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Experimental study on the fracture of lightly reinforced concrete elements subjected to eccentric compression

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Abstract

The objective of this work is to study the structural response of lightly reinforced concrete elements under eccentric compression from an experimental perspective. Given the difficulty of testing elements of a large slenderness ratio, an experimental campaign was carried out on columns of reduced size to facilitate material control and specimen handling, as well as to minimize the data scattering. Fifty-four micro-concrete specimens were tested to study the influence of reinforcement amount, slenderness ratio and load eccentricity. The applied load and the horizontal displacement at mid-span of the specimen (the additional eccentricity) were measured during the entire loading process, including the post-peak stage. At the same time, independent coupon tests were conducted for material characterization. Based on this study, a brittle–ductile classification according to the slenderness ratio and the initial load eccentricity is proposed. Meanwhile a methodology to evaluate the minimum reinforcement amount for reinforced concrete elements subjected to eccentric compression is formulated. In addition, the experimental results provide a valid source for modeling the behavior of lightly reinforced concrete elements subjected to eccentric compression.

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Abbreviations

\(A\) :

Cross-section area, \(A=bh\)

\(A_s\) :

Cross-section area of the steel bars

\(b\) :

Cross-section width (dimension in \(z\)-axis)

\(d\) :

Loading point displacement

\(e_a\) :

Additional eccentricity at the midspan of the specimen

\(e_0\) :

Initial load eccentricity

\(e_T\) :

Total load eccentricity, \(e_T=e_0+e_{a}\)

\(e_{al}\) :

Eccentricity at the linearity limit

\(E\) :

Elastic modulus of concrete

\(E_s\) :

Nominal elastic modulus of steel rebar

\(f_c\) :

Concrete compressive strength

\(f_t\) :

Tensile strength of concrete

\(f_R\) :

Flexural strength of the element section

\(f_{y}\) :

Steel yield strength

\(G_F\) :

Specific fracture energy

\(h\) :

Specimen thickness (cross-section depth, dimension in \(y\)-axis)

\(H\) :

Specimen height (dimension in the longitudinal direction, \(x\)-axis)

\(I_y\) :

Moment of inertia of the section with respect to the \(y\)-axis

\(\ell _{\text{ch}}\) :

Characteristic length \(\ell _{\text{ch}}=\frac{EG_F}{f^2_t}\)

\(L_p\) :

Effective length for calculating the slenderness ratio, \(\lambda \)

\(m\) :

Slope of the straight line of \(e_a / e_0\) as a function of \(\rho \)

\(p\) :

Perimeter of the steel bars

\(P\) :

Applied load

\(P^*\) :

External load normalized by the section capacity for compression \(\frac{P}{Af_c}\)

\(W\) :

Section elastic modulus \(I_y/(h/2)\)

\(z\) :

Mechanical arm of the section

\(\beta _H\) :

Hillerborg’s brittleness number, \(\beta _H=\frac{H}{\ell _{\text{ch}}}\)

\(\varepsilon _u\) :

Steel ultimate strain

\(\eta \) :

Non-dimensional bond strength of the concrete-steel interface

\(\lambda \) :

Slenderness ratio

\(\lambda _{\text{inf}}\) :

Lower limit of the slenderness ratio, beyond which secondary effects need to be taken into account

\(\rho \) :

Reinforcement ratio \(\rho =\frac{A_s}{A}\)

\(\sigma _{0.2}\) :

0.2 % Offset yield strength

\(\sigma _u\) :

Steel ultimate strength

\(\tau _c\) :

Bond strength of the concrete-steel interface

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, MAT2012-35416, and INDAGSA, Spain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), Avda. Camilo Josě Cela s/n, 13071, Ciudad Real, Spain

    Rocío Porras, Jacinto R. Carmona, Rena C. Yu & Gonzalo Ruiz

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  1. Rocío Porras
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  2. Jacinto R. Carmona
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  3. Rena C. Yu
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  4. Gonzalo Ruiz
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Correspondence to Rena C. Yu.

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Porras, R., Carmona, J.R., Yu, R.C. et al. Experimental study on the fracture of lightly reinforced concrete elements subjected to eccentric compression. Mater Struct 49, 87–100 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-014-0476-3

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