Experimental and numerical analysis of fiber reinforced concrete beams in real scale with steel bars reinforcement

XARGAY, H.; ROCCA, N.; RIPANI, M.; FOLINO, P.

Desenzano, Lake Garda

Congreso; 3rd FRC International Workshop Fibre Reinforced Concrete: from Design to Structural Applications. ACI-fib-RILEM Joint Workshop; 2018

ACI-fib-RILEM

The aim ofthis work is to present some results of an extensive experimental campaigninvolving reinforced concrete beams in real scale. Both steel reinforcing barsand industrial steel fibers are considered. This research was motivated by thefact that although a very important number of scientific papers related with fiberreinforced concrete can be found in the literature, scarce is the number ofworks considering real scale fiber reinforced concrete specimens. Regardingavailable design recommendations, the contribution of new experimental datacould contribute to improve actual design equations. Theexperimental campaign included compressive and splitting tensile tests oncylindrical samples, three points bending tests on small notched beams and fourpoints bending tests on real scale beams. A normal strength concrete was used. Inall cases, different industrial steel fiber contents were considered, and forthe largest beams, also different reinforcing bars layouts were analyzed.  It wasobserved that the benefits of the addition of fibers were particularly relatedwith a reduction of the dispersion of results and with structural integrity inthe post peak behavior. It was found that current RILEM design recommendationsfor sections under flexural bending resulted not enough conservative for thecase of fiber reinforced concrete. From the constructability point of view, itwas concluded that fiber contents greater than 40 kg/m3 caused pouring problemsfor the particular concrete type that was analyzed and for the reinforcinglayouts considered, leading to sample defects in the zone of reinforcing bars.