Flexural Behavior of Sustainable SCC Beams with Treated Recycled Aggregate and Steel Fibers: An Experimental and DIC Study

• Abdullah Hamid Radhi Al-Rekabi

  College of Science , University of Al-Qadisiyah

This paper presents the findings of an experimental investigation into the performance of reinforced self-compacting concrete beams made of 100% recycled aggregates (RA). Three distinct types of steel fibers (SF) were utilized in the study: micro, hook-ended, and a hybrid of both, at varying percentages of 0.5% and 1%. A straightforward and economical treatment has been put forth, entailing the impregnation of recycled aggregates (RAs) with a cement-silica fume slurry (CSFS), with the objective of enhancing their characteristics.  The experimental program comprised seven RA-SCC beams, which were divided into two distinct groups. The first group consists of two non-fibrous beams made with natural and recycled aggregate, while the second group includes five fibrous beams reinforced with steel fibers by two percentages, 0.5 and 1%, respectively. Furthermore, this study employed the DIC method to capture the deflection response, crack width, and crack pattern and morphology of the fibrous and non-fibrous beams with treated recycled aggregate, micro-SF, hooked SF, hybrid SF, and volume fraction of SF. The experimental findings indicated that the utilization of RA reduced the flexural strength of reinforcement SCC beams by approximately 12% in comparison to the reference beam. Notwithstanding the type and amount of fibers utilized, the incorporation of steel fibers yielded flexural performance that was commensurate with or exceeded that of the control beams. Furthermore, a comparison of the DIC data with the experimental results demonstrated the superior accuracy of the DIC method in comparison with visual inspection, particularly in the assessment of cracking loads.

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