Title:
Cracking Behavior of Reinforced High-Strength Concrete Tension Ties
Author(s):
Michel Lorrain, Olivier Maurel, and Mohamed Seffo
Publication:
Structural Journal
Volume:
95
Issue:
5
Appears on pages(s):
626-635
Keywords:
axial load; bond (concrete to reinforcement); bond stress; cracking;
crack and width spacing; high-strength concrete (HSC); reinforcement ratio; tie;
high-performance concrete (HPC);
DOI:
10.14359/577
Date:
9/1/1998
Abstract:
The cracking behavior of both normal strength concrete (NSC) and high-strength concrete (HSC) tension ties under short term imposed load was investigated experimentally. The mechanical strength of the concrete, the reinforcement ratio, and the yield strength of deformed steel bars were taken as test parameters. The first crack load increases proportionally to the concrete tensile strength and decreases when the reinforcement ratio rises because of shrinkage self-stresses. Tension stiffening is significantly improved in the crack formation phase and tends to decrease during the stabilizing phase, due to bond damage between steel and HSC. Crack spacing mainly depends on the reinforcement ratio, and no significant change due to better concrete performance is observed under imposed load, the use of HSC (fcN = 100 MPa [14,500 psi]) allows a reduction of 10 to 60 percent of the mean crack width depending on the loading level due to the strain reduction, compared to NSC (fcN 40 MPa [5800 psi]).