BEHAVIOR OF REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAMS CONTAINING LIGHTWEIGHT AGGREGATE IN THE TENSILE ZONE

Authors

Jamal Khatib, Professor, Faculty of Engineering, Beirut Arab University, Beirut, LebanonFollow
Ali Jahami, PhD, Faculty of Engineering, Beirut Arab University, Beirut,Follow
Oussama Baalbaki, Professor, Faculty of Engineering, Beirut Arab University, Beirut, LebanonFollow
Adel Elkordi, Professor, Faculty of Engineering, Beirut Arab University, Beirut, LebanonFollow
Hakim Abdelgader, Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Tripoli, Tripoli, Libya; Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Gdansk University, Gdansk, PolandFollow

Keywords

Cracks, Deflection, Lightweight concrete, Reinforced concrete beam, Waste polystyrene

Disciplines

Architecture | Business | Engineering | Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Abstract

In reinforced concrete design, the concrete in the tensile zone is assumed to be ineffective and increase the dead load of the structural elements. In order to reduce the self-weight, this paper examines the structural behavior of reinforced concrete beams containing lightweight concrete in the tensile region and normal weight concrete in the rest of the beam. The lightweight concrete was made from waste polystyrene. Four reinforced concrete beams were prepared with different depth of lightweight concrete. The control beam B1 consists of normal concrete. In Beams B2, B3 and B4, the depth of lightweight concrete was 25%, 50% and 75% of the total depth of the beam measured from the bottom surface respectively. A four-point bending test was conducted on all beams. The beams were loaded in increments until failure. At each load increment, the central deflection was determined. Cracks initiation and the mode of failure were observed during the experiment. The failure load was found to decreases with the increase of depth of lightweight concrete. The presence of lightweight aggregate tends to cause brittle failure. In addition, the mode of failure for reinforced concrete beams containing lightweight concrete was a shear failure.

Recommended Citation

Khatib, Jamal; Jahami, Ali; Baalbaki, Oussama; Elkordi, Adel; and Abdelgader, Hakim (2020) "BEHAVIOR OF REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAMS CONTAINING LIGHTWEIGHT AGGREGATE IN THE TENSILE ZONE," BAU Journal - Science and Technology: Vol. 1: Iss. 2, Article 3.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54729/2959-331X.1017

ISSN

2959-331X