Experimental Research of Strength Characteristics of Continuous Reinforced Concrete Beams with Combined Reinforcement, and Modelling Their Work by the Finite Element Method

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of experimental research of work of continuous combined-reinforced concrete beams. The authors conducted experimental studies of two-span reinforced concrete beams in which classical rebar frames and dispersed reinforcement of concrete with steel fibers were combined. To investigate the effect of such reinforcement on the stress-strain state of the beams, load-bearing capacity and deformation characteristics, test specimens were made with three different variants of the steel fiber volume distribution, but with the same relative percentage of reinforcement. A numerical experiment was also performed in which the operation of the experimental beams was modeled by the finite element method. The results of this experiment, their analysis and comparison with laboratory data are presented. It is established that the dispersed reinforcement by steel fibers of the stretched zones of the beam reduces the stresses in the rod reinforcement, and allows to slowing down the development of plastic deformations in the reinforcement during the redis-tribution of forces in the inseparable beam.