The Use of Steel-Belted Automobile Tires as Column Confinement Reinforcement

Abstract eng:
Steel-belted automobile tires provide an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional transverse reinforcement in circular reinforced concrete columns. These tires contain sufficiently high percentage of high-grade embedded steel that are effective in confining column concrete. Tires can be assembled on top of each other, either clamped by longitudinal reinforcement inserted through their sidewalls or longitudinal reinforcement placed around the perimeter of the rim. They function as stay-in-place formwork while also providing transverse confinement reinforcement to the compression concrete. The tires also protect the column against corrosion and chemical attacks. When used for bridges or parking structures, they also provide energy absorption against potential vehicular impact. The effectiveness of steel-belted tires as transverse column reinforcement was investigated experimentally by testing near full-size columns under simulated seismic loading. Columns encased in 550 mm diameter tires were tested under constant axial compression and incrementally increasing lateral deformation reversals. The results indicate that reinforced concrete columns, cast in steel-belted radial tires perform favorably, well into the inelastic range of deformations, exhibiting drift capacities of 4% to 6%. Columns with longitudinal reinforcement placed through their sidewalls had higher moment capacity due to the increased lever arm. The concrete between the longitudinal reinforcement and the tires was able to restrain the compression bars against buckling. The results further indicate that column flexural capacity can be computed through the conventional plane-section analysis with appropriate concrete stress-strain relationships that account for concrete confinement and the presence of rubber sidewalls between the layers of compression concrete.

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