Experimental study on flexural performance of partially precast steel reinforced concrete beams

An innovative partially precast steel reinforced concrete beam, which is abbreviated here as PPSRC beam, is presented in this paper. An improved type, an innovative hollow-core PPSRC beam, which is abbreviated HPSRC, is also introduced here. These two types of beams both have two parts, the precast outer-part and the cast-in-place inner-part. To investigate the flexural performances of the PPSRC beam and the HPSRC beam, static loading experiments were carried out on seven specimens, including three PPSRC T-beam specimens and three HPSRC T-beam specimens together with a cast-in-place SRC control T-beam specimen. In the tests, the flexural performances of the PPSRC beams and the HPSRC beams were emphasized, and the effect of the compressive strength of concrete in the inner-part was also taken into account. On the basis of the experiments, the failure mode, strain development and ultimate bearing capacity were thoroughly examined. The flexural failure mechanisms of the PPSRC beams and the HPSRC beams were clearly revealed. From comparison of the test results, the flexural performance of the HPSRC beam was similar to that of the PPSRC beam and was even comparable to that of the cast-in-place SRC beam. The calculation method for flexural capacity was also presented in this paper. The analysis of mechanical behavior and the design method can be used for the design of these innovative composite beams and provide a significant foundation for further research.