Experimental behaviour of steel fiber high strength reinforced concrete and composite columns

This paper presents experimental behaviour of eccentrically loaded plain and steel fiber high strength reinforced concrete and concrete-encased composite columns. In the experimental study, a total of 32 square section both reinforced concrete and composite column specimens were fabricated at 0, 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0% volume fractions of steel fiber contents to examine the effects of steel fibers on column behaviour. Besides this, the composite columns were constructed and tested using almost the same conditions with reinforced concrete columns to investigate the column experimental behaviour. The complete load-deflection behaviour and strength of column specimens were obtained and the results were discussed in the study. in addition, the column specimens were analysed based on a theoretical method considering the nonlinear behaviour of the materials. The presented experimental study indicates that the inclusion of steel fibers in the range 0.75 to 1.0% volume fraction improves confinement and ductility features of high strength reinforced concrete and composite columns significantly. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.