Reinforced Concrete Beams with Rural Composites under Cyclic Loading

Concrete composites are increasingly becoming important structural materials as they overcome many of the shortcoming of conventional reinforced concrete like weakness in tension, brittle response and less post-yield energy absorption. Recent innovations in the development of concrete composites are in the use of locally available organic and waste materials making them technologically easier to fabricate and at the same time make them eco-friendly. Typical materials are fibres from organic materials like coir and synthetic ones like plastic and nylon. This study reports the response of reinforced concrete beams with the local fibre composites with 0.5 and 1% volume fractions under cyclic loading which simulates the seismic excitation. The seismic aspects of conventional reinforced composite beams like ductility and energy absorption capacity are compared with fibre reinforced composites through hysteric load-deflection and moment -rotation curves. And also the critical parameters like first crack strength, yield and maximum strength are compared. The results indicate 20 to 40% performance enhancement in fibre reinforced composite concrete over the conventional one.