Behavior of Normal and Hybrid Strength Reinforced Concrete Corbels Strengthened with Steel Plate

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study of behavior of reinforced concrete corbels strengthened with steel plates. For this purpose, six specimens were prepared and tested. The study inspected the effect of some parameters on the structural behavior of corbels. The parameters included: the strength of concrete and shear span-to-effective depth ratio. Both cracking and ultimate loads increased when shear span-to-effective depth ratio was decreased. Increasing the compressive strength of concrete improved the load bearing and cracking capacity of the corbels. The ultimate load for hybrid strength concrete corbel increased by 22.39% while cracking load increased by 49.75% compared to normal strength concrete corbel. Strengthening corbels with steel plates resulted in up to 24.78% and 19.24% increase in the load bearing capacity of normal strength concrete and hybrid strength concrete corbel samples, respectively. Cracking loads also increased by 66.5% and 44.55% for normal strength concrete and hybrid strength concrete corbels, respectively. The cracking and failure pattern modes of corbels are also presented. The results of this study demonstrate the importance of concrete material selection, and design parameters in enhancing the structural performance of reinforced concrete corbels.