Behavior of hollow self-compacted concrete beams reinforced with aluminum sections

Abstract

This paper presents a study on improving the flexural performance of self-compacting hollow concrete beams with embedded aluminum sections, both experimentally and numerically. The experimental program involved testing three specimens to illustrate the impact of the bare and aluminum-reinforced voids on the mechanical properties of the hollow beams relative to the solid reference beam. A three-dimensional (3D) non-linear finite element model (FEM) was initially developed using ABAQUS software and validated against experimental results. The validated model examined the effects of void area (16–49% of the beam cross-section), void configuration (square or circular), longitudinal tensile reinforcement ratio (0.41–1.19%), and shear reinforcement ratio (0–0.56%) on the failure patterns and load–displacement relationships of hollow reinforced concrete (RC) beams with or without reinforced internal aluminum sections. Results showed that the embedded aluminum reinforcement promoted a more uniform distribution of flexural cracks along the effective length of the hollow RC beams and delayed the formation of shear cracks compared to the bare specimens. Furthermore, the embedded aluminum reinforcement effectively restored the ultimate capacity of the hollow beams with a void area ranging from 16 to 36% of the beam cross-section. Despite having the same area, the ultimate load-carrying capacity of both bare and reinforced beams featuring circular voids was higher than those with square voids.