FLEXURAL DUCTILITY OF PREFABRICATED CAGE REINFORCED STEEL - CONCRETE COMPOSITE BEAMS

The present study investigated the flexural response and ductile behaviour of Prefabricated Cage Reinforced Concrete (PCRC) beams. The Prefabricated Cage System (PCS) is fabricated by perforating hollow cold formed steel tubes or steel sheets. The resulting PCS acts as transverse and longitudinal reinforcing steel, working compositely with the surrounding concrete to resist the applied loads. This new and innovative system eliminates some of the weaknesses and detailing problems inherent in traditional Reinforced Concrete Construction. Nine beam specimens reinforced with Prefabricated Cage System were tested under monotonic loading. The effects of thickness of cold formed steel sheet and Grade of Concrete on parameters such as moment curvature, load deflection, ductility and energy absorption were experimentally determined. All beams exhibited considerable amount of deflection, which provide ample warning to the imminence failure. Final failure of PCRC beams were found to occur in pure bending region. The results reveal that PCRC beams show better ductile performance and energy absorption capacity due to the confinement provided by PCS. Displacement and curvature ductility factor for all beams were found and discussed in this paper.