Serviceability performance of FRC columns under imposed displacements: An experimental study

• Experimental results show that recycled steel fibres improve cracking behaviour.
• Better cracking behaviour leads to better serviceability conditions.
• The simplified method to estimate the stress in rebars produces good results.

This paper presents an experimental campaign aiming to explore the serviceability behaviour of columns of jointless structures reinforced with both conventional rebars and steel fibres recycled from end-of-life tyres. The test set-up is first introduced, involving columns with different reinforcement ratios, squashing load ratios and recycled fibre content. The characteristics, constructability and performance of recycled fibres are discussed. Then the results of the tests are presented and compared with non-fibre reinforced columns, showing improvements in cracking performance. Also, a simplified method of analysis has been compared to experimental results, showing good agreement in the imposed displacement vs. rebar stress behaviour. The main objective of this investigation is to encourage the use of jointless structures by presenting an appealing and sustainable technique to overcome problems such as excessive cracking.