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Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
Department of Civil Engineering, Beirut Arab University, Beirut, Lebanon
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 22 December 2009
Received in revised form 20 April 2010
Accepted 19 June 2010
Available online 24 July 2010
Keywords:
Reinforced concrete
T-beams
Structural steel
Partial composite sections
Partial connement
Strengthening
Flexural behavior
a b s t r a c t
External connement of reinforced concrete (R/C) members with structural steel sections or ber reinforcing wraps is commonly used to improve the exural behavior of structural members. Flexural
strengthening of R/C beams by external steel members is among the most effective and convenient techniques. A study is presented in this paper investigating the exural behavior of R/C beams having T crosssections partially conned (P/C) by a combination of various steel members connected together by intermittent batten plates. Four R/C specimens, representing dropped beams in solid slabs, were tested. One
control beam had no connement whereas the three other beams had four steel angles simply wrapped
and tied around the stem by batten plates, two angles at the bottom corners of the stem and the other
two angles at the stem-ange junctions. Two plates were placed on the top surface of the ange and connected by studs to the two angles at the bottom of the ange. The resulting P/C beams are categorized as
partial composite beams because no shear connectors were used between the R/C beam and the jacketing
bottom-tension steel angles as in the case of conventional composite beams. All specimens were tested in
positive bending under two points loading. Test results revealed an enhancement in the exural behavior,
particularly in the post-yield range of loading, and ductility due to the proposed strengthening and partial
composite effect. The number and spacing of the intermittent battens played a signicant role in the
behavior of the strengthened specimens. Analytical values of loads and deformations at yield and ultimate loading showed good agreement with the measured values.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1038
three specimens was jacketed by four steel angles and two steel
plates. Intermittent batten plates and shear studs were used to
connect the steel members. All specimens were tested in positive
bending and were subjected to two-point quasi-static loads close
to mid-span in order to examine the enhancement of the exural
strength, stiffness and ductility, and to better understand the failure mode of the strengthened beams.
The primary objective of this study was to examine experimentally the proposed strengthening scheme and the behavior of this
type of members and understand the following inquiries:
The experimental program is discussed in Section 2 of the paper, a design procedure for the steel jacket is presented in Section
3, whereas test results and interpretation of these results are explained in Sections 4 and 5, respectively. Conclusions are made
in Section 6.
Upper Plate
Four reinforced concrete beams having T-shaped cross-sections were constructed. The length of each beam was 1700 mm. The ange and web dimensions
were 250 50 mm and 200 100 mm, respectively. The average 28-day compressive strength of concrete was 31 MPa. Each beam was longitudinally reinforced by
two 8 mm diameter Grade 40 reinforcing bars on the tension side and two 4 mm
bars on the top compression side. The clear concrete cover was 15 mm. Grade 24
stirrups, 6 mm diameter, were used in all specimens as transverse reinforcement
at 200 mm spacing. Tension tests performed on coupons of the longitudinal bars
Lower Angle
Web width (b)
2PLs 3x60
2Ls 40x20x3
50mm
flange
web
RC
Beam
200mm
2Ls 30x30x3
mm
L = 1500
a. Longitudinal view
PL 3x60
250mm
Stud s 8mm
50mm
L 40x20x3
200mm
PL 3x50
Fillet weld s=3mm
L 30x30x3
100mm
b. Cross-section
Table 1
Details of the four specimens.
Specimen
Cross-section
h bf tw tf (mm)
2 Steel plates
t b L (mm)
4 Steel angles
a b t L (mm)
Batten plates
t b-spacing (mm)
Studs U,
spacing (mm)
TS1
TS2
N/A
3 60 1500
N/A
3 50300
N/A
8300
TS3
3 60 1500
3 50250
8250
TS4
3 60 1500
N/A
2Ls 40 20 3 1500
2Ls 30 30 3 1500
2Ls 40 20 3 1500
2Ls 30 30 3 1500
2Ls 40 20 3 1500
2Ls 30 30 3 1500
3 50150
8150
1039
Mn P=C M n R=C M n ST
B
0.85fc
PNA
C =0.851cBfc
hf
d h
Fy
Ar
b
T=ArFy
forces
stresses
Fig. 3. Determination of (Mn)R/C.
