Fatigue life of bending reinforced concrete elements with fibre-reinforced matrices

Abstract

An experimental-probabilistic analysis of variations in the load-bearing capacity of bending reinforced concrete elements with matrices reinforced by polypropylene fibres was carried out. A numerical experiment was conducted using the normative methodology of multi-link and layerwise modelling of element cross-sections and experimental "σ-ε" diagrams of fibrocomposites in initial and post-cyclic (50 cycles with ɳ = 0.8 amplitude and zero asymmetry) states. Probabilistic changes in the loadbearing capacity of bending elements subjected to cyclic loads were estimated by the numerical strength modelling of rectangular beams (b x h = 100 х 200 mm) with the one-sided reinforcement (A400 class) of varying intensity. The observed high value of fatigue life of reinforced concrete elements with fibre-reinforced matrices was found to be associated with the presence of mechanisms compensatory for structural changes, i.e., a decrease in the strength is accompanied by an increase in the ability to redistribute internal forces. A post-cyclic reduction in the strength of concrete causes practically no effect on the load-bearing capacity of bending elements with a large and economically preferable range of their structural reinforcement. The reliability kinetics of elements, estimated by the level of the realised concrete strength potential, was analysed. Moderate (μ < μ_R) reinforcement was found to result in objective conditions for increasing the completeness of the stress diagram in the compressed cross-sectional part due to the redistribution of forces along the height. In this case, despite a significant decrease in the strength of concrete, the load-bearing capacity of elements at μ ≤ 2.5% reinforcement remains practically the same after cyclic effects.