Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Materials Today: Proceedings

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Flexural ductility performance of hybrid-recycled aggregate reinforced

concrete T-beam
Mahir M. Hason a,⇑, Mohamed H. Mussa b, Ahmed M. Abdulhadi b
a
Disaster Management Centre, Ministry of Science and Technology, Baghdad, Iraq
b
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Warith Al-Anbiyaa, Karbala 56001, Iraq

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The major target of the current study is to evaluate the flexural ductility indices of the normal aggregate
Received 30 October 2020 concrete (NAC) and recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) T-beams. Comparing different techniques
Accepted 26 November 2020 (Azizinamini, Spadea and Grace) in measuring the ductility indices is another objective of this study.
Available online xxxx
Four extensive T-beams were used, reference beam (T1) and semi-cast T-beams (T2, T3 and T4).
Normal aggregate with high strength concrete grade (NAC-50) and recycled aggregate with normal
Keywords: and high strength concrete grade (RAC-25 and RAC-50) were used. Normal and semi-cast methods were
Recycle aggregate concrete
adopted as the casting procedure. The results show that using the ductility indices as indictor to the
Ductility index
T-beam
deformability is a very significant technique for the evaluation of the tested beams. The results present
Stiffness also that the flexural performance has a small reduction when replacing the NAC by the RAC. The stiffness
Strength improvement index of the tested T-beams was associated with the concrete grade of the beam web-core in increasing and
Energy absorption decreasing. The maximum and minimum total energy was dissipated by T2 and T3-beams respectively.
The ductility indices of RAC-50 were declined by
14.49%,
10.04% and
14.89% in the lD, lE1 and lE2
respectively relative to the reference T1-beam. The usage of RAC-25 is led to a reduction by
52.68%,

45.62% and
54.21% in the lD, lE1 and lE2 respectively of the semi-cast T-beam. The statistical analysis
shows that almost close values were presented between the displacement ductility index (lD) adopted
by Azizinamini and the energy ductility index (lE2) by Grace.
Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 2nd International Con-
ference on Manufacturing Material Science and Engineering. This is an open access article under the CC BY-
NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction oratory investigations have been studied the behavior of normal

It is essential to recycle a considerable quantity of existing
building and structure wastes due to life age expired or to renew
them for multiple purposes [1,2]. Thousands of concrete cubes,
prisms and cylinders have been produced daily to the purposes
of laboratory testing for studies or for new buildings construction
[3,4], which considered as waste material as well. Thus, numerous
researchers have carried out several studies to discover the proba-
bility of utilizing production waste concrete as recycled aggregate
concrete (RAC) in new structures. Using the RAC playing a huge
role in sustaining and saving the natural aggregate concrete
(NAC). Many researchers have been studied the effect of the per-
centages of the RAC on the concrete mixtures. Besides, various lab-
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: mahir.mahmod@gmail.com (M.M. Hason), dr.mhmussa@uo-
wa.edu.iq (M.H. Mussa), ahmedmouse@uowa.edu.iq (A.M. Abdulhadi).
and high strength RAC with respect to the NAC under various flex-
ural and shear loading requirements [5–9]. Certainly, the durability
of the conventional concrete is not the same as the reprocessed
concrete. Also, the source of recycled aggregate plays a huge role
in term of toughness, stiffness and other properties.
T-beam is an important member of the structure and can be uti-
lized in short and long span for multi-function purposes such as
buildings, bridges and wetter cross channels [10]. The use of regen-
erated aggregate concrete (RAC) in pre-fabricated architectural
practices is a good chance and can afford the engineers with the
capability to extend the RAC without altering the continued life
cycle of new structures. A study included the influence of various
percentages of RAC and longitudinal reinforcement on the flexural
strength of experimented beams. The outcomes showed that the
flexural strength was not much affected by the attendance of RA
[11]. It was recorded that the effect of using RA as a replacement
of NA led to a small reduction in flexural and shear strength. A little

