Flexural Charachteristics of RC Beam with Hollow Core Variation in Tension Area

Abstract

Nowadays, research efforts are continuously conducted to looking for new, better and efficient construction materials and methods. The concrete should be used efficiently because the concrete section under the neutral axis will not be calculated. Therefor in this study, the partial replacement of concrete under the neutral axis by using different variation of plastic bottles is discussed. Six specimens are tested, consisting of one control beam (BN) and three hollow beams with different length (BR3A, BR3B and BR3C) and two hollow beams with different height ( BR1C and BR2C). All beams are tested with four loading points to investigated the flexural characteristics of the beams. The results showed that the flexural capacity of reinforced concrete beam with hollow core (BR3A, BR3B, BR3C and BR1C) was almost same with the normal beam but the BR2C can not reached the flexural capacity because the width of beam too thin. Moreover, the effect of the hollow core was also insignificant on the flexural capacity where the beam with higher and longest hollow core showed similar flexural capacity with the beam having a lower hollow.