Date of Award
8-2015
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Legacy Department
Civil Engineering
Committee Chair/Advisor
Pang, Weichiang
Committee Member
Rangaraju, Prasad Rao
Committee Member
Ross, Brandon
Abstract
Concrete is the predominant material used in construction, in particular, for commercial structures. It has many advantages including low cost, high availability, low maintenance, high compressive strength and high durability. However concrete is a brittle material with very low tensile strength. Hence, steel, in the form of rebar is typically used to reinforce concrete. The cost of steel rebar is relatively high, especially in many developing countries compared to their average income. Therefore, minimal rebar is used to reinforce concrete homes and other low-rise buildings in developing countries such as Haiti leading to unsafe structures, especially during earthquakes. The high cost of rebar as well as the increasing emphasis on sustainable construction materials has led researchers to investigate alternatives to steel reinforcement. Due to its high tensile strength and renewable nature, bamboo is a potential sustainable alternative for steel reinforcement. The results of recent full-scale bending tests of bamboo reinforced concrete (BRC) beams conducted at Clemson University show that bamboo is a viable alternative to steel rebar as reinforcement, in particular, when it is used in non-critical infrastructure. However, the tests also reveal that flexural cracks, which may result in serviceability and durability issues, can form at service load level. This is attributed to the modulus of elastic (MOE) of the bamboo lower than that of the normal concrete. An exploratory study was conducted to investigate the impact of replacing normal concrete in BRC with rubberized concrete. A MATLAB beam model based on a real bamboo reinforcement concrete beam was designed to determine the flexural capacity of the bamboo reinforcement concrete beam (BRRB) under one point load. Total 4 kinds of concrete material with different MOE and compressive capacity were used in model simulation in order to find the best type of concrete for bamboo strips. Monte Carlo (MC) simulation, a quantitative risk analysis technique was used in the model simulation considering of the variation of bamboo tensile strength and uncertainty of its structural behave. The simulation results shows that Bamboo reinforcement concrete is intended to fail as tension failure since the MOE of bamboo is lower than normal concrete.40% Bamboo reinforcement concrete beam made with normal concrete (f’c = 3000psi) has tension failure. Choosing high strength concrete is not an option to increase the BRC capacity. The higher concrete compression capacity has, the more likely the BRC will fail in tension. BRRC concrete can increase the beam compression moment capacity by allowing more bamboo engaged during the loading.
Recommended Citation
Ding, Muxing, "EXPLORING THE USE OF BAMBOO REINFORCED RUBBERIZED CONCRETE (BRRC) AS A SUSTAINABLE STANDARD SYSTEM" (2015). All Theses. 2183.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_theses/2183