. This alternative is here recommended in the design of wind or earthquake. The basis and justification of this recommendation are given. The presented study employs linear analyses accounting for cracking as permitted by ACI 318. The work may be considered a pilot study; more extensive non-linear time history analyses need to be carried out before proposals for code changes can be made.

This paper is concerned with the effects of high construction loads on long term deflections, and evaluates the ACI 318 deflection control requirements. Practical applications involving two building construction cases are presented. In these cases, the concrete slabs developed extensive cracking and excessive deflections soon after the slab construction and formwork removal. Additional deflections were developed following the installation of interior partitions. The paper also investigates the effects of the shoring/reshoring operations and the construction load history, as well as the effects of improper deflection control design procedures on the slab deflections. The ACI 318 slab deflection control requirements, along with other published proposed methods on deflection control are applied and compared. The conclusions of this study indicate that the ACI’s minimum slab thickness requirements for deflection control are not sufficient since they do not account for the creep and shrinkage effects, as well as the effects of early-age high construction loads, and the resulting initial cracking of the concrete members.