This article investigates the development of the following material properties of concrete with time: compressive strength, tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, and fracture energy. These properties were determined at seven different hydration ages (18 h, 30 h, 48 h, 72 h, 7 days, 14 days, 28 days) for four pure cement concrete mixes totaling 336 specimens tested throughout the study. Experimental data obtained were used to assess the relationship of the above properties with the concrete compressive strength and how these relationships are affected with age. Further, this study investigates prediction models available in literature and recommendations are made for models that are found suitable for application to early age concrete. Results obtained indicate that the relationship between the splitting tensile strength and concrete compressive strength can be approximated with a power function between 0.7 and 0.8, and this correlation is not affected by age. Fracture energy of the concrete and modulus of elasticity values obtained in this study correlate well with the square root of the compressive strength and it was found that this relationship holds true for all hydration ages investigated in this paper. Inverse analysis on the wedge-splitting test was conducted to determine the direct tensile strength. Values of tensile strength obtained from the inverse analysis have been validated numerically by carrying out finite element analysis on the wedge split, and anchor pull-out tests. The ratio of the tensile strength obtained from the inverse analysis to the splitting tensile strength was found to be in the range of 0.5–0.9 and 0.7 on average.
This study conducted an analytical investigation on the behavior of concrete beams with openings reinforced by glass-fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars. In this study, five proposed beams reinforced by GFRP bars as flexural and shear reinforcement with openings were numerically examined. The variables were the opening orientation (vertical and horizontal) and the number of openings. These openings were located within the flexural zone of the proposed beams. The result shows that the vertical openings had a significant effect over the horizontal openings on reducing the ultimate load and increasing the mid-span deflection compared with the control beam. Moreover, the results showed t
This paper studied the behaviour of reinforced reactive powder concrete (RPC) two-way slabs under static load. The experimental program included testing three simply supported slabs of 1000 mm length, 1000 mm width, and 70 mm thickness. Tested specimens were of identical properties except their steel fibers volume ratio (0.5 %, 1 %, and 1.5 %). Static test results revealed that, increasing steel fibers volume ratio from 0.5% to 1% and from 1% to 1.5%, led to an increase in: first crack load by (32.2 % and 52.3 %), ultimate load by (36.1 % and 17.0 %), ultimate deflection by (33.6 % and 3.4 %), absorbed energy by (128 % and 20.2 %), and the ultimate strain by (1.1 % and 6.73 %). The stiffness and ductility of the specimens also increased. A
... Show MoreIn this research, the structural behavior of reinforced concrete columns made of normal and hybrid reactive powder concrete (hybrid by steel and polypropylene fibers) subjected to chloride salts with concentration was 8341.6 mg/l. The study consists of two parts, the first one is experimental study and the second one is theoretical analysis. Three main variables were adopted in the experimental program; concrete type, curing type and loading arrangement. Twenty (120x120x1200) mm columns were cast and tested depending on these variables. The samples were reinforced using two different bars; Ø8 for ties and Ø12 with minimum longitudinal reinforcement (0.01Ag). The specimens were divided into two main groups based o
... Show MoreThis study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a novel concrete-encased column (CE) using small circular steel tubes filled with cementitious grouting material (GFST) as the primary reinforcement instead of traditional steel bars. The research involved three different types of reinforcement: conventional steel bars, concrete-filled steel tubes with 30% of the reinforcement ratio of steel bars, and concrete-filled steel tubes with the same reinforcement ratio as steel bars. Twenty-four circular concrete columns were tested and categorized into six groups based on the type of reinforcement employed. Each group comprised four columns, with one subjected to concentric axial load, two subjected to eccentric axial load (with eccentrici
... Show MoreThis paper presents ABAQUS simulations of fully encased composite columns, aiming to examine the behavior of a composite column system under different load conditions, namely concentric, eccentric with 25 mm eccentricity, and flexural loading. The numerical results are validated with the experimental results obtained for columns subjected to static loads. A new loading condition with a 50 mm eccentricity is simulated to obtain additional data points for constructing the interaction diagram of load-moment curves, in an attempt to investigate the load-moment behavior for a reference column with a steel I-section and a column with a GFRP I-section. The result comparison shows that the experimental data align closely with the simulation
... 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 MoreReliability analysis methods are used to evaluate the safety of reinforced concrete structures by evaluating the limit state function 𝑔(𝑋𝑖). For implicit limit state function and nonlinear analysis , an advanced reliability analysis methods are needed. Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) can be used in this case however, as the number of input variables increases, the time required for MCS also increases, making it a time consuming method especially for complex problems with implicit performance functions. In such cases, MCS-based FORM (First Order Reliability Method) and Artificial Neural Network-based FORM (ANN FORM) have been proposed as alternatives. However, it is important to note that both MCS-FORM and ANN-FORM can also be time-con
... Show MoreThis study conducted an analytical investigation on the behavior of concrete beams with openings reinforced by glass-fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars. In this study, five proposed beams reinforced by GFRP bars as flexural and shear reinforcement with openings were numerically examined. The variables were the opening orientation (vertical and horizontal) and the number of openings. These openings were located within the flexural zone of the proposed beams. The result shows that the vertical openings had a significant effect over the horizontal openings on reducing the ultimate load and increasing the mid-span deflection compared with the control beam. Moreover, the results showed t