Improving flexural ductility of high-strength concrete beams

Abstract

With the advent of advanced mineral and chemical admixtures, the strength level of concrete has been raised dramatically and high-strength concrete (HSC) is becoming more and more commonly used. However, HSC is generally more brittle than normal strength concrete. In fact, it has been shown that the use of HSC, if not properly controlled, could significantly reduce the flexural ductility of reinforced concrete beams. Herein, it is proposed to compensate for the reduction in flexural ductility owing to the use of HSC by adding compression and confining reinforcements. A parametric study based on complete moment–curvature analysis of beam sections made of different grades of concrete and provided with different amounts of tension, compression and confining reinforcements has been carried out to evaluate the increases in flexural ductility achievable by adding compression and confining reinforcements. From the numerical results, the compression and/or confining reinforcements needed to maintain a consistent level of minimum flexural ductility at all concrete strength levels have been determined and correlated to the concrete strength for direct evaluation in the design of HSC beams.