Effect of section ductility on moment redistribution of continuous concrete beams

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of section ductility on moment redistribution of continuous reinforced concrete beams. Both analytical and experimental methods were employed. The main variables included were amount of transverse reinforcement, amount of tensile reinforcement, amount of compression reinforcement and concrete strength. A total of twenty six beam specimens were made in this study. A nonlinear frame analysis program was also developed. The analytical and experimental results were compared and they showed the analytical results were acceptable. It indicates that decrease of tensile reinforcement and increase of compression reinforcement will increase ductility and cause more moment redistribution. The results also show that transverse reinforcement provides good confining effects and causes significant moment redistribution though it is ignored in the current ACI Code. Equations were proposed for moment redistribution based on the results in this paper.