The shear performance of concrete beams is known to be an important mechanical feature; hence, enhanced shear resistance is critical for determining a beam’s performance in terms of security and service life. This paper presents a study on the shear behavior of concrete beams without web reinforcement strengthened by external vertical prestressing rebars (EVPRs). Experimental data were obtained from seven test beams with varying influencing factors (stirrup ratio ρsEP, arrangement spacing s, prestressing force Fp, and compressive stress degree γp of the EVPRs) to determine their effects on the shear behavior. The results reveal that the EVPRs can significantly improve the shear capacity and ductility of concrete beams without web reinforcement. Furthermore, the failure mode is changed from brittle diagonal tension to relatively ductile shear compression, and the flexural cracks and shear cracks are more fully developed. The shear capacity becomes enhanced as the ρsEP and γp are increased; vertical compressive stress provided by the EVPRs can reduce the principal tensile stress of the concrete structure to prevent the shear cracking and enhance the shear resistance of the concrete. Meanwhile, in the stage from the formation of the critical shear crack (CSC) to the shear failure, the EVPRs can be used as stirrups to share the shear load. It can be concluded that EVPRs can effectively improve the shear performance of concrete beams.
Moment and shear load distribution are important in bridge design. Most existing studies have focused on the distribution of girders under vehicle loading, neglecting the dead load distribution between the webs of multicell box-girders. Through the “Sum of Local Internal Forces” function, the shear force of each web in the multicell box-girder 3D finite element model was extracted and analysed using the dead load shear force distribution factor. The research parameters include the slope of the web, support condition, and cell number with respect to the dead load shear force distribution factor. The results indicate that the dead load shear distribution in the webs of multicell box-girders is uneven. The outermost inclined web bears a shear force greater than the average shear force, which must be considered in bridge design.
Shear design is an important part of structural design. External vertical prestressing rebars (EVPRs) have proven to be an effective way to enhance structural shear resistance. The objectives of this study are to simulate EVPR strengthening of concrete beams using a nonlinear three-dimensional finite element model and to explore its shear enhancement features under different EVPR stirrup ratios, vertical compressive stress degrees, and optimal arrangements of EVPRs. Concrete, common reinforced bars, and EVPRs use solid, steel, and truss elements, respectively. In addition, the total strain crack model is used to characterise the concrete. The results indicate that the EVPR stirrup ratio can reduce the diagonal crack width and improve the shear capacity, and the vertical compressive stress degree can effectively control crack development in the initial loading. A “small-area EVPR dense arrangement” is the recommended EVPR configuration method. Both experiments and numerical analyses show that EVPRs can effectively improve the shear performance of concrete.
Conventionally, crack width is used to assess the corrosion level, whereas other important characteristics such as the variation in crack width at different locations on the surface are disregarded. These important characteristics of surface crack can be described comprehensively using the fractal theory to facilitate the assessment of the corrosion level. In this study, the relationship between steel corrosion and the fractal characterization of concrete surface cracking is investigated. Reinforced concrete prisms with steel bars of different diameters and with different corrosion rates were evaluated. High-resolution images of cracks on the surfaces of these specimens were captured and processed to obtain their fractal dimensions. Finally, a relationship between the fractal dimension, steel bar diameter, and the corrosion rate is established. The results show that the fractal dimension is associated closely with the corrosion rate and steel bar diameter. This study provides new ideas for evaluating corroded reinforced concrete structures.
Concrete is a heterogeneous composite consisting of aggregate, cement paste, and void. Steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) has been widely studied experimentally and numerically in recent decades. The fibre geometry model program generated by a secondary development ANSYS program was exported to midas FEA for analysis. The constitutive concrete model adopts the total strain crack model of concrete. A steel fibre bond slip is considered in an equivalent manner using the von Mises model. The results of the three-dimensional meso-scale numerical analysis method agree well with the experimental values of steel fibre concrete beams.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.