EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH ON THE ULTIMATE LOAD CAPACITY OF REACTIVE POWDER CONCRETE ARCHES

Experiments on two reactive powder concrete (RPC) model arches subjected to concentrated loads at quarter-span have been carried out. A finite element (FE) procedure considering both material and geometric nonlinearities is developed and the numerical predictions agree well with the test results. The load-displacement curves, cracks, strains, failure modes and ultimate load capacities of the arches are analyzed and compared with the results of conventional reinforced concrete (RC) model arches. FE analytical and experimental results show that the RPC arches behave similarly to RC arches. The RPC arches also fail due to the mechanism formed by four plastic hinges caused by cracks in tensile areas. The ultimate load capacity of RPC arches can be estimated by the limit analysis method, similar to RC arches. It is concluded that RPC arches have greater load capacity, stiffness and anti-cracking resistance than those of the RC arches owing to the superior properties of RPC. The widest crack in RPC arches is only 25%~50% that of RC arches under the same load. At a same load level, the cross section area and self-weight of the RPC arch can be about one third less than those of the RC arch, indicating that the application of RPC would improve the spanning capability of arch bridges.