Description
Reduction of self-weight with higher strength of structural members is important for the newly construction buildings. In order to minimize the self-weight of building structure whilst reducing the dependence on vast volume of natural resources, lightweight foamed concrete has been introduced. Despite of having advantages in its application, lightweight foamed concrete is incapable to be used for main structural member due to its low in compressive strength and ductility. Confining the concrete laterally by using external (active) confinement is one of the best ways to enhance the capacity and ductility of the foamed concrete. However, lack of understanding in confined lightweight concrete will lead to an uneconomical design and overestimation in ultimate strength. This book aims to describe the general behaviour of steel straps confined lightweight foamed concrete, i.e., strength, deformability and ductility with some variant of parametric studies. An experimental study with comparisons of existing ultimate strength and stress-strain models is carried out to provide basic information and in-depth study of the confined lightweight foamed concrete with pre-tensioned steel straps. Early investigation found out that steel straps confinement is proven to be effective in enhancing the performance of lightweight foamed concrete columns and its strength was significantly improved by a rate related to the number of layers and spacing of confinement.
