Role of smart concrete in strain sensing and structural properties of reinforced concrete beam

Abstract

AbstractPresent work demonstrates the experimental investigation on four large scale reinforced concrete (RC) beams cast with and without smart concrete to study strain and damage sensing properties (for health monitoring), effect of carbon fiber (CF) on ultimate strength, crack pattern, and stiffness response under monotonically increased loading. A total of four beams, one without and three with smart concrete (CF‐based concrete) having similar dimensions, similar percentage of reinforcement, similar aspect ratio, same grade of steel but having variable strengths of concrete were cast and tested for evaluating above said properties. Micro CFs were placed only in mid‐span region for a length of 350 mm and a depth of 55.5 mm at top and bottom surface of the beam from economical point of view for health monitoring. From obtained experimental results, it was found that RC beam embedded with smart concrete can be used for structural health monitoring (SHM) and obtained fractional change in resistance of smart concrete can be corelated with compressive strain in concrete and tensile strain in steel up to good extent. Along with strain and damage sensing properties, the effect of smart concrete on structural properties is also reported and it was found that, apart from showing positive results for SHM, it also increases ultimate strength carrying capacity of the same RC beam. Also the experimentally obtained ultimate strength values were compared with theoretical predicted values using IS456‐2000, ACI 318–11, and CSA A23.3–04 codes.