Experimental Response of a Hyfrc Boundary Element Under Pure Compression

Abstract eng:
Experimental analyses of full-scale reinforced high performance fiber reinforced concrete specimens in compression are scarce in the literature. This paper presents and discusses results of an ongoing study that investigates reinforced concrete prisms representative of boundary elements of special structural walls under compression. Under certain common cross-sectional geometries, such as T- C- and L-shapes, the boundary elements of shear walls are expected to undergo large compressive strains that might trigger flexuralcompression failures. This is especially true if the provided transverse reinforcement is not capable of protecting the concrete core against failures under small strain demand increments after the onset of concrete cover spalling. This is explained, in part, because proper confinement is not achievable due to early rebar buckling. Poor experimental performances were observed for some code-compliant prisms, constructed with conventional concrete. This suggested that a practical limit in the longitudinal and transverse reinforcement layouts that can be provided has been reached. Hence, the need for alternative materials arose. The behavior under compressive loading of a high performance Hybrid Fiber Reinforced Concrete (HyFRC) rectangular prism is presented in this paper. Its response is assessed and compared with specimens constructed with conventional concrete without fibers. The HyFRC mix design used in this study utilizes PVA micro-fibers and two types of hooked-end steel macro-fibers, with a total fiber volume percentage of 1.5%. Detailing of transverse reinforcement of the test specimens is compliant with current structural building codes. The specimens were tested under monotonic compression loading until failure. Results indicate that the HyFRC specimens exhibit larger ductility prior to failure as compared to conventional concrete specimens, as well as improved performance of the confined core. In addition, the HyFRC inhibited concrete cover spalling, which retained sufficient lateral tensile capacity to prevent early plastic buckling of the longitudinal rebar. The results also suggest that, given the thin nature of the geometry of the specimens, failure mechanism related to high shear demand in the through-the-thickness direction may arise, also limiting the global compressive strain ductility of the specimen.

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