Application of FRC constitutive models to modelling of slabs

Fibre reinforcement technology has advanced significantly in recent years and, as a result, expanded into different applications. In particular, steel fibre-reinforced concrete has been successfully employed in flat slabs of several buildings in Europe with fibres as the only reinforcement. However, design methods for fibre-reinforced concrete (FRC) structures do not consider differences that may result from material characterisation tests that are not representative of the structural behaviour and fibre orientation of real-scale elements. In this regard, this paper presents a numerical study in which two constitutive models for FRC based on the bending test are applied to estimate the flexural behaviour of full-scale slabs of different dimensions. Likewise, a parametric study is conducted to analyse how the parameters of these constitutive models affect the flexural response of the slabs, and a numerical fit of the experimental data is performed. Finite element simulations using the constitutive models overestimate the experimental results. The parametric study also reveals that the parameter σ 2 (stress after cracking) has a particularly importance influence on the response. Furthermore, enhanced sectional behaviour of the slabs was observed as their width was increased.