Fatigue Tests of Concrete Slabs Reinforced with Stainless Steel Bars

Abstract

Experimental studies on fatigue behavior of reinforced concrete slab with stainless steel rebar and carbon steel rebar have shown that, at the same reinforcement ratio, the slope of the deflection-cycle number curves of stainless steel-reinforced concrete slab is lower than that of ordinary steel-reinforced concrete slab. The higher the reinforcement ratio is, the smaller the maximum crack width would be. Higher stress level contributes to larger deflection and reinforcement strain in midspan and shorter fatigue life. Compared to the ordinary steel-reinforced concrete slab, the stainless steel-reinforced concrete slab shows narrower maximum crack under the same number of loading cycles. Less significant midspan deflection, reinforcement strain, and longer fatigue life are observed in stainless steel-reinforced concrete slab at the same reinforcement ratio, stress level, and cycling time. With the increase of reinforcement ratio, the deflection and fatigue life extended.