Flexural behavior of high-strength, steel-reinforced, and prestressed concrete beams

To study the flexural behavior of prestressed concrete beams with high-strength steel reinforcement and high-strength concrete and improve the crack width calculation method for flexural components with such reinforcement and concrete, 12 specimens were tested under static loading. The failure modes, flexural strength, ductility, and crack width of the specimens were analyzed. The results show that the failure mode of the test beams was similar to that of the beams with normal reinforced concrete. A brittle failure did not occur in the specimens. To further understand the working mechanism, the results of other experimental studies were collected and discussed. The results show that the normalized reinforcement ratio has a greater effect on the ductility than the concrete strength. The cracking- and peak-moment formulas in the code for the design of concrete (GB 50010-2010) applied to the beams were both found to be acceptable. However, the calculation results of the maximum crack width following GB 50010-2010 and EN 1992-1-1:2004 were considerably conservative. In the context of GB 50010-2010, a revised formula for the crack width is proposed with modifications to two major factors: the average crack spacing and an amplification coefficient of the maximum crack width to the average spacing. The mean value of the ratio of the maximum crack width among the 12 test results and the relative calculation results from the revised formula is 1.017, which is better than the calculation result from GB 50010-2010. Therefore, the new formula calculates the crack width more accurately in high-strength concrete and high-strength steel reinforcement members. Finally, finite element models were established using ADINA software and validated based on the test results. This study provides an important reference for the development of high-strength concrete and high-strength steel reinforcement structures.