Effect of self-compacting concrete placement technology on the load-bearing capacity of the concrete-concrete and steel-concrete bond in layered elements

Abstract

The article presents a study on the technology of layered execution in self-compacting concrete structures. The research focused on 800×480×160 mm panel elements, cast in two layers from a single mix casting point. Three different delay times for delivering the second layer of mix were considered: 15, 30 and 60 minutes. Two technological variants of mix application were analysed: from the top and from the bottom of the mould. The study investigated the influence of the placement technology on the load bearing capacity of the concrete layer-to-layer joint and the rebar-to-concrete joint. The load-bearing capacity of the concrete layer-to-layer joint was determined through a splitting tensile strength test on core specimens extracted from panel elements. Notably, existing literature has primarily explored the load-bearing capacity of the concrete layer-to-layer joint on smaller elements and has not accounted for mix placing technologies diverging from the traditional one. A test of the rebar-to-concrete bond at the layer interface was conducted using the pull-out method. Substantial differences were identified in the mixing pattern of concrete layers, contingent on the placing technology employed. Top-down casting led to a reduction in the load-bearing capacity of the concrete layer-to-layer interface, coupled with decreased stiffness and bond strength of the rebar-to-concrete connection as the delay time of the second layer increased. Conversely, bottom-up concreting maintained the load-bearing capacity of the combined concrete layers at 90% of the strength of the monolithic specimen throughout the entire test range. The article recommends the utilization of bottom-up placing technology for executing elements in the multilayer casting of self-compacting concrete.