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ABSTRACT
This paper addresses the structural performance of crumb rubberised concrete (CRC) and reinforced CRC slabs under static and low-velocity impact loads. An innovated setup was designed to investigate the impact of behaviour of concrete material based on the drop-weight test. The drop-weight velocities before and after impact were recorded through a laser system. Based on the velocity variation, the energy that was absorbed in concrete material during the test, which also was the impact resistance of the sample’s failure section, had been calculated. CRC samples with rubber percentages varying from 0% to 20% were tested. Experimental results verified the advantages of using rubber on material impact behaviour. Finally, as a structural application, reinforced CRC slabs were tested under static and impact loads. Experimental results showed that CRC slabs exhibited superior post-cracking performance with member moment capacities comparable or even higher than that of reinforced traditional concrete (TC) slabs. It is believed that this unique phenomenon was due to zip-shaped cracking section along CRC slab width. At last, a series of impact tests were conducted and test results showed a significant reduction in the peak stress response in CRC slabs when compared with TC slabs.
Acknowlegements
The authors would like to acknowledge several undergraduate students who have assisted with the experimental work as part of their final year research projects, namely: Zhengyang Gao, Haiyang Chen, Ben Knoop, Scott Thompson, Josh Weaver, James Clarke.
The authors would like to acknowledge the donation of the following materials: sand by ResourceCo Pty. Ltd., cement by Adelaide Brighton Cement Pty. Ltd., rubber aggregate by Tyrecycle Pty. Ltd. The authors would like to acknowledge the lab work support from Mr Tim Golding and Dr Henry Senko. The second author would like to acknowledge the financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 5161101205).
Disclosure statement
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Danda Li
Dr. Danda Li graduated from University of South Australia with a PhD in structural engineering in 2017. After graduation, Danda worked as structural engineer in industry for some time and also as researcher and tutor in UniSA. Her research interests include sustainable concrete materials and their structural applications.
Jianzhuang Xiao
Prof. Jianzhuang Xiao is the Department Head of Structural Engineering at Tongji University, China. He has been engaged in the fundamental research on recycled aggregate concrete for more than 15 years. He was awarded the Distinguished Young Scholars by the National Natural Science Foundation of China in 2013, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation fellowship in Germany in 2004. He is a winner of a 2nd class National Award for Science and Technology by the State Council of China. He published more than 150 papers in the Science Citation Index (SCI) international journals. He edited the first Technical Code for Recycled Aggregate Concrete in China, and he is the chairman of the RILEM Technical Committee for Recycled Concrete Structural Behavior and Innovation, the director of the Recycled Concrete Committee in China.
Yan Zhuge
Dr. Yan Zhuge is a Professor in Structural Engineering at STEM, University of South Australia, Australia. Yan has lectured in several Australian universities for more than 20 years. She has a BEng (Hons) in Civil Engineering and a Masters in Structural Engineering from Beijing, China, a PhD in Structural Engineering from Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia. Prof Zhuge’s main research interests include green concrete materials, composite materials and structures and seismic retrofitting of structures. She has published more than 160 SCI technical papers in the referred international journals and conferences and has been invited as a keynote speaker at several international conferences.
Julie E. Mills
Professor Julie E. Mills is Executive Dean of UniSA STEM. Prior to joining the university Julie worked as a Structural Engineer for 15 years on projects ranging from power stations to houses. Julie’s diverse research interests include engineering education, gender studies and structural engineering and she has received national competitive grants and has numerous publications in all of these areas. Her current research in structural engineering is focussed on the use of recycled materials as partial aggregate replacement in concrete, particularly the use of crumbed rubber from used tyres as partial replacement for natural sands and the potential application of this rubberised concrete in residential construction.
Henry Senko
Dr. Henry Senko graduated in Electrical Engineering in 1980, Master degree in 1982 and Ph.D. in microwave processing in 1998, all from Deakin University. Researcher in microwave processing from 1982 to 1997 at Deakin University. Laboratory manager for the CRC for Photonics at University of Melbourne from 1998 to 2002. Microwave processing Engineer at Swinburne University of Technology from 2002 to 2004. Microwave Engineer for CRC for Wood Innovations at The University of Melbourne from 2004 to 2008. Microwave Design Engineer for Microwave Power Consultants Pty Ltd from 2008 to 2012. Technical Consultant at the University of South Australia from 2012. His main research interests include high power microwave material processing, optical displacement and force sensors, design of high voltage power supplies, low-noise rf amplifiers.
Xing Ma
Dr. Xing Ma is an associate professor in structural engineering at UniSA STEM. He is a fellow member of Engineers Australia. Dr. Ma graduated from Tongji University, China with a bachelor degree in 1994, master degree in 1997 and Ph.D in 2000. Then he lectured at Tongji for 4 years. He was a research fellow at the University of Auckland, New Zealand from 2004 to 2010. He joined University of South Australia in 2010. His research interests include steel structures, composite structural, structural application of sustainable materials. Dr. Ma has published more than 100 academic articles in structural engineering.