Study on load-carrying capacity of partially exposed reinforced concrete beams

When a partially exposed reinforced concrete beam deforms under tensile loading on reinforcements, the load-carrying capacity of the exposed reinforced concrete beam will significantly change, as the deformation of the exposed reinforcement bars and concrete do not follow a harmonising relationship. In this paper, the load-carrying capacity of a partially exposed reinforced concrete beam was investigated. By analysing a large quantity of test data, the changing patterns of the load-carrying capacity were obtained and two typical failure modes of the exposed reinforcement concrete were summarised. In the study, finite-element software was employed to simulate the test results. The simulated values were consistent with the test results. An extensive analysis of the influencing factors using a finite-element method was conducted. The length of the exposed reinforcement and the reinforcement ratio were considered as the controlling variables to obtain the changing failure modes of the exposed reinforced concrete beam. The analytical results confirmed the conclusions of a previous analysis.