Bending ductility of rectangular high strength concrete columns

A study was conducted on eight high strength concrete columns (fc′=69MPa) with dimensions 203×203×2030 mm. The intent of the study was to isolate the effects of the spacing and volumetric content of the transverse reinforcement on the bending ductility of high strength concrete columns. To this end, four of the columns were reinforced with ties of constant spacing (76 mm) but different diameter (3.2, 4.8, 6.4, and 8.0 mm), while the other four columns were reinforced with ties of different spacing but constant volumetric content (1.1%). Clear trends in the effects of the volumetric content and spacing of the transverse reinforcement were observed within a range of values outside of which the effects were minimal.