Flexural stiffness of lightly reinforced beams made of structural lightweight aggregate concrete

Abstract

This study focuses on the deformation behavior of structural lightweight aggregate concrete (SLWAC) beams subjected to short-term loading. The study considers eight beams with a reinforcement ratio that varied from 0.30 to 0.55%. The inverse analysis approach, previously proposed by the authors, is used for tension-stiffening modeling of the SLWAC in flexure. The modeling considers the shrinkage effect. To represent the tension-stiffening effect in SLWAC beams, the flexural model reported in the literature is modified. To check the adequacy of the proposed modeling technique, the deflections predicted by a commercial finite element software package are checked against the test results of several beams reported in the literature. The comparative analysis reveals the satisfactory accuracy of the proposed modeling approach because the errors of the deflection prediction are within the 5% interval. Deformation analysis is illustrated for a simply supported slab designed following ACI requirements.