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CHAPTER 9 CONCLUSIONS

9.1

GENERAL Over the last thirty years, there has been a dramatic increase in

using steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) in structures. Based on the literature review, it can be seen that much progress has been made not only towards understanding the properties of the material itself, but also investigating the feasibility of using SFRC in seismic structural members. However, due to lack of availability information in the literature as well as of adequate seismic design code guidelines, the evaluation of the actual performance of seismic resisting systems adopting SFRC in the structural members or regions still require a significant effort within more comprehensive investigations. This study investigated the efficiency of using steel fibre along with polypropylene fibre (hybrid fibre) in reinforced concrete to replace the shear reinforcement in exterior beam-column joints. Based on the experimental results, a tentative relationship between the joint shear contributions provided by concrete, stirrups and hybrid fibres have been proposed as a viable tool for design of a fibre joint, where a defined number of stirrups can be replaced by hybrid fibres. Furthermore, the use of HFRC (hybrid fibre reinforced concrete) in the plastic hinge regions of beamcolumn joints, instead of code recommended stirrups, was also investigated in this study. A comparison of the energy dissipation capacity of all the beam-

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column joint subassemblies subjected to seismic reversal loading was carried out. Given these results, HFRC (Hybrid Fibre Reinforced Concrete) is recommended to be used also in the flexural members of a beam-column subassembly, resulting in cost-effective implementation of the solution in the construction phase. 9.2 CONCLUSIONS INVESTIGATION Based on the experimental investigation the following conclusions are arrived. 1. The specimens in the F2 series which were formed by using concrete grade M20, M25 and M60 with fibrous concrete in the joint region, consisting of 1.5% of steel fibre and 0.2% of polypropylene fibre have shown best performance considering the energy dissipation capacity, ultimate load and shear strength. 2. This increase in energy dissipation capacity is about 225% greater than specimen cast by using ordinary concrete and 25% greater than the specimen cast by using steel fibre only. 3. The addition of hybrid fibre to concrete prevents the brittle failure of the joint. The addition of polypropylene fibre increases the energy dissipation capacity, ultimate load and shear strength for the optimum content of about 0.2%. Further increase in polypropylene fibre is found to reduce the strength of the joint and also energy dissipating capacity. 4. The polypropylene fibre in addition to the steel fibre increases the ductility factor but at this % the ultimate load and energy FROM THE EXPERIMENTAL

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dissipation capacity was reduced. Increases in polypropylene fibre increases the ductility factor. 5. As the number of cycles increase, the rate of degradation of stiffness decreases in the case of specimens additionally reinforced with fibres. The specimens cast by using steel fibre had more stiffness compared to the specimens cast by using hybrid fibre. The addition of polypropylene fibre reduces the stiffness. 6. The experimental joint shear strength have been compared with the joint shear stress model proposed by Ganesan et al. (2007b). The comparison is satisfactory for fibrous specimens. Model developed by them is as also suitable for hybrid fibre reinforced beam-column joint. 7. The HFRC (Hybrid Fibre Reinforced Concrete) joints undergo large displacements without developing wider cracks when compared to the ordinary joints. This indicates that hybrid fibres impart high ductility to the HFRC joints, which is one of the essential properties for the beam-column joints. 8. In almost all the specimens tensile cracks were developed at the interface between the column and beam. The specimens failed due to the advancement of crack width at the interface between beam and column. From the crack pattern it is observed that the width of cracks go on decreasing from O1, S1, F1, F2, F3, F4 and F5 series specimens. The width of crack decreases when the polypropylene fibre content increases. The first crack load was also high when polypropylene fibre content is increased. The addition of

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fibres could improve the dimensional stability and integrity of the joints. 9. Also, it is possible to reduce the congestion of steel reinforcement in the beam-column joints by incorporating hybrid fibre in the joints. 10. Using hybrid fibre reinforced concrete (HFRC) within beamcolumn joints significantly enhances the shear resistance capacity of joints. The increased tensile strength and the bridging action of HFRC can confine tension cracking to the joint diagonals and thus reduce the requirements for closely spaced joint ties and preserving the integrity of the joint concrete core. 11. Furthermore, the inclusion of hybrid fibre reinforcement dosage within a beam column joint may prevent shear failure occurring in the joint core, altering the failure mode from joint shear to flexural failure of the beam or column. The addition of synthetic fibres to the steel fibres increases the ductility (large strain capacity) and energy dissipating capacity, the most important properties required for earth quake resistant structures. 12. The experimental results were well correlated with the Finite Element Analysis. The devastation due to earthquakes are intensified by the structures. So it is the duty for a Structural Engineer to find alternative to reduce the damage. The addition of the hybrid fibre along with concrete in the join region, increases the ductility and energy absorbing capacity than by adding steel fibres. This combination of fibres may contribute to the reduction of destruction due to earthquake, there by contributing for the welfare of the society.