Strengthened Rubberized Concrete Beams under Static and Dynamic Loads

Concrete beams are exposed to both dynamic loads and static loads. Enhancing the properties of normal concrete to increase its efficiency is the goal for researchers today. Generally, conventional concrete is weak in absorbing energy, so adding steel fibers and scrap rubber is expected to enhance its dynamic response. Four shallow, simply supported beams were cast with different material types. Conventional, ۱% content of steel fibered beam, ۱۵% replacement of rubber by sand, and the last beam collects between the ۱% steel fibers and the ۱۵% of rubber replacement. The beams were cast and tested monotonically, then simulated numerically using ANSYS APDL software to obtain a good validation comparison with the experimental results. The same models were then exposed to harmonic loads. It was concluded that replacing ۱۵% of the sand with rubber particles reduces the simply supported concrete beam's capacity by about ۲.۴% due to a decrement in compressive strength. Additionally, the toughness of the beam was reduced by ۰.۷% after adding rubber. In comparison, the increment reached ۲۴.۴% when utilizing steel fibers. An increment equal ۵.۳% in beam stiffness was achieved after using steel fibers. Furthermore, when examining the beams under harmonic loads, the conventional concrete failed suddenly. In contrast, the rubberized beam and steel fibered beams overcame the load and fluctuated with the exposing wave without collapsing.