EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON BEHAVIOR OF

HYBRID CONCRETE COLUMNS

DISSERTATION PHASE II

SYNOPSIS
Submitted by

SARAVANA KUMAR G (19J018)

in partial fulfilment for the award of the degree

of
MASTER OF ENGINEERING
IN
STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING

THIAGARAJAR COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

(A Govt.Aided ISO 9001:2008 certified Autonomous Institution affiliated to Anna University)

MADURAI -625015
 1. INTRODUCTION
Ordinary conventional concrete with large member sizes or
high strength concrete are generally used in structures carrying heavy
loads. They have quite popular limitations such as very low tensile
strength, durability, ductility, and large maintenance. To overcome these
shortcomings and to enable cost effective construction with
unprecedented and innovative features such as lightweight, long span,
low depth structural members, the researchers, P. Richard and M.
Cheyrezy developed Ultra High Strength Concrete (UHSC) in the early
1990s at Bouygues laboratory in France. It was achieved by optimization
of granular packing of fine dry powders to obtain a very dense
microstructure which forms the special concrete with advanced
mechanical and physical properties. Ultra-high strength concrete is an
innovative cementitious composite having a minimum compressive
strength of 150 MPa ranging from 200 MPa to 800 MPa. Though UHSC
has several advantages over conventional normal strength and high
strength concrete it suffers some disadvantages such as high initial
production cost and environmental impact due to high consumption of
cement.
To overcome these difficulties and also for effective utilization
of both UHSC and normal strength concrete (NSC) properties by
eliminating their individual disadvantages, an innovative hybrid concrete
column of UHSC and NSC in outer and inner cores respectively has been
proposed.

2. NEED FOR STUDY

In normal construction practice, the cost of formwork accounts
for nearly about 40% of overall cost and also it is difficult for erection and
removal in high rise buildings. Also due to the effect of shrinkage, there is
a problem of spalling of concrete which leads to reduction in strength and
load carrying capacity of concrete column. So, in order to overcome these
difficulties, the solution which is currently in practice is the use of steel
concrete composite columns. The concrete filled steel tube (CFST)
columns serves some of the advantages such as the steel tube acts as
reinforcement for the column and also provide confinement to the inner
core concrete for the enhancement of strength and ductility to column. But
the problem with the use of CFST columns is the steel tube is easily
susceptible to corrosion and fire, also the connection between the beam-
column joints are relatively complex and special measures have to be
carried out. The next alternative is the use of fiber reinforced polymer
(FRP) in concrete columns. Since FRP is lightweight due to high strength
to weight ratio and offers high corrosion resistance it can be use as non-
corroding permanent formwork for columns. However, it has some
shortcomings such as at the concrete-FRP interface, moisture can be
trapped leading to freezing thaw damage also due to creep and impact
collision there is a reduction in strength of FRP columns and due to
temperature changes fire resistance of FRP diminishes and possible release
of toxic gases. As the innovative UHSC have excellent properties such as
physical resistance to impact, mechanical resistance to abrasion and
corrosion and impermeable against impregnation of moisture and other
chemicals.

