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Experimental study on flexural behavior of ECC/RC composite beams with U-shaped ECC permanent formwork

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Abstract

To enhance the durability of a reinforced concrete structure, engineered cementitious composite (ECC), which exhibits high tensile ductility and good crack control ability, is considered a promising alternative to conventional concrete. However, broad application of ECC is hindered by its high cost. This paper presents a new means to address this issue by introducing a composite beam with a U-shaped ECC permanent formwork and infill concrete. The flexural performance of the ECC/RC composite beam has been investigated experimentally with eight specimens. According to the test results, the failure of a composite beam with a U-shaped ECC formwork is initiated by the crushing of compressive concrete rather than debonding, even if the surface between the ECC and the concrete is smooth as-finished. Under the same reinforcement configurations, ECC/RC composite beams exhibit increases in flexural performance in terms of ductility, load-carrying capacity, and damage tolerance compared with the counterpart ordinary RC beam. Furthermore, a theoretical model based on the strip method is proposed to predict the moment-curvature responses of ECC/RC composite beams, and a simplified method based on the equivalent rectangular stress distribution approach has also evolved. The theoretical results are found to be in good agreement with the test data.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the funding supports of National Key Research and Development Plan, China (2016YFC0701400, 2017YFC1500700), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51778462).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Concrete & Prestressed Concrete Structures of the Ministry of Education, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China

    Zhi Qiao & Zuanfeng Pan

  2. College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Zuanfeng Pan & Weichen Xue

  3. School of Civil Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China

    Shaoping Meng

Authors
  1. Zhi Qiao
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  2. Zuanfeng Pan
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  3. Weichen Xue
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  4. Shaoping Meng
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Correspondence to Zuanfeng Pan.

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Qiao, Z., Pan, Z., Xue, W. et al. Experimental study on flexural behavior of ECC/RC composite beams with U-shaped ECC permanent formwork. Front. Struct. Civ. Eng. 13, 1271–1287 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-019-0556-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-019-0556-0

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