Experimental investigation of the effects of longitudinal reinforcement placement on the bending behavior of reinforced concrete beams

In this thesis study, funded by the TÜBİTAK1001 project titled "Experimental Investigation of the Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Beams Under Bending Effect in Cold Weather (Winter)", the effects of longitudinal reinforcement arrangement on the bending behavior of reinforced concrete beams were investigated both experimentally and numerically. In the design of the test specimens, 3 different designs were compared using 3 different design methods, including the regulations and the SAP2000 and RESPONSE2000 software. A total of 8 beam specimens, consisting of 3 different groups, were subjected to full-scale four-point bending tests. The load-deflection curves, energy dissipation capacities, ductility values, initial stiffness, bending stiffness, and secant stiffness of the test specimens were calculated. While investigating the effect of reinforcement arrangement, the concept of bundled reinforcement was focused on, and no significant difference was observed between the bundled reinforcement section and the single reinforcement section with the same tensile reinforcement ratio.