Minimizing the crumb rubber effects on the flexural behaviour of the layered RC beams cast using rubberized concrete with or without recycled tire steel fibers

Flexural Response of Functionally Graded Rubberized Concrete Beams

“…Similarly, the weaker tensile strength of the RuC caused the initial observable crack to occur at a load of 18 kN, which is less than for the plain concrete beam. This observation is in line with the findings of Sharaky et al [38] for the FG beam with bottom and top parts cast with rubberized and plain concrete, respectively, (B3M3T0) vs. the plain beam (CB), where the cracking load for the beam B3M3T0 was less than the plain beam.…”

“…The observations made on the flexural strength and mid-span displacement at peak load for the plain beam (P) vs. the FG beam (Ru + P) were also consistent with research conducted previously by Sharaky et al [38] for the plain beam (CB) vs. the FG beam (B3M3T0). The observations made on the flexural strength and mid-span displacement at peak load for the plain beam (P) vs. the FG beam (Ru + P) were also consistent with research conducted previously by Sharaky et al [38] for the plain beam (CB) vs. the FG beam (B3M3T0).…”

“…Studies have also been performed to evaluate the impact of FGMs on beam behavior [29,31,[36][37][38]. Palaniappan et al [29] investigated FG concrete beams in which conventional concrete was cast in the compression region while the concrete in the tension region incorporated various percentages of fly ash or red mud as a cement replacement.…”

“…It was noticed that the flexural strength was higher when steel fibers were distributed over the whole cross-section than when two types of fibers were used in individual layers. Sharaky et al [38] investigated the flexural behavior of eight FG rubberized concrete beams and one control beam with plain concrete across the entire cross-section. For the eight FG beams, the cross-section was divided into three equal layers.…”

“…The avoidance of higher replacement levels has evidently been to minimize the strength reduction. Furthermore, with the exception of research by Sharaky et al [38], FGMs have never been used in combination with flexural beams containing rubber tire particles. However, the authors hypothesized that adopting the concept of FGMs in casting beams would allow the employment of a large content of fine and coarse rubber particles without extra cost and without reducing the beams' capacity, while achieving all the merits of RuC.…”