Experimental Investigations of Prestressed Hollow Core Slabs and Grouted Hollow Core Slabs

Abstract

With the advent and rapid inclusion of prefabricated concrete system to the construction industry, it poses interesting research challenges to the academic world. The acceptance of hollow-core slab as an alternative to the normal reinforced concrete solid slabs is getting delayed due to the delusion among public. The usage of grouted hollow core slabs by filling the core with grout is one of the increasing demands observed by the hollow core slab manufacturers. This research paper is intended to compare the behaviour of the hollow core slabs and the grouted hollow core slabs under different loading cases. Deflections at critical section, lateral displacement and failure pattern is experimentally measured and compared as part of the study. The study reveals that for uniformly distributed loading and two point loading, the hollow core behaved elegantly compared to the grouted specimen. In case of single point loading the behaviour of both specimens are in a similar fashion.
Keywords: Hollow core structures, grouted hollow core structures, loading capacity, lateral displacement, crack pattern