3. OBJECTIVES
The objective of the present study is,
To study the compressive behavior of hybrid ultra-high
strength concrete (UHSC) and normal strength concrete (NSC)
experimentally by varying the thickness of UHSC and simulate the
failure process using the commercial finite element software, ABAQUS.
4. LITERATURE REVIEW
The inferences from the literatures reviewed for the study are
summarized as,
 The ultimate bearing capacity of CFST column with UHSC
increases with increasing characteristic strength ( fck ) of concrete
but beyond the lateral deflection of 300 mm, increasing fck doesn’t
show a significant effect on the bearing capacity for a constant fy
because increasing fck has lower compression ductility when the
steel tubes are of identical strength. By having constant outer
diameter and varying the thickness when the steel ratio is
increased, the ultimate bearing capacity, N d of the CFST column is
increased because the steel tube restrains the lateral expansion of
concrete and the confinement effect plays.
[Zhen Wang et al., (2020) “Performance of Special-Shaped
Concrete-Filled Square Steel Tube Column under Axial
Compression”, Advances in Civil Engineering, vol.2020, Article
ID 1763142,16 pages.]
 The slenderness ratio, 77 is considered as threshold which
compromise in load bearing capacity of concentrically loaded
UHSC fibre reinforced column also when the eccentricity ranges
from 35 to 50 mm balanced condition featured with maximum
bending capacity also increment in eccentricity after balanced
condition the ductility index has no influence.
[Zrar Sedeeq Othman & Ahmed Heidayet Mohammed (2019),
“Behaviour of Eccentric Concrete Columns Reinforced with
Carbon Fibre-Reinforced Polymer Bars”, Advances in Civil
Engineering, vol.2019, Article ID 1769212,13 pages.]
 The steam curing massively improves compressive strength of
UHSC along with improved long-term durability and also the
linearity of compressive stress strain curve depends on the method
of curing and the relationship becomes more linear for the steam
treated UHSC. The rate of loading between 0.24 and 1.74 MPa /s
did not have a major impact on UHSC’s compressive behaviour.
[Graybeal, B., & Davis, M. (2008) “Cylinder or cube: Strength
testing of 80–200 MPa (11.6–29 ksi) ultra-high-performance
fiber-reinforced concrete” ACI Materials Journal,105(6), 603–
609.]
 The direction of the concrete placement has a noticeable impact on
capacity due to the impact of fibre orientation with a higher
volume parallel to the loading axis when concreting. For a given
configuration of transverse reinforcement, with reduced spacing
increases confinement and results in increase of post-peak ductility
with moderately improved axial capacity of the columns. For a
given transverse reinforcement there is no substantial impact of
configuration on the axial strength of columns while toughness
increases.
[Nouran Elmassalami et al., (2020) “Response of concrete
columns reinforced with longitudinal and transverse BFRP bars
under concentric and eccentric loading”, Composite Structures,
vol.255, 113057, ISSN 0263-8223]
 Due to ultra-fine aggregate and very low water cement ratio of
UHSC the bond strength at the interface exceeds the minimum
requirements mentioned in ACI-546-06 and achieved an excellent
bonding category. The interfacial bond strength, cohesion and
friction of composite UHSC-NSC specimens were apparently
higher than NSC-NSC specimens.
 [Yang Zhang et al., (2020) “Interfacial bond properties between
normal strength concrete substrate and ultra-high-performance
concrete as a repair material”, Construction and Building
Materials vol.235]
 The load deflection curve of non-fibrous specimens shows only
elastic stage and failure stage whereas the fibre incorporated
UHSC specimens show three stages of load deflection curve such
as elastic stage, deflection hardening stage and post peak stage
which indicates that the friction between the fibres and the
concrete influence the crack initiation behaviour showing ductile
characteristics after the crack formation.
[Abbas.S et al., (2016),“Ultra-High-Performance Concrete:
Mechanical, Performance, Durability, Sustainability and
Implementation Challenges”, International Journal of Concrete
Structures and Materials,vol.10, pp 271-295]
 The RC beams retrofitted with UHSC strips of single thickness
show linear elastic behaviour up to the first crack, further they
develop multiple cracks and failed in flexure. All the retrofitted
beams were stronger and stiffer than RC beams and when they are
preloaded at 70%, 80%, 90% of ultimate load, the retrofitted
beams regained the original load carrying capacity and strength. In
retrofitted beams the initial cracks occur at higher loads than RC
beams and multiple cracks occur in the strips due to fibre bridging
and only a single macro crack propagated to the RC beam.
[Ramachandra Murthy.A et al., (2016) “Strength and ductility of
RC beams strengthened with ultra-high strength cementitious
composite overlay”, Journal of Structural Engineering (Madras),
vol.43, pp 190-198.]
 The crushing of concrete core, concrete spalling and buckling of
compressed reinforcing bars are completely prevented by the
addition of steel fibres to high strength concrete also inclusion of
steel fibres can effectively reduce the slenderness of reinforced
concrete and composite steel concrete columns. By adding 0.75 to
1% of steel fibres to high strength concrete columns, it
significantly improves the confinement, ductility and
deformability.
[Serkan Tokgoz(2009), “Effects of steel fiber addition on the
behaviour of biaxially loaded high strength concrete columns”,
Materials and Structures, vol.42, pp 1125-1138]
 The fibre UHSC beams delayed the flexural cracks having
deflection hardening compared with non-fibred beams also
increasing the reinforcement ratio, the fibre de-bonding zone is
reduced. In the constant moment region of non-fibred UHSC
beams, the deflection ductility reduced to a wide range with
increasing reinforcement ratio whereas in mono fibred beams,
deflection ductility increased with increasing tensile reinforcement
ratio and in hybrid fibre UHSC beams, deflection ductility
increases with increasing reinforcement ratio much higher than
mono fibred beams. The curvature ductility of non-fibre UHSC
beams decreased with increasing reinforcement ratio and in the
fibred beams, curvature ductility increased due to crack
localization behaviour. The flexural moment capacity of both
fibred UHSC beams were higher than non-fibre beams but the
mono fibred UHSC beams have higher flexural moment capacity
than hybrid UHSC beams because the volumetric ratio of short
fibres is less in hybrid mixture which governed the strength,
stiffness prior to cracking.
 [Mohammed Al-Osta et al., (2016) “Flexural behaviour of
reinforced c0oncrete beams strengthened with ultra-high
performance fibre reinforced concrete", Construction and
Building Materials, vol.134, pp 279-296]
 The UHSC specimens with longer fibres have high absorption
energy because they possess large bridging forces, partial de-
bonding action and superior strain hardening process. The tensile
strength was proportional to the fibre volume fraction i.e., for the
shorter fibres will be denser across the crack region compared to
the longer fibres resulting in higher group effect. The post cracking
tensile strength and the total energy absorption also increases with
increasing bond strength and also the cracking width at peak load
increases with increasing bond strength.
[Vikram Jothi Jayakumar & Sivakumar Anandan (2014),
“Composite Strain Hardening Properties of High-Performance
Hybrid Fibre Reinforced Concrete”, Advances in Civil
Engineering, vol. 2014, Article ID 363649, 9 pages]
 The Poisson’s ratio of high strength concrete is higher than UHSC
which indicates that more damage in lateral direction of HSC
specimen leading to brittle failure whereas steel fibre bridging
effect of UHSC specimen developed less crack and under gone a
ductile failure. Also, bulk modulus of UHSC specimens without
fibres was higher due to its catastrophic brittle failure than UHSC
with fibres.
[Lim.D.H. & Nawy.E.G.(2005), “Behaviour of plain and steel
fibre reinforced high strength concrete under uniaxial and biaxial
compression”, Magazine of Concrete Research, vol.57,Issue 10,
pp 603-610]
 The split tensile strength of UHSC with steel fibres was higher
than UHSC without fibres as the steel fibres in UHSC controlled
the opening of cracks in the tensile direction.
[Changbin Josh et al., (2019), “Estimating the Tensile Strength of
Ultrhigh-Performance Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Beams”,
Advances in Materials Science and Engineering, vol.2019, Article
ID 5128029,16 pages.]
 The increase in the compressive strength of NSC layer in
composite beams have no influence on flexural strength of
composite UHSC-NSC beams, however it was due to the presence
of steel fibres in UHSC layer which provides effective stress
transfer across the cracks.
[Luayy Hussein & Lamya Amleh(2015), “Structural behaviour of
ultra-high performance fibre reinforced concrete-normal strength
concrete or high strength concrete composite members”,
Construction and Building Materials, vol.93.]
5.METHODOLOGY

