International Concrete Abstracts Portal

Reinforced concrete walls are used commonly in low- and mid-rise construction because they provide high strength, stiffness, and durability. In regions of low and moderate seismicity, ACI 318 Code requirements for minimum reinforcement ratio and maximum reinforcement spacing typically control over strength-based requirements. However, these requirements are not well supported by research. The current study investigates requirements for the amount and spacing of reinforcement using experimentally validated nonlinear finite element modeling. For lightly reinforced concrete walls subjected to out-of-plane loading, i) peak strength is controlled by concrete cracking, and ii) residual strength depends on the number of curtains of steel. Walls with very low steel-fiber dosages were also studied. Results show that fiber, rather than discrete bars, provides the most benefit to wall strength, with fiber-reinforced concrete walls achieving peak strengths more than twice that of identically reinforced concrete walls.

Noncorrosive fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) reinforcement presents an attractive alternative to conventional steel reinforcement, which is prone to corrosion, especially in harsh environments exposed to deicing salt or seawater. However, FRP rebars’ lower axial stiffness leads to greater crack widths when FRP reinforcing bars elongate, resulting in significantly lower flexural stiffness for FRP-reinforcing bar-reinforced concrete members. The deeper cracks and larger crack widths also reduce the depth of the compression zone. Consequently, both the aggregate interlock and the compression zone for shear resistance are significantly reduced. Additionally, due to their limited tensile ductility, FRP reinforcing bars can rupture before the concrete crushes, potentially resulting in sudden and catastrophic member failure. Therefore, ACI Committee 440 states that through a compression-controlled design, FRP-reinforcing bar-reinforced concrete members can be intentionally designed to fail by allowing the concrete to crush before the FRP reinforcing bars rupture. However, this design approach does not yield an equivalent ductile behavior when compared to steel-reinforcing bar-reinforced concrete members, resulting in a lower strength reduction, ϕ, value of 0.65. In this regard, using FRP-reinforcing bar-reinforced ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) members offers a novel solution, providing high strength, stiffness, ductility, and corrosion-resistant characteristics. UHPC has a very low water-to-cementitious materials ratio (0.18 to 0.25), which results in dense particle packing. This very dense microstructure and low water ratio not only improves compressive strength but also delays liquid ingress. UHPC can be tailored to achieve exceptional compressive ductility, with a maximum usable compressive strain greater than 0.015. Unlike conventional designs where ductility is provided by steel reinforcing bars, UHPC can be used to achieve the required ductility for a flexural member, allowing FRP reinforcing bars to be designed to stay elastic. The high member ductility also justifies the use of a higher strength reduction factor, ϕ, of 0.9. This research, validated through large-scale experiments, explores this design concept by leveraging UHPC’s high compressive ductility, cracking resistance, and shear strength, along with a high quantity of noncorrosive FRP reinforcing bars. The increased amount of longitudinal reinforcement helps maintain the flexural stiffness (controlling deflection under service loads), bond strength, and shear strength of the members. Furthermore, the damage-resistant capability of UHPC and the elasticity of FRP reinforcing bars provide a structural member with a restoring force, leading to reduced residual deflection and enhanced resilience.

Embedding magnetic particles into cement paste produces a smart material in which the rheological properties of the resultant paste can be actively controlled through the use of magnetorheological (MR) principles. This research investigates the rheological behavior of cement-based MR pastes with and without air entrainment to gain a better understanding of the effects of air-entrained bubbles on MR cement pastes. Such information would be critical for the use of such MR pastes in three-dimensional (3-D) concrete printing applications. It is revealed that the incorporation of entrained air increases the MR response, and this effect is related to the bubble-bridge effect.

This paper presents the details of the analyses which were conducted to study the effects of steel reinforcing bars with unintended high strength on the behaviors of reinforced concrete (RC) columns. The influence of these bars on the column strength and strength-reduction factors were investigated. The former was studied with the help of column axial load-moment interaction diagrams, while a reliability analysis was carried out for the latter. Four different column cross sections reinforced with reinforcement ratios varying from 1 to 4% were included in the analysis. Other variables included concrete compressive and reinforcing bar yield strengths. The effects of the aforementioned variables were also considered on the development length of the reinforcing bars in tension and compression. It was found that the use of reinforcing bars with unintended high strength could change column behavior to compression-controlled at a lesser axial load level, which is accompanied by a reduction in the curvature capacity. Modifications have been suggested to control the negative effects of unintended high strength of bars on the column behavior and bar development length. Strength-reduction factors for RC sections ranging from compression-controlled to tension-controlled regions have also been proposed, which differ from those suggested by the prevalent code of practice.

This research examines the performance of quality-controlled recycled concrete aggregates (QRAs) with fly-ash-based cement. Compared to concrete made from untreated recycled concrete aggregates (URC), quality-controlled recycled aggregate concrete (QRC) has superior physical, mechanical, and durability properties. Except for sorptivity, the physical, mechanical, and durability properties of QRC are almost identical to those of natural aggregate concrete (NC). The compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength, fracture energy, and modulus of elasticity of QRC are higher than those of URC by 18.0%, 16.8%, 60.0%, 27.17%, and 43.46%, respectively. The abrasion resistance of QRC is approximately 60% higher than URC. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) image and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis prove that quality control produces denser old interfacial transition zones (OITZ) with fewer microvoids. The QRA improves not only the pore structure but also the weak mortar structure attached to the aggregate. There is also a strong correlation between the compressive strength and splitting tensile strength, flexural strength, fracture energy, and modulus of elasticity of QRC. QRA can be used to compute the mixture proportions for concrete (certainly up to medium-strength concrete) according to either the Indian standard or the international standard. It is challenging to improve the sorptivity of recycled concrete aggregates closer to NC. In addition, QRC has an initial sorptivity of two times (initial) and a final sorptivity of 1.8 times higher than NC, whereas URC has an initial sorptivity of 3.5 times (initial) and a final sorptivity of 2.35 times higher than NC.