Publications

Textile reinforced mortar (TRM) is mainly used for strengthening of existing structural members whereas, on the other hand Textile reinforced concrete (TRC) is a technology implied in construction of new members for enhancing the structural behaviour. Application of TRM on the tension zone of the reinforced concrete (RC) slabs to improve the flexural capacity has been investigated by many researchers in the past. However, the effectiveness of textile fabrics, used as internal reinforcement in the RC slab (TRC technology) needs to be studied. The paper, therefore, presents the experimental research conducted on three one-way RC slabs specimens reinforced using textile grid. An innovative Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based carbon textile grid was used as internal reinforcement in combination with the steel bars. Two textile-reinforced RC slabs having one and two layers of textile grid (SRC + 1T and SRC + 2T respectively) and one reference slab (SRC) was fabricated to investigate the flexural behaviour under a four-point loading system. The internal textile reinforcement layer(s) was confirmed to be effective, particularly in terms of improving the cracking load, ductility, deformability and toughness. The material ductility of SRC + 1T and SRC + 2T slabs were increased by 41% and 44% compared to SRC slab. Also, the deformability ratio was found to be greater than 4, indicating a ductile failure of textile-reinforced slabs. Further, based on the load-deflection relation, moment-curvature curves were derived. Moreover, these curves were also developed using Eurocode two prediction model. The experimental and the predicted moment-curvature curves showed good agreement.

Confined concrete in pipes provides a solution for the structures to resist lateral forces and avoids the problems associated with production of confined concrete and lateral reinforcement. To evaluate the influence of PVC pipe on the compressive behavior of concrete filled composite tubes, ABAQUS software was used to simulate 44 concrete filled PVC pipes (CFPT). The influence of internal steel reinforcement, unconfined concrete strength, slenderness ratio, specimen’s size and thickness of PVC tube on failure mode load carrying capacity, and strain of PVC confined reinforced concrete column was studied. The present discussion show that the existing analytical models failed to capture the effect of these parameters. On the other hand, the proposed finite element (FE) models achieve a very good agreement between the experimental and analytical values. The proposed FE model can provide an acceptable portrayal of the CFPT’s response. The response of confined concrete was estimated using trial and error approach and as a result a model for the strain of confined concrete was proposed. The effect of these parameters on the CFPT leads to development of analytical models.

Concrete use as a building component is already associated with the global construction sector. Since extensive research on concrete has been conducted for many years, there is a growing interest among researchers to conduct studies to increase the capacity of concrete for use in the building sector. Lightweight foamed concrete is one of the cutting-edge solutions developed for lighter and more sustainable buildings. Although this type of concrete has several benefits, its strength is still viewed as being inferior to that of regular concrete. By limiting the LFC with a crisscross fiberglass strip, the authors of this work will demonstrate improvements in LFC behaviour in terms of its compressive strength (CFS). To examine its improvements, 3 different LFC densities were cast and contained with 1 to 3 layers of 160 g/m2 CFS. For this test, the cement-to-sand ratio was fixed at 1.1:5, and the water content was set at 0.45. The results revealed that the compressive strength of LFC confined with 1 to 3 layers of CFS increased by 153%, 97% and 102% were acquired for 600, 1100 and 1600 kg/m3 densities respectively. This demonstrates that the number of layers used affects how positively the confinement of CFS affects the compressive behaviour of LFC.

Shear walls have high strength and stiffness, which could be used at the same time to resist large horizontal loads and weight loads, making them pretty beneficial in several structural engineering applications. The shear walls could be included with openings, such as doors and windows, for relevant functional requirements. In the current study, a building of G + 13 stories with RC shear walls with and without openings has been investigated using ETABS Software. The seismic analysis is carried out for the determination of parameters like shear forces, drift, base shear, and story displacement for numerous models. The regular and staggered openings of the shear wall have been considered variables in the models. The dynamic analysis is carried out with the help of ETABS software. It has been observed that shear walls without openings models perform better than other models, and this is in agreement with the previous studies published in this area. This investigation also shows that the seismic behaviour of the shear wall with regular openings provides a close result to the shear wall with staggered openings. At the roof, the displacement of the model with regular openings was 38.99 mm and approximately 39.163 mm for the model with staggered openings. However, the model without a shear wall experienced a displacement of about 56 mm at the roof. Generally, it can be concluded that the openings have a substantial effect on the seismic behaviour of the shear wall, and that should be taken into consideration during the construction design. However, the type of opening (regular or staggered) has a slight effect on the behaviour of shear walls.

Shear damage is a catastrophic failure in the design of reinforced concrete structural elements. To prevent it, the effect of aluminum wastes on reinforced concrete shear beams was investigated in this study. There is a gap in the scientific field on the expanding concrete with aluminium waste, and no research has been done on the utilizing of aluminum waste to produce expandable concrete. Moreover, there is a gap in expandable concrete usage with aluminum waste reinforcing, which is crucial for engineering applications especially beams, slabs and columns. For this purpose, experimental investigations were performed on a total of 12 Reinforced Concrete Beams (RCB) with different aluminum waste ratio (0, 1, 2 and 3 vol.%) and different shear reinforcement spacing (270, 200 and 160 mm). The depth span ratio was chosen as 1.6, 2.0 and 2.7. RCB was simply supported on the loading frame and subjected to four-points bending. As a result of experimental tests for each sample, the maximum load, stiffness, ductility and energy dissipation capacity were calculated. It was observed that the load capacity of the Al refuse combined RCBs raises as the vacancy of the stirrup reinforcement reductions compared with reference RCBs. Furthermore, it was found that the load capacity of the RCBs reduced as the Al refuse quantity in the concrete mixture was increased from 0% to 3%. However, it was found that the decrease in load capacity for 1 vol.% aluminum waste could be tolerated. For this reason, it can be stated that aluminum waste (AW) in reinforced concrete shear beams will contribute to the beam up to 1%.

A main global challenge is finding an alternative material for cement, which is a major source of pollution to the environment because it emits greenhouse gases. Investigators play a significant role in global waste disposal by developing appropriate methods for its effective utilization. Geopolymers are one of the best options for reusing all industrial wastes containing aluminosilicate and the best alternative materials for concrete applications. Waste wood ash (WWA) is used with other waste materials in geopolymer production and is found in pulp and paper, wood-burning industrial facilities, and wood-fired plants. On the other hand, the WWA manufacturing industry necessitates the acquisition of large tracts of land in rural areas, while some industries use incinerators to burn wood waste, which contributes to air pollution, a significant environmental problem. This review paper offers a comprehensive review of the current utilization of WWA with the partial replacement with other mineral materials, such as fly ash, as a base for geopolymer concrete and mortar production. A review of the usage of waste wood ash in the construction sector is offered, and development tendencies are assessed about mechanical, durability, and microstructural characteristics. The impacts of waste wood ash as a pozzolanic base for eco-concreting usages are summarized. According to the findings, incorporating WWA into concrete is useful to sustainable progress and waste reduction as the WWA mostly behaves as a filler in filling action and moderate amounts of WWA offer a fairly higher compressive strength to concrete. A detail study on the source of WWA on concrete mineralogy and properties must be performed to fill the potential research gap.