Experimental Study on Bending Performance of Beams with Stainless Steel Bars for Highway Bridges

Abstract

Stainless steel rebars are a type of highly durable steel. Their mechanical properties such as yielding behavior and strain hardening are different from those of ordinary steel rebars. In this paper, to determine the applicability of stainless steel rebars to concrete highway bridges, the bending performance of beam members made of stainless steel rebars was evaluated by bending loading tests and fiber element analysis. Comparison of stainless steel reinforced concrete beams with ordinary reinforced beams showed that yield behavior and strain hardening had little effect on member behavior, there was no significant difference in the load-bearing capacity curves, and members using stainless steel rebars had similar bending performance to that of members using ordinary steel rebars when used for a highway bridge.