Modeling the behavior of steel-fiber reinforced concrete ground slabs. II : development of slab model

Abstract

Steel Fibre Reinforced Concrete (SFRC) brings favourable properties to concrete pavements. The use of the material is limited by the lack of an appropriate analysis method. This paper is the second in a series of two aimed at providing a modelling approach, which can be used to model the behaviour of SFRC concrete and SFRC ground slabs. In this paper, a finite element model, capable of simulating the non-linear behaviour of the SFRC slab is proposed and compared to the slab’s experimental response. An approximate model describing the behaviour of the support layers is developed using results from a plate-bearing test. The same support model is adopted for the analysis of the combined structure of the slab and the support. The material model developed and tested in the first paper, for the SFRC containing 15 kg/m3 of steel fibres, is adopted for the analysis of the SFRC slabs. In addition, a parameter study is conducted to investigate the influence of concrete strength, steel fibre content and the support stiffness on the P-Δ response of SFRC ground slabs.