MODELING THE BENDING BEHAVIOR OF STEEL FIBER-REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAMS

Abstract

In this study, modeling of the bending behavior of large-scale steel fiber-reinforced concrete beams (SFRC) was investigated using the Modified Compression Field Theory (MCFT) based non-linear finite element (NLFE) method and an analytical method. The two analysis methods included different modeling approaches for the contribution of steel fibers to the tensile strength of reinforced concrete. In the first approach, the residual tensile strength of fibrous concrete was related to the crack width and adopted into the MCTF-based NLFE method. However, the residual tensile strength was free from the crack width in the second approach, which was employed in the analytical method. The capabilities of the mentioned analysis methods were investigated on an experimental study selected from the literature. The experimental study included the four-point bending tests of five four-meter-long simply supported SFRC beams having various ratios of longitudinal reinforcement and fiber content. Results revealed that the MCTF-based NLFE method performed superior in representing the large-scale member responses (such as load-carrying capacity, crack profiles, and flexural stiffness) for the selected loading and boundary conditions while the simplified analytical tool was found to be always conservative in the determination of strength regardless of conventional reinforcement and fiber ratio. However, the rate of error was apparently proven to be highly dependent on the tensile reinforcement ratio.