The Behaviour of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Piers Using Different Types of Concrete Mix

Abstract

This paper investigates the behaviour of reinforced concrete piers produced from four different concrete mixes. All samples have identical dimensions of 200 mm in width, 200 mm in depth, and 600 mm in length with a column cross-section of 200 × 300 mm and 200 mm in depth. The four various concrete mixes were: Normal concrete (NC), Green concrete (GC) which used a recycled aggregate with a replacement ratio of 50% instead of normal aggregate, GC in addition to 2% volumetric ratio of recycled steel fibre (TRSF) and high strength concrete mix at pier cap region (THSC). Experimental tests have been conducted to determine the behaviour of the piers in terms of first cracking loading, load failure, crack width and deflection. Results showed that the ultimate load value of GC was less than the NC pier by 2.41%. Furthermore, there was a significant increase in the ultimate load of TRSF pier by 4.76% as compared with GC pier because of the recycled steel fibre in the pier cap that affects positively on crack width. The results also showed that the use of HSC in the pier cap region improved the failure load by 29.7 % when compared with GC pier.