Residual behavior of SRRAC beam and column after exposure to high temperatures

Composite effect between steel and recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) in steel reinforced-RAC (SRRAC) structures can effectively improve RAC's adverse mechanical properties due to the natural defects of recycled coarse aggregate (RCA). However, the performance of SRRAC after thermal exposure will have a great impact on the safety of the structure. In this paper, firstly, the mechanical properties of SRRAC structures after high temperatures exposure were tested, including 24 SRRAC columns and 32 SRRAC beams. Then, the change rules of beams and columns performance with the maximum temperature and replacement percentage were compared. Finally, the formulas to evaluate the residual bearing capacity of SRRAC beams and columns after exposure to high temperatures were established. The experimental results show that the maximum exposure temperature can be judged by the apparent phenomenon and mass loss ratio of RAC. After high temperatures exposure, the mechanical properties of SRRAC beams and columns change significantly, where the degradation of bearing capacity and stiffness is the most obvious. Moreover, it is found that the degradation degree of compression member is more serious than that of flexural member. The formulas of residual bearing capacity established by introducing influence coefficient of material strength agree well with the experimental results.