Experimental Investigation of Short Concrete-Filled Lightly Reinforced RPC Compression Members under Edge Load

Ali, Ammar; Mahdi, Fadhil

doi:10.22059/ceij.2025.383449.2168

Experimental Investigation of Short Concrete-Filled Lightly Reinforced RPC Compression Members under Edge Load

Articles in Press

Authors

Ammar Ali ¹
fadhil mahdi ²

¹ Civil Engineering Department, University of Technology, Baghdad, Iraq

² Department of Civil Engineering, University of Technology, Baghdad, Iraq

10.22059/ceij.2025.383449.2168

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of the unsymmetrical loading on compression members like columns and piers of bridges. The edge loads are subjected directly on only one side of the cross-section of the compression member. The behavior of solid columns and hollow reactive powder concrete RPC columns with normal concrete NC filling was investigated. To explore the role of the reinforcement on this novel type of compression members both reinforced and unreinforced specimens were tested. The hollow precast RPC shells were of various thicknesses along with the solid columns. The deflection and strain responses were plotted and failure modes were recorded. It was found that increasing the thicknesses of the RPC walls from 25 mm to 50 mm led to an increase in the ultimate load by approximately 10%. A brittle failure was observed in all specimens, and the crack loads were close to the ultimate loads. Increasing the lateral reinforcement ratio of the specimens enhances the strength effectively. The significance of the present study is to investigate the behavior of the hybrid members manufactured from different grades of concrete under the action of the edge loads as in the case of bridge piers and precast construction.

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