Fatigue strength in polymer-reinforced concrete beams under cyclic loading

Abstract

This research focuses on producing an inexpensive polymer, and also on experiments for producing various colors of the high strength polymer concrete in concrete structures. At present, only a few tests on the shear behavior of polymer-reinforced concrete (PRC) beams have been reported. Even fewer experiments on fatigue loading have been carried out to date. In the current experiments, reinforced concrete beams with a polymer fraction are investigated. The beams in this study are reinforced with conventional stirrups at appropriate intervals, and are designed to take static and fatigue loads. The strength of the beams is measured and the behavior of the beams under each loading are observed to determine the advantages of adding a polymer to reinforced concrete beams. Since the shear-fatigue behavior of PRC beams is not well understood, the appropriate limit state model of PRC beams subjected to shear-fatigue loading is developed in this research by incorporating the uncertainties which are assessed based on fatigue test results. Using specimens of reinforced concrete or PRC beams with and without stirrups, compression and split cylinder tests, as well as fatigue tests, were performed. The static test data consist of load, displacement and strain measurements at specified reinforcement locations. In this study, mean regression S N curves are obtained to investigate the shear-fatigue characteristics that the test results are distributed over a wide fatigue life range at the same fatigue load level but, in general, the mean shear-fatigue strength of PRC beams with stirrups is higher than for PRC beams without stirrups. In the static tests, it has been observed that the beams have the same fracture modes as those of reinforced concrete. In the fatigue tests, the PRC beams were observed to perform rather poorly with regard to impact load, but it can be said that the increase in strength and excellent repair performance of the beams were verified. Consequently, this work strongly suggests that steam curing or air curing must be used to increase the strength.