Selection, production, and testing of scaled reinforced concrete models and their components

• Assessment of physical scaling approaches for reinforced concrete.
• Theoretical and practical considerations for small-scale models.
• Physical solutions for small-scale reinforced concrete models.
• Example of one-tenth scale, one-gravity soil-structure tests.
• Validations of the one-tenth scale, reinforced concrete models.

This paper presents considerations and procedures for the selection, production, and testing of small-scale, reinforced concrete frames to maintain geometric and kinematic similitude. To verify the proposed solutions, 1/10th scaled models were subjected to adjacent excavation-induced settlements in 1-gravity, soil-structure experiments. Material scaling strategies were verified by comparing the resultant surface soil settlements with published studies and by comparing the model building response with numerical simulation, as well as the extent of the damage with previously established thresholds.