Nonlinear behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) and steel fiber added RC (WS-SFRC) model piles in medium dense sand

Behavior of laterally loaded reinforced concrete (RC) model piles in medium dense sand was investigated in this study. Influence of steel fibers on nonlinear RC pile response was especially studied. Five types of model piles were tested under lateral loading and lateral + axial loading. RC-with bending reinforcement pile tests involved testing of model piles with and without shear reinforcement. Tests were performed also on concrete and steel fiber reinforced concrete piles in order to observe the influence of steel fibers by isolating them from bending and shear reinforcement. The steel fiber ratio by volume was decided as 1% based on previous experience. Prior to the model pile tests, bending tests were made on flexural elements to obtain the moment-curvature relationship. The study also enabled observation of loading rate effects and influence of axial load and steel fiber on reinforced pile response. Test results show that the RC-with steel fiber pile behavior is superior to the conventional RC pile under axial loading and different rate of loadings. It is concluded that steel fibers can be utilized to replace shear reinforcement to produce concrete piles with only bending reinforcement. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.