Experimental investigations on actively bent concrete shells

Abstract

This paper concerns a novel method of constructing shell structures from flat concrete plates by means of active bending. The method is described together with a series of experimental investigations. The theoretical background for this method is given in Berger et al., Actively bent concrete shells, Struct Concrete, 2020. The method makes use of the high capacity for rotation exhibited by thin concrete plates that are reinforced with highly elastic tensile reinforcement. When these plates are subjected to eccentrical forces introduced by external tendons they are raised and bent precisely into a desired curved shape. The method was investigated and refined along with a series of experiments which are the subject of this paper: uniaxial tensile tests on rovings to determine their elongation at fracture, bending tests on small concrete plates to determine possible radii of curvature, and large-scale tests to demonstrate the erection process of actively bent shells.