Strengthening of Cracked One–Way Reinforced Concrete Bubbled Slabs using External Strands

  • Falah Hassan Ibrahim, Ali Hussein Ali Al-Ahmed

Abstract

In the present work, an external post-tensioning technique harnessing prestressed strands was adopted to strengthen the cracked sections during the serviceability stage of bubbled slabs. Ten full scale one-way bubbled deck slabs having dimensions (3200mm length, 570 mm width and 150 mm depth) were cast with 100mm and 120 mm bubble diameters. Each bubbled slab comprised 66 high-density plastic balls fixed between two reinforcement meshes. Two of these bubbled slabs were tested to complete failure and considered as references slabs without strengthening. The remaining eight slabs were strengthened during their serviceability stage through employing two external post-tensioning prestressed wires with two lengths (1800mm and 2400mm) and two eccentricities (120mm and 150 mm). The eleventh specimen was cast as solid slab without bubbles. An explicit enhancement was realized in the general behaviour of the strengthened slabs in regards to ultimate strength, flexural stiffness, deflection, edge rotation, concrete and steel strains, and crack pattern when compared with non- strengthening slabs. Besides that, results demonstrated that minimum and maximum ultimate strength of strengthened cracked bubbled slab was greater than conventional bubbled slabs by (25.9-29.3%) and (46.1-50.6%), respectively.

Published
2021-04-07
How to Cite
Ali Hussein Ali Al-Ahmed, F. H. I. (2021). Strengthening of Cracked One–Way Reinforced Concrete Bubbled Slabs using External Strands. Design Engineering, 2021(3), 60 - 78. Retrieved from http://thedesignengineering.com/index.php/DE/article/view/1207
Section
Articles