Shear Stresses of Hollow Lightweight Concrete Beams Made with Wood Waste

Hollow Lightweight Concrete (HLC) beams are gaining popularity due to low cost and low weight as compared with the Solid Lightweight Concrete (SLC) beams. HLC and SLC beams decrease in weight, without losing strength and durability. Flexural and shear behavior of reinforced HLC and SLC beams made with sawdust under two-point load is investigated in this study. The ultimate deformation efficiency and shear resistant mechanism of HLC beams are discussed experimentally and compared with other SLC beams. The beams, tested in this research, are rectangular. Beams were designed and constructed as 12 * 23 * 100 cm. Six concrete beam models were prepared including three SLC beams without the hollow and the other three HLC beams poured hollow 50 * 7.5 cm throughout the all beam of 100 cm. All beams were split according to the distance between vertical stirrups, these stirrups were divided into three specimens 45, 13, and 6 cm. By analyzing six experimental test beams, in this research, investigated the effect of diverse factors on the shear of beams. On comparison with normal concrete beams, this work describes the failure of mechanism, process, and ductility. The first crack loads, ultimate loads, load-deflection behavior, crack patterns and shapes of failure were investigated in this study. The experimental results show the ultimate performance of HLC beams are pure shear and controlled by yielding tension and compression steel bars. Also, it is found that the measured size and configuration of the hollow opening had an effect on the load-carry capacity and mid-span deflection of HLC beams. Thus, the design and construction details of beams can be additionally customized to reduce the total cost and weight of the HLC beams.