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.11.747
2214-7853/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 2nd International Conference on Manufacturing Material Science and Engineering.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Please cite this article as: M.M. Hason, M.H. Mussa and A.M. Abdulhadi, Flexural ductility performance of hybrid-recycled aggregate reinforced concrete T-
beam, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.11.747
M.M. Hason, M.H. Mussa and A.M. Abdulhadi
decreasing in the beginning load–displacement stiffness response
as well [12,13]. Another study tried to investigate the structural
behavior (flexural, shear and failure mode) of the beams designed
with different ratios of natural and recycled coarse aggregate. Lab-
oratory results revealed minimum variation in the ultimate load
and load–displacement response associated with the amount of
replacement of NAC with RAC [14].
The ductility index, in term of displacement or energy absorp-
tion (toughness), of the normal and recycled reinforced concrete
beams is a significant design factor to estimate the deformation
range of inelastic element. Mathematically, many formulations
have been constructed to determine the amount of ductility index.
The displacement ductility index can be known as the ratio of the
ultimate displacement, that corresponding to the ultimate load, to
the yield displacing. Besides, the energy ductility index can be
defined as the ratio between the total absorbed energy to the elas-
tic energy absorption for the particular concrete member. It is well
noted that one of the strategies to determine the absorbed energy
released by the tested beams is from the area under the load–dis-
placement curve. In this study, the load–displacement response,
toughness, stiffness and ductility indices have been used as an
indicator for the performance of the normal and pre-fabricated T-
beams with normal and reprocessed aggregate concrete.
Although many studies related to the using of the RAC mem-
ber as rectangular and T-beams under flexural load have been
conducted, rare studies have been tabulated the various parame-
ter conducted in this study. Therefore, the principal goal of this
study is to evaluate the flexural ductility index of the normal
and semi-precast extensive T-beams with various parameters of
aggregate type (RAC and NAC), concrete grades (normal and high
strength) and casting strategy (normal and semi-cast). The tough-
ness and the ductility index are used as an indicator of the flex-
ural behavior of the tested T-beams. The comparison of three
various techniques for measuring the ductility index is the second
target of this study. The results comprised of the load–displace-
ment performance post-elastic strength, stiffness, toughness and
ductility indices.
2. Methods and materials
Four extensive T-beams (T1, T2, T3 and T4) with NAC and RAC
were tested under flexural loading. Two grades of 25Mpa and
50Mpa were utilized. The experimented T-beam can be divided
into three parts according to the material and cast type: the outer
web U-shape, web-core (W) and flange (F). For all T-beams, the
outer U-shape was cast with NAC50. The web-core (W) was cast
with NAC50 and RAC50 for T1 and T2 respectively, and with
RAC25 and precast RAC25 block (B) for T3 and T4 respectively.
The flange was cast also with NAC50 and RAC50 for (T1 and T2)
and (T3 and T4) respectively. Ultimately, the beam designation
name and symbol are presented in Fig. 1. The test was performed
under four-point loading. The geometry of the tested beams is plot-
ted and illustrated in Fig. 2. All experimented T-beams were
designed based on ACI 318-14 [15]. The reinforcement bars were
Fig. 1. Beam design.
2
Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
made of steel bars with diameters of 8 mm, 10 mm, and 12 mm
(Fig. 2).
In this research, the RAC material was generated by crushing a
wide number of pre-experimented concrete cubes and cylinders
from concrete, which was utilized in actual structure projects.
The recycled aggregate comprised of fine and coarse ingredients,
which were isolated by a sieve of 5 mm size. Two classes of RAC
were used to fill the web-core of the semi-precast T-beams. The
normal strength RAC with grade-25 (RAC25) and high strength
RAC (RAC-50). In the design of RAC50 and RAC25, sikament and
silica-fume were used as water-reducer of about 2.5% and 5% of
the cement content respectively. The conventional procedure of
concrete casting utilizing a steel cage taking into account the
requirement of steel reinforcement, compression tension and con-
crete cover thickness. Fig. 3 shows the schematic of the flexural
experiment. Any further details and discussion of the testing and
material can be found elsewhere [1].
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Load-displacement (P-D)
The relationship between the applied load and the mid-span
displacement (P-D) of the normal aggregate concrete T-beam
(T1-WN50-FN50) and the semi-precast regenerated aggregate
concrete T-beams (T2-WR50-FN50, T3-WR25-FR50 and
T4-WRB25-FR50) are presented in Table 1. Besides, Fig. 4 shows
the load–displacement curves of the tested beams divided into
three regions: cracking, yielding and ultimate regions. The influ-
ences of the examined parameters (e.g. NAC, semi-precast RAC,
concrete grades) on the toughness, ductility, stiffness, cracking
strength, and the maximum flexural strength are addressed. It is
observed that the cracking load was decreased when using the
RAC-25 in the web-core of the tested T-beam. It is apparent from
Table that the stiffness (Eq. (1)) is associated with the concrete
grade utilized in the beam web-core. For the T2-beam), the stiff-
ness was 22% higher than that of the reference T1-beam. On the
contrary, the stiffness of T3 and T4-beams were about
27.88%
and
28.49% lower than the control beam. This is probably
because of the low concrete characteristics of the web-core of
the mentioned beams. The minus sign in Table 1 indicates the
decreasing tendency.
Concerning the yield load (Py), it is obvious from Table 1 and
Fig. 5. that the lowest Py has belonged to T3-beam with decreasing
percentage of 4.57% with respect to the reference T1-beam.
Whereas, the yield load of T2 and T4-beams are almost equal value
but higher than the reference beam by about 14.96% and 15.9%
respectively. The reason behind those improving in the Py was per-
haps due to distribution of the cracks in the flexural region. The
radar graph in Fig. 5 shows that the maximum flexural loads (up)
of the semi-precast T-beams are higher than the Pu in the reference
T1-beam but equal to the flexural strength of the T3-beam. In other
words, the semi-precast T2 and T4-beams were improved by
12.12% and 8.98% respectively, with respect to the reference nor-
mal beam.
M.M. Hason, M.H. Mussa and A.M. Abdulhadi Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 2. Beams characteristics.

