Cyclic Flexural Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Beams

The present study aims at investigating the cyclic flexural behavior of reinforced concrete beams with varying depths. Five reinforced concrete beams with beam depth ranging from 250 mm to 750 mm were tested under reversed cyclic loading and the influence of beam depth on the flexural strength and ductility of reinforced concrete beams was investigated. In addition, OpenSees was used to model the test specimens and the analytical results were compared with the experimental reuslts. It is shown that there is no apparent size effect on the normalized ultimate flexural strength of the tested beams, while for the displacement ductility factor, a significant size effect is observed. Load-deflection hysteric curves of test specimens obtained by the fiber-based element of OpenSees with Concrete03 and Hysteric models are in good agreement with those from experimental tests.