Flexural Behaviour of Partially Prestressed Reinforced Baked Clay Beams

Abstract

To provide shelter for slum dwellers of Pakistan, Reinforced Baked Clay (RBC) seems to be a possible option to replace Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) whose ingredients, i.e., aggregates and cement are costly in plains of the country. However, shear failure is a major problem observed in RBC beams. In addition, it is difficult to provide shear reinforcement in RBC beams, because it is time consuming and it does not contribute to resist shear stresses. In this study, a technique is presented to overcome problem of shear failure of RBC beams. The RBC beams were partially prestressed by post tensioning up to 60% of yield stress and were tested in three points loading. The results show that the RBC beams (i) exhibited flexural mode of failure without shear reinforcement, (ii) carried as much load as control RCC beam. This implies that by partial prestressing of RBC beams, there could be no need of shear reinforcement. This will result in saving of time and money.