Fig. 3. T-beam flexural testing.

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M.M. Hason, M.H. Mussa and A.M. Abdulhadi Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Table 1
Characteristics of the load–displacement relationship.

Beam ID Load (kN) Displacement (mm) Stiffness (kN/mm) % Stiffness v %

v
Pcr Py Pu Dcr Dy Du
T1-WN50-FN50 80.12 215.50 317.51 1.65 8.19 126.43 48.56 – 1.47 –
T2-WR50-FN50 98.51 253.40 361.32 1.67 9.79 129.21 58.99 17.68 1.43
3.33
T3-WR25-FR50 58.83 205.65 317.52 1.68 9.23 67.43 35.02
27.88 1.54 4.79
T4-WRB25-FR50 53.82 256.25 348.82 1.55 11.40 110.11 34.72
28.49 1.36
4.53

Fig. 4. Load-displacement line-curves.

Improvement index of post-elastic strength (v) is an important Pu

factor to evaluate the post-elastic strength of the Structure mem-
ber, which is equal to the ratio between peak load and yield load
as presented in Eq. (2) [16]. The index of post-elastic strength
can afford an obvious sign to residents for the evacuation of
approaching failure of the structure. According to the values of
the v in Table 1. The semi-cast T3-beam presented an improve-
ment in the post-elastic strength relative to the reference beam,
which was opposite to the decreasing behavior presented by T2
and T4-beams of about
3.33% and
4.53% respectively in compar-
ison to the control T-beam.
Pcr
Stiffness ¼
Dcr
v¼ ð2Þ
Py
3.2. Ductility index (l)
Numerous approaches have been employed to determine the
ductility index of the conventional and hybrid reinforced concrete
beams. In this research, three different well-known techniques
were utilized to measure the ductility index: (1) Ductility dis-
placement index (lD) [17], which refer to the ductility of the spec-
imen in term of maximum displacement (Dmax) and yield
displacements (Dy) (Eq. (3)), (2) Ductility energy index (lE1)
ð1Þ
[18], which can be calculated based on the total energy (Etotal)
and the energy up to 75% of the maximum load (E75%Pmax) as
shown in Eq. (4) and Fig. 6, (3) Ductility energy index (lE2) [19],
which depends on the total energy (Etotal) and elastic energy (Eelas-
tic) released by the sample (see Eq. (5), Eq. (6) and Fig. 7). It has
been well documented that the total energy absorption (Etotal) is
equivalent to the total area beneath the load–displacement curve
(P-D) and it can be determined according to Simpson’s rule in Eq.
(7). Besides, the Etotal is the summation of elastic and inelastic
energies.

Dmax
lD ¼ ð3Þ
Dy

Etotal
lE1 ¼ ð4Þ
E@0:75Pmax


Etotal S½P y ðDu
Dcr Þ þ Pu Du
Dy þ Pcr Dy 
lE2 ¼ ¼ ð5Þ
Fig. 5. The ultimate yield and crack loads pf the experiments.
Eelastic P2u

