Opening effect on punching shear strength of RC slabs

Abstract

<p>Punching shear failure can happen in reinforced concrete flat slabs due to the development of high shear stresses in the slab-column connection area. These shear stresses are increased when openings are created, since the presence of openings reduce the concrete area that sustains the shear stresses. In this paper, finite element analysis (FEA) with the damaged plasticity model for concrete in ABAQUS is performed to simulate the opening effect in reinforced concrete slabs without shear reinforcement. A previously tested and analyzed interior slab-column connections is considered. The effect of the location and the size of the opening on the punching shear resistance are investigated. The punching shear capacity of the analyzed specimens is calculated using the equations of two current design provisions for punching shear (ACI 318-14, Eurocode2-2004) and compared with the numerical results. A probabilistic analysis using Monte Carlo simulation for both design codes is considered. Finally, fragility analysis is performed in order to estimate the probability of the estimated punching shear resistance related with the opening size and distance.‌‌</p>