Effectiveness of Swimmer Bars as Shear Reinforcement in Rectangular Reinforced Concrete Beam Under High Cyclic Loading
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Date
2019-03
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Reinforced Concrete beams are important structural elements that transmit the loads from slabs and bridge decks, to structural column piers. The design of those beams must be safe against internal actions i.e. bending moments, shear forces and torsions so that they will perform effectively during their service life.
In building construction, stirrups are most commonly used as shear reinforcement. Stirrups may be vertical, inclined or bent up bars; but the cost and safety of shear reinforcement in reinforced concrete beams lead to the study of other alternatives. Swimmer bar system is a new type of shear reinforcement. It is a small inclined bar with its both ends bent horizontally for a short distance and spliced to both top and bottom flexural steel reinforcements.
Previous works on Swimmer bars revealed that the effect due to static load on beams reinforced with Swimmer bars has more shear carrying capacity than vertical stirrups and can be placed at larger spacing. The beam consisting of swimmer bars showed much more stiffness than beam with conventional bars. This research focuses on the potency of using swimmer bars instead of normal shear reinforcements with the same amount of reinforcement area under single sided high cyclic loading. In addition to the experimental test, a validated Finite Element Model (FEM), created in ABAQUS V6.13-1 is used to investigate the effect of rectangular spliced swimmer shear reinforcement bars.
Based on the experimental investigation and finite element analysis of this research, the ultimate load capacity of the beam is increased by 3.75% and the respective deflection is less in rectangular spliced swimmer bar beam as compared to normal stirrup beam. As a result, rectangular spliced swimmer bar improved the shear load carrying capacity in the reinforced concrete beams. Besides, compared to the normal stirrups, fewer and smaller cracks were observed when using spliced swimmer bars.
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Keywords
High Cyclic Loading, Shear Reinforcement, Swimmer Bars, Rectangular Reinforced Concrete