Mid-Span
Support
A1
A1
2 battens 2 studs
C= A 1 Fy
ts
Y1
PNA
PNA
A2 h
Y3
T= A 3 Fy
A3
A3
1040
Max. Moment
Support
2 plates
2 battens
2 studs
C1
C2
V1
V1
C2 C1
T2 T1
V1
V1
T1
s
s/2
2 angles
T2
s/2
Max. Moment
Support
A1
2 battens
2 studs
C= n Hb
ts
Hb
Hb
Hb
Hb
Hb
Hb
Hb
Hb
T= n Hb
s
A3
areas for the top plates (A1) and the lower angles (A3), and neglecting the effect of the angles at the bottom of the ange (A2) due to
its relatively small contribution in exure being close to the neutral axis position, the rst value of the moment capacity of the steel
jacket (Mn)ST is determined based on the yield resistance of the top
or bottom steel sections, and is calculated using Eq. (2).
the shear capacity of the batten plate determined from Eq. (4),
and Hs is the shear capacity of the stud determined from Eq. (5).
Mn ST RAi Y i F y AF y h t s
where Ab is the cross-sectional area of the batten plate, As the crosssectional area of the stud, Fvy the shear yield stress of the batten
plate, and Fvf is the shear fracture stress of the stud.
It is worth mentioning that the shear resistance of the stud, as
given by Eq. (5), excludes the concrete contribution around the
stud as commonly used in the design of the shear studs in composite design [11]. This assumption is conservative and it accounts for
the method used in putting these studs in the specimen by simply
drilling holes in the ange, then inserting the studs to connect the
steel plates and angles without any epoxy ller material.
The batten plates are sufciently welded at the connections to
the steel angles to prevent any failure due to bending moments.
This weld is designed to resist a shear force Hb given in Eq. (5),
and the in-plane moment Mb given in Eq. (6).
where Ai is the cross-sectional areas of the top plates (A1) or the bottom angles (A3), Yi the distances between the plastic neutral axis
and the centroids of the top plates (A1) or the bottom angles (A3),
Fy the yield strength of the steel sections, A the minimum of (A1)
and (A3), and (h + ts) is the total depth of the beam approximately
considered equal to the moment arm between the top and bottom
steel sections comprising the steel jacket.
In the second failure mechanism, the vierendeel structural system shown in Fig. 5 is used to determine the second value of the
moment capacity of the steel jacket (Mn)ST. Under simple bending,
the battens and studs act as vertical links between the top and bottom horizontal steel plates and angles, respectively. The top and
bottom steel members will be subjected to axial and shear forces
besides bending moments at the connections with the vertical
links. The batten plates will be mainly subjected to shear forces
in addition to bending moments at the connections with the horizontal steel members. If the spacing and strength of the batten
plates and studs are not adequate, the moment capacity of the steel
jacket (Mn)ST would be determined based on the shear strength of
either the batten plates or stud, as shown in Fig. 6.
The value of (Mn)ST is determined using Eq. (3).
Mn ST nH h t s
Hb Ab F vy
Hs As F vf
Mb Hb 0:50h
4. Test results
All specimens are tested as simple beams under two point loads
250 mm apart, and a clear span of 1500 mm. Experimental results
for all specimens are presented in this section.
4.1. Control R/C specimen
The behavior of the control R/C specimen TS1 remained elastic
up to a load of 26 kN and a deection of 4.3 mm. After that, the
1041
Specimen (TS1)
Specimen (TS2)
Specimen (TS3)
Specimen (TS4)
Table 2
Loads and deformations in the tested specimens.
