Key Engineering Materials Vol. 857

Abstract: This paper presents the findings of an experimental study of sand concrete plates reinforced with metallic fibers (BSFM) mixes with respect to a reference sandcrete without fibers (BST) that establishes a benchmark for the BSFM mixes. The performed tests are based on the characteristics of fresh sandcrete (density, slump) and on the mechanical behavior of slabs in centered flexion. It was concluded that the metallic fibers improves the tensile strength, rigidity and durability characteristic after cracking. These characteristics are at an optimum for a sand concrete reinforced with metal fibers (BSFM) with 30kg of fibers per m³ of sand concrete.

Abstract: From the sustainability point of view a combination of using water absorption polymer balls in concrete mix produce from Portland limestone cement (IL) is worth to be perceived. Compressive strength and drying shrinkage behavior for the mixes of concrete prepared by Ordinary Portland Cement (O.P.C) and Portland limestone cement (IL) were investigated in this research. Water absorbent polymer balls (WAPB) are innovative module in producing building materials due to the internal curing which eliminates autogenous shrinkage, enhances the strength at early age, improve the durability, give higher compressive strength at early age, and reduce the effect of insufficient external curing. Polymer balls (WAPB) had been used in the mixes of this research to provide good progress in compressive strength with time. Water absorption polymer balls have the ability to absorb water and after usage in concrete it will spill it out and shrink leaving voids of their own diameter before shrinking that lead to provide internal curing. The required quantity of water for the mixes were reduced due to the addition of water from the absorption polymers. Mixes produced from Portland limestone cement in this research show drying shrinkage results and compressive strength results lower than mixes made from ordinary Portland cement.

Abstract: Plain Concrete pipes serve as effective underground infrastructure lines especially as sewer lines and culverts. The installation quality has a high effect on the performance of the buried pipe-soil system besides the pipe material strength. In this research, experimental investigation of buried plain concrete pipes installed in gravelly-sand soil and subjected to strip loading platform as surface loading to search the effect of the bedding compaction on the pipe. Granular soil bedding is a traditional material surrounding concrete pipes. An experimental testing program for two precast plain concrete pipes has 300 mm inner diameter was conducted in a laboratory soil box test facility. Loading on a pipes-soil system were applied up to collapse. Circumferential strain in pipes was measured by means of strain gauges in addition to the measurements of displacement developed in the vertical direction by means of a linear variable differential transformer (LVDT’s) and dials gauges. It is concluded that in case of loose bedding, a higher bedding factor of 1.83 is produced in comparison with dense bedding which produces a bedding factor of 1.49, thus yields that the quality of installation is improved with relatively loose bedding under the pipe.

Abstract: This paper aims to provide a numerical model able to represent the behavior of reinforced concrete slabs subjected to impact loads. The nonlinear finite element analysis adopted by ABAQUS/Explicit Software was used in this study. A parametric study was conducted to provide a comprehensive understanding of the behavior of reinforced concrete slabs subjected to impact load. Two parameters were varied amongst the slabs which classified in to two groups. In the first groups, the thickness of slabs is variable, which was equal to (75, 100, 150 mm). In the second group, the thickness of the slab is constant and the variable was the reinforcement ratio, which ranged from (0.58 to 1%), per layer. In dynamic analysis, the load-time history and deflection-time relation were investigated. For the first group, obviously, as the slab thickness increased, the maximum central deflection of the slabs decreased by (48 – 84 %). Also, the impact force of the slabs increased by (40 – 106%) as the thickness of the slab increased by (33 – 100%). For the second group, the maximum central deflection of the slabs decreased by (6.6 – 8.8 %) as the steel reinforcement increased by (0.58 – 1 %). It was observed in the second group that the change in the value of the impact force was very limited. This lead to a fact that the impact force was not affected by the change of the reinforcement ratio, but mainly affected by the change of the slab thickness.

Abstract: The experimental investigations were carried out to study the behavior of reinforced concrete beams strengthened by CFRP sheets under different loading conditions (pure bending, combined bending and torsion and pure torsion). The experimental work included testing twenty RC beams of the rectangular cross-section of dimensions of 160×240 mm and of 2600 mm length with an area of the ordinary reinforcement being kept constant for all beams. Two parameters were taken into consideration (Twisting to bending moment ratio (T/M) and CFRP strengthening pattern). The tested beams are divided into five groups. Each group consists of four beams; the first beam is without CFRP strengthening, the other three are strengthened with CFRP sheets of different arrangements (U-stirrups, U-stirrups and longitudinal CFRP sheets in the bottom and Full U- stirrups wrapping). Each beam is loaded to a different loading conditions (pure bending, T/M = 0.5, T/M = 1.0, T/M = 2.0 and pure torsion). The CFRP sheets were attached externally to the beam. Test results were analyzed based on the influence of CFRP on the ultimate load, vertical mid-span deflection and failure modes. In the experimental work, it was found that all strengthening patterns of CFRP sheets exhibited a significant increase in ultimate strength. This increase reached up to 78.9% for tested beams, when the beam strengthened in the form of full U- stirrups wrapping pattern for T/M = 0.5. In this study, it is observed that the use of external CFRP sheets attached to the tension sides of beams (U-stirrups and longitudinal CFRP in the bottom) could enhance the ultimate load capacity by 32.7% over the capacity of the unstrengthen control beam for T/M = 1.0.

