Structural Behaviour of Concrete Deep Beams Reinforced with Aluminium Alloy Bars

Aluminium alloy (AA) bars have emerged in structural engineering applications mainly to reduce deterioration caused by corrosion. However, research on AA-reinforced concrete (RC) beams has been limited, despite RC beams reinforced with AA bars providing a study area with great potential. Therefore, this study mainly aims to investigate the behaviour of AA RC deep beams. The investigated parameters include concrete strength, tension reinforcement ratio, beam size, a/d ratio, and transverse reinforcement ratio, most of which have not yet been thoroughly studied. A finite element (FE) model was developed to obtain accurate predictions. The developed FE model predicted the actual load-bearing capacity with a mean value of 1.00. The findings indicated a clear trend in which shear force capacity increased from 124.1 to 181.4 kN with increasing concrete compressive strength from 20 to 40 MPa. A strong relationship between the reinforcement ratio and failure mode was obtained. The shear strength decreased from 2.95 to 2.1 MPa as the effective depth increased from 175 to 350 mm. An increase in transverse reinforcement ratio instigated an enhancement in shear force capacity. Finally, the applicability of the design models in the current literature was evaluated. The design formulations gave accurate predictions with an error of 3%.