Specimen
# of Battens
per face
% of Battens PLs
to beam length
Experimental values
Py (kN)
Dy (mm)
Pu (kN)
Du (mm)
Pu Py
Du Dy
% Strength increase
TS1
TS2
TS3
TS4
6
7
11
20
25
40
26.0
44.2
45.0
52.7
4.3
7.2
7.3
8.1
31
78
81
100
48
70
80
105
1.2
1.8
1.8
1.9
11.2
9.7
10.9
13.0
2.5
2.6
3.2
1042
c < 0.002
0.4y
kd
(h + ts)
y
strains in RC beam
0.4y
strains in steel jacket
Table 3
Computed versus experimental ultimate loads.
Specimen
TS2
TS3
TS4
Analytical
Experimental
Pu (kN) Yield in
angles
Pu (kN) Yield
in battens
Pu (kN)
(governing)
Pu (kN)
94
94
94
75
81
116
75
81
94
78
81
100
1043
Experimental values
TS1
TS2
TS3
TS4
Analytical values
Py (kN)
Dy (mm)
Pu (kN)
Du (mm)
Py (kN)
Dy (mm)
Pu (kN)
Du (mm)
26.0
44.2
45.0
52.7
4.3
7.2
7.3
8.1
31
78
81
100
48
70
80
105
27
48
48
48
4.5
7.4
7.4
7.4
75
81
94
56
74
114
in the P/C specimens ranged between 2.5 and 3.2 times that of the
control specimen TS1.
5.1. Analytical prediction for estimating loads and deformation
Analytical values of the yielding moment and the corresponding
yield load of the P/C beam were calculated by assuming the strain
distribution shown in Fig. 9. The strain in the lower steel angles
(tension side) was assumed to be 40% of its yield value mainly
due to the lack of any binding effect between the R/C beam and
steel angles. On the other hand, the deection in the jacketed
beams corresponding to the yielding loads is determined from
elastic analysis of the simple beam using the cracked exural stiffness of the R/C beam (EcIcr). The cracked moment of inertia (Icr) was
computed assuming yielding of the reinforcing steel and performing balanced section equilibrium by iteration.
As was mentioned earlier in the paper, the ultimate load value
(Pu) is taken the least of two values which are based on the two
possible failure mechanisms in the steel jacket. Thus, one can predict the ultimate load value (Pu) from Eqs. (2) and (3). The ultimate
values (Pu) of the tested specimens were computed and shown in
Table 3. In order to estimate the deformation corresponding to
the load at ultimate, a bi-linear analytical load-deformation curve
was developed based on results obtained from this study. The proposed bi-linear model captures the elastic as well as the inelastic
points of interest such as values of Py, Dy, as well as Pu and Du.
The model comprises of two segments: the elastic segment, up to
a load of 1.25 Py, and the inelastic segment, up to the ultimate load
Pu. The model adopts a post-yield slope (k2) equal to 15% the elastic
slope (k1), as shown in Fig. 10. Thus, the ultimate deection that
corresponds to the nominal load can be calculated from:
Du Dy
0:25Py Pu 1:25Py
k1
0:15k1
3. The elastic stiffness of the R/C and the P/C beams were almost
equal. The yield load of the P/C beam was almost twice that
of the R/C beam.
4. The inelastic behavior of the P/C beams was better than that of
the R/C beam; characterized by higher strength, better stiffness
and improved ductility.
5. The spacing of the batten plates and studs signicantly affects
the behavior and failure mode of the P/C beam. According to
the results, a partial connement with a 40% ratio is recommended in order to reach full yielding in the steel jacket.
6. Analytical model and a developed relationship proposed in this
study will assist in predicting yield and ultimate values of load
and deection of P/C beams. The proposed design approach and
analytical model are rational for such type of semi-composite
beams. The analytical and experimental results were in good
agreement with an offset of approximately 10%.
The study shows the importance of the proposed strengthening
scheme for strengthening design of R/C beams by practicing engineers seeking out more strength and better ductility. The retrotting scheme can be practically implemented for upgrading of
girders in both buildings and bridge structures.
Acknowledgement
This study was supported by a research grant from Conseil
National De La Recherche Scientique CNRS-Liban for two
consecutive years. The authors would like to express their gratitude to the administration staff at CNRS for their assistance and
encouragement.
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