Abstract: The numerical investigations were carried out to study the behavior of reinforced concrete beams strengthened by CFRP under different loading conditions (pure bending and combined bending and torsion). The numerical work included analysis of eight experimentally tested beams of rectangular cross-section dimensions of (160×240) mm and (2600) mm length keeping the area of the ordinary reinforcement constant for all beams. The following parameters were taken into consideration, twisting to bending moment ratio (T/M) and CFRP strengthening arrangement. The analyzed beams are divided into four groups. Each group consists of two beams; the first beam is without CFRP strengthening, the other beam is strengthened with CFRP. Each beam is loaded to a different loading conditions (pure bending, T/M=0.5, T/M=1.0, T/M=2.0). The CFRP sheets were attached externally to the beam. Analysis results were analyzed based on influence of CFRP on ultimate load and vertical mid-span deflection. According to the numerical study, it was found that all strengthening arrangements of CFRP sheets exhibited a significant increase in ultimate strength. The three-dimensional (3D) finite element model (FEM) utilized in present work is capable to simulate the behavior of externally strengthened reinforced concrete beams by CFRP. Full bond connections (no slip) are assumed between the CFRP sheets and surface of concrete. The comparison between the numerical and the experimental results declared the validity of the numerical analysis where the range of the (P_exp./P_ANSYS) ratio in ultimate load was from 0.847 to 1.157. The general behavior of the (FEM) shows good agreement with the test results from the experimentally tested beams.

Abstract: The main objective of this study is to introduce a systematic design procedure for short-span segmental beams following a sophisticated ACI 440.2R-17 design procedure. The general aspects of innovative short-span segmental beams are easy to fabricate, economical and rapidly placed in pre-specified positions. Short-span segmental beams fabricated from individual precast plain-concrete blocks and CFRP plates. Recently, experimental tests performed on short-span segmental beams, by the authors, investigated CFRP plate-bonding, CFRP plate cross-sectional area, the thickness of plate-bonding epoxy resin, surface-to-surface condition of concrete blocks, as well as, interface condition of the bonding surface. The experimental program comprises testing of eight short-span segmental beams with an overall length, width and depth of (900, 200 and 80) mm, respectively, divided into four groups and subjected to 4-point bending test. The investigated test specimens exhibited considerable flexural strength under loading. Systematic designing of short-span segmental beams (SSSB) is presented in the current research. The advanced design method of SSSB with 1-layer of CFRP plates revealed an overestimation in ultimate strength by (73 and 15) % from the tested SSSB consisted of 1-layer CFRP/cementitious adhesive and SSSB has 1-layer CFRP/epoxy adhesive; respectively. Whereas the design method of SSSB with 2-layer of CFRP plates resulted in overestimation in strength by (71 and 45) % from the physical models of SSSB consisted of 2-layer CFRP/cementitious adhesive and SSSB has 2-layer CFRP /epoxy adhesive; respectively.

Abstract: One important natural property of asphalt materials is the ability to self-repair damages. This property could extend service life of asphalt roads and help deter maintenance to some accountable time. This property is basically working on rejuvenating the aged bitumen when cracks appear. With this purpose, two types of asphalt mixtures were developed. Aged mixture and unaged mixture for the purpose of comparison between the results. The objective of this work is to investigate the effect of higher temperature in Iraq on enhancing the asphalt self-repair. Different rest periods were applied to give time to the bitumen to move and redistribute again while reversing the ageing effect. The major agent in that is the viscosity of asphalt, which is reduced by high temperature and allow the bitumen to move again and increase the wettability of asphalt. The ageing of samples was done in the laboratory according to specifications and the temperature was provided in field as the study focus on summer temperature of Iraq. It was found that applying only temperature on aged asphalt reduced the viscosity and increased the flow of bitumen, which is a highly promising finding at this stage and further investigations are recommended in the end of this study.

Abstract: Gypsum is one of the important construction materials in Iraq in plastering surfaces and gypsum board , the ability of gypsum to give a comfortable an aesthetic ambiance as a construction material increase the need of gypsum , The particle size , total surface area and particle size distribution were factors affecting plaster properties used for construction properties . In this study gypsum paste was used with different mixing ratios of particle size and studied the physical properties of these types of pastes named (standard consistency ,setting time ,density) and compressive strength . The results showed that the water to gypsum ratio increased with increasing the fineness of the gypsum to (0.75%) and the setting time to the maximum allowed according to the Iraqi standard (25 minute) when the distribution of particle size between (600-75) microns . Thus ,superplasticizer was used in more fine paste types .There is a direct relationship between setting time and the water to gypsum ratio ,but the setting time decreasing with increasing the fineness of the gypsum when the distribution of particle size between (300-75) microns. There is also a direct relationship between density and gypsum fineness . In terms of compressive resistance , it increases slightly when the particle size distribution is between (900-75) μm and increases significantly (40-42)% relatively to the reference paste with particle size distribution (300-75) μm and superplasticizer additive .Compression strength is also affected by the water to gypsum ratio ,there is an inverse relationship between them.

Abstract: This paper presents a numerical investigation for the behavior of simply supported T-section deep beams, which strengthened with Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) sheets. The used specimens were (1.8 m length), (450 mm width and 100 mm depth) flange dimensions, and (180 mm width and 360 mm depth) web dimensions. The specimens were divided into four groups. Mainly, the difference between specimens in each group is in the main reinforcement details. The control group consisted of six beams unstrengthen with CFRP, the other groups were similar to the control group but externally strengthened with CFRP sheets, which were (0.131 mm) thickness. In detail, the second group was strengthened with CFRP sheet at the bottom surface of the web. The third group was strengthened horizontally with CFRP sheets at both sides of the specimen's web. The last group was strengthened with three sheets of CFRP; one at the bottom face of the web and the others at the web sides. The results show that using CFRP at the bottom slightly increased the ultimate strength and changed the failure mode from flexural to shear. Using CFRP at the sides significantly increased both flexural and shear strength, while using CFRP at the sides and bottom of the web did not significantly enhanced the ultimate strength in comparison with using CFRP at the sides only.