Fig 1. The flowchart adopted for carrying out the study

6.EXPERIMENTAL STUDY
 The study is primarily aimed to understand the axial load
behaviour of hybrid UHSC and NSC columns. To achieve this, a small-
scale model test was performed on the model of hybrid concrete
columns. The shape and dimensions of the hybrid columns were
determined based on the typical dimension of RCC column commonly
used with the scale of 1 / 3. Through this test results, the effect of UHSC
in load carrying capacity is studied.

The hybrid column specimens were casted in rectangular cross

section of normal strength concrete(M20) having 75 x 100 mm which is
chosen based standard type of RC column used in commercial buildings
is 9"x 12" by reducing it to a scale factor of 3. The thickness of ultra-high
strength concrete (UHSC) was varied from 25
mm,30mm,35mm,40mm,45mm and up to 50mm. all the hybrid columns
were casted as short column with height of each column as 450 mm. As
per the design codes the longitudinal and transverse reinforcement bars
used were 8 mm and 6 mm respectively. The spacing of ties used for
hybrid columns is 120 mm.

7.NUMERICAL MODELLING
The numerical modelling was carried out by the commercial
finite element software ABAQUS which aimed to simulate the behaviour
and strength of hybrid concrete columns under compressive loading. A
parametric study is carried out with varying thickness of UHSC core.
For modelling the concrete 8 node solid 3D elements
(C3D8R) were used and for modelling steel reinforcement, 2 node linear
3D truss elements (T3D2) were used. The C3D8R unit selected to model
the hybrid concrete column is an eight-node reduced brick integration
element with three translational degrees of freedom at each node. T3D2
has two degrees of freedom and is a three-dimensional truss feature.
5. CONCLUSION
Based on the experimental study carried out for hybrid UHSC-
NSC columns, the following conclusions are arrived.
a) The load carrying capacity of hybrid concrete columns is significantly
improved with increasing thickness of UHSC core up to 35 mm
beyond that there is no significant contribution of UHSC in load
carrying. However greater the thickness of UHSC core the more
brittle the hybrid columns are.
b) The numerical modelling showing the axial load displacement curves
demonstrates the linear elastic stages, sudden strength loss and
strength recovery stage in coupled with strain softening stage.
c) In terms of sectional and cost efficiencies, the hybrid application of
UHSC is extremely beneficial as the UHSC has ultra-high mechanical
properties when compared with NSC and HSC which can act as
permanent form for NSC core in hybrid columns.
d) The failure modes of hybrid concrete columns were completely
different from the normal RC column where the columns show good
bond strength between UHSC and NSC.
e) Almost the failure process of hybrid concrete columns and load
displacement relationship for the experimental investigation were in
good agreement with the numerical finite element analysis which
indicates the capability of proposed FE model to predict the axial
compressive of hybrid concrete columns.

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