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Title |
An Experimental Study on the Structural Behavior of Concrete Columns Confined with Welded Reinforcement Grids
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Abstract |
An experimental investigation was conducted to study the structural behavior of concrete columns confined with welded grids. Ten full-scale columns with different volumetric ratio, spacing and arrangement of welded reinforcement grids were tested under simulated seismic loading. The columns were subjected to constant axial compression of approximately 20% or 40% of their capacities accompanied by incrementally increasing lateral deformation reversals. The results indicate that the welded reinforcement grid can be used effectively as confinement reinforcement provided that the steel used, have sufficient ductility and the welding process employed does not alter the strength and elongation characteristics of steel. The grids improved the structural performance of columns, which developed lateral drift ratios in excess of 3% with the spacing and volumetric ratio of transverse reinforcement similar to those required by the ACI 318-95 Building Code. Drift capacity further increased when grids with larger number of cells were used. Furthermore, the use of grids reduced congesting of reinforcement while the dimensional accuracy provided perfect support to longitudinal reinforcement.
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