Transverse and longitudinal partial interaction in composite bolted side-plated reinforced-concrete beams

Abstract

A procedure is being developed for bolting plates to the sides of existing reinforced concrete beams to strengthen and stiffen them. Unlike standard composite steel and concrete beams in which there is longitudinal-partial-interaction at the steel/concrete interface (that is slip along the length of the beam), composite bolted side-plated reinforced-concrete beams are unique in that they also exhibit transverse-partial-interaction, that is slip transverse to the length of the beam. In this work, the fundamental mathematical models for transverse-partial-interaction and its interaction with longitudinal-partial-interaction are developed. The fundamental models are then further developed to determine the number of connectors required to resist the transverse forces and to limit the degree of transverse-partial-interaction in bolted side-plated reinforced concrete beams.