Reinforcement-dependent long-term deflection response of baked clay beams

Reinforced Baked Clay (RBC) might serve as low cost material of building construction to substitute Reinforced Cement concrete (RCC). Deflection of a beam under a sustained load is considered an important parameter. It is not yet reported in literature what is the effect of reinforcement on long-term deflection response of RBC beams and relative comparison to that of RCC beams. For this purpose, RBC beams were manufactured, baked, and post-reinforced in tension zone only with three ratios of reinforcement (i.e., 0.003, 0.006, and 0.009). All the beams were subjected to a sustained load of 50 kN for one year. The results indicate that long-term deflection of RBC beams was reduced to 20%, and 50% when the reinforcement ratio was increased to 2 and 3 times of the initial reinforcement ratio of 0.003, respectively. The ultimate load carrying capacity of the RBC beams was similar to that of RCC beams. The deflection of RBC beams was thrice of the deflection of RCC beams. This paper shows that RBC beams could be utilized instead of RCC ones with no sacrifice on strength.