An Experimental and Numerical Study on the Flexural Performance of Over-Reinforced Concrete Beam Strengthening with Bolted-Compression Steel Plates: Part II

Abstract

This study presents an experimental investigation and finite element modelling (FEM) of the behavior of over-reinforced simply-supported beams developed under compression with a bolt-compression steel plate (BCSP) system. This study aims to avoid brittle failure in the compression zone by improving the strength, strain, and energy absorption (EA) of the over-reinforced beam. The experimental program consists of a control beam (CB) and three BCSP beams. With a fixed steel plate length of 1100 mm, the thicknesses of the steel plates vary at the top section. The adopted plate thicknesses were 6 mm, 10 mm, and 15 mm, denoted as BCSP-6, BCSP-10, and BCSP-15, respectively. The bolt arrangement was used to implement the bonding behavior between the concrete and the steel plate when casting. These plates were tested under flexural-static loading (four-point bending). The load-deflection and EA of the beams were determined experimentally. It was observed that the load capacity of the BCSP beams was improved by an increase in plate thickness. The increase in load capacity ranged from 73.7% to 149% of the load capacity of the control beam. The EA was improved up to about 247.5% in comparison with the control beam. There was also an improvement in the crack patterns and failure modes. It was concluded that the developed system has a great effect on the parameters studied. Moreover, the prediction of the concrete failure characteristics by the FE models, using the ABAQUS software package, was comparable with the values determined via the experimental procedures. Hence, the FE models were proven to accurately predict the concrete failure characteristics.