Finite element analysis of three-layer concrete beam with composite reinforcement

Abstract

Reinforced concrete structures play an increasing important role in civil and industrial construction, along with the technology of new concrete materials and their calculation theories. In order to improve the crack resistance of three-layer reinforced concrete (3L-RC) beams with the middle layer of lightweight concrete (LWC) material, the method of using polymer bars in place of steel bars is applied. In this study, the behavior of 3L-RC beams with steel bars and glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars is simulated and analyzed by ANSYS software (base on the finite element analysis). The simulation of reinforced concrete (RC) beam work on computer software is a modern method, which allows to input many mechanical, physical properties of materials and geometric parameters of 3L-RC beams. The results of the samples beam analysis showed that the cracking resistance of 3L-RC beams with GFRP bars have been enhanced more than twice compared to 3L-RC beams with steel bars. Numerical modeling allows comparison between the obtained results and building theoretical dependences in a wide range of specified parameters in sectional construction of multilayer reinforced concrete elements. This would limit the number of actual test samples, increase the efficiency of experiments.