Behavior of short reinforced porcelinite concrete columns under concentric loads

Abstract EN

This study presents on experimental method to investigate the behavior of reinforced porcelinite concrete columns subjected to concentric load.

The experimental work includes investigation of ten lightweight concrete columns with square cross section 190 × 190mm and 1000mm in length subjected to concentric load to assess the effect of the amount of longitudinal steel reinforcement, lateral tie reinforcement and grade of concrete.

From the experimental observation it was found that the porcelinite aggregate is a good structural material to produce lightweight concrete columns.

It is noted from tested columns that keeping the amount of the longitudinal steel ratio constant, the increase in the amount of transverse steel to about four times (by decreasing the spacing to about a quarter according to the ACI-Code (318M-05)) gave a significant influence on column post-cracking behavior.

The improvements in the column due to higher value of confinement include : (i) less brittle behavior ; (ii) significantly less damage to the concrete core ; (iii) 12 % increase in column load carrying capacity.

Also, A modified formula for column capacity is proposed to take into account the influence of spacing of ties (effect of confinement).