4
M.M. Hason, M.H. Mussa and A.M. Abdulhadi Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

design factor. The total absorbed energy (Etotal), which obtained

from the area under the load–displacement curve, was escalated
for the semi-precast T2 and T4-beams by 13.84% and 9.06% respec-
tively relative to reference T1-beames, while it reduced for the T2-
beam by
35.70%. The performance of RAC-50 was incorporated
with a decline of
14.49%,
10.04% and
14.89% in the lD, lE1
and lE2 respectively relative to the result of the control T1-beam.
Nevertheless, the use of RAC-25 led also to
52.68%,
45.62%
and
54.21% decreases in the lD, lE1 and lE2 respectively of the
beam. This decrease is due to the use of RAC instead of NAC, which
can be managed to utilize precast concrete blocks in the web-core
that led to successfully improved the ductility indices of the beam
by 24.4%, 39.66% and 41.81% for the lD, lE1 and lE2 respectively
respect to the semi-precast beam of RAC-25.
The statistical analysis, which includes the mean, standard
deviation (SD) and coefficient of Variation (CoV), were found to dif-
ferentiate the best technique herein of measuring the ductility
Fig. 6. Spadea energy ductility index technique.
index as presented in Table 2. It is well documented that the lower
the CoV indicates good and better accuracy. It can be seen that the
CoV of the lE2 (11.44%) is lower than the CoV of the lE1 (15.25%)
relative to the reference value (lD) [11]. Moreover, the three tech-
niques of ductility index measuring show the same tendency of
increasing and decreasing (Fig. 9). Besides, close values have dis-
played between the lD and lE2. However, a noticeable difference
can be found between the lD and lE1 values.

4. Conclusion

In this study, the ductility index in term of deflection and

Fig. 7. Grace energy ductility index technique.
Py
Pcr
S¼
Dy
Dcr
ðPi þ Piþ1 ÞðDiþ1
Di Þ
Area ¼
2 9.06% respectively relative to reference T1-beames, but it is
where S, Pi, Di and i represent the slope line which isolating the
elastic energy from the total energy, the applied load, the mid-
span deflection and the increment of applied load respectively.
Table 2 and Fig. 8 show the properties of the dissipated energy
and ductility indices obtained from this study. The minus sign
refers to the decreasing tendency of the tested T-beams. This result
shows that the RAC class employed in the web-core as a critical
toughness of the normal and regenerated aggregate reinforced
concrete beams have been evaluated using various concrete grades
(25 and 50). The casting method was normal and semi-cast of the
web-core. Four extensive T-beams were tested, T1-reference beam
with high strength normal aggregate concrete and three other
semi-cast T-beams with normal and high strength recycled aggre-
gate concrete. The load–displacement curve was plotted with the
crack, yield and ultimate loads and their corresponding deflection.
The results show that the stiffness depends on the concrete grade
employed in the beam web-core. The semi-cast T3-beam has
exhibited an increase in the post-elastic strength with respect to
ð6Þ the reference T1-beam, while a decreasing performance is pre-
sented by T2 and T4-beams of about
3.33% and
4.53% respec-
tively also relative to the control T-beam. The total toughness is
ð7Þ increased for the semi-precast T2 and T4-beams by 13.84% and
reduced for the T2-beam by
35.70%. The behavior of RAC-50
was combined with a decline of
14.49%,
10.04% and
14.89%
in the lD, lE1 and lE2 respectively relative to the reference T1-
beam. The usage of RAC-25 is headed to
52.68%,
45.62% and

54.21% reductions in the lD, lE1 and lE2 respectively of the
semi-cast T-beam. The three techniques of ductility index measur-
ing, Azizinamini displacement ductility index (lD), Spadea energy

Table 2
Ductility indices properties.

Beam ID S (kN/mm) Roughness (kN.mm) % Toughness Ductility index %l D %lE1 %lE2 lD /lE2 lD /lE1
lD lE1 lE2
T1-WN50-FN50 20.70 35780.73 – 15.44 27.31 12.48
14.46
10.04
14.89 1.24 0.57
T2-WR50-FN50 19.09 41526.17 13.84 13.20 24.56 10.62 1.24 0.54
T3-WR25-FR50 19.45 23006.69
35.70* 7.31 14.85 5.71 24.40 39.66 41.81 1.28 0.49
T4-WRB25-FR50 20.56 39346.87 9.06 9.66 24.61 9.82 0.98 0.39
Mean 1.19 0.50
SD 0.14 0.08
CoV 11.44% 15.25%
*
(Minus sign refers to the decreasing percentage).

5
M.M. Hason, M.H. Mussa and A.M. Abdulhadi
Fig. 8. Total energy absorption dissipated by the tested T-beams.
Fig. 9. Comparison between the ductility indices measured in this study.
ductility index (lE1) and Grace energy ductility index (lE2), show
the same tendency of increasing and decreasing performance.
However, it is observed from the statistical analysis that practically
close values have displayed between the Grace ductility index (lE2)
and the Azizinamini ductility index (lD), which means that they
are higher accurate than Spadea ductility index (lE1). Finally, fur-
ther researches are required to investigate the opportunity to indi-
cate the best formula among the ductility methods conducted in
this research and other methods. Besides, employing concrete
blocks of various dimensions and concrete classes to improve the
behavior of semi-pre-fabricated beams is essential as well.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
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