International Concrete Abstracts Portal

Due to the low lateral stiffness of slabs supported on columns alone reinforced concrete flat plates are typically combined with other structural elements, such as shearwalls. In these structures, the slab-column connections are designed to carry gravity loads only, and the shearwalls, which also carry gravity loads, are required to resist the lateral forces. Therefore, the slab-wall connections (SWCs) are essential for the adequate performance of both the gravity and lateral force resisting systems. However, the majority of punching shear research and design provisions have been focused on slab-column connections, even though punching failures around slab-wall connections have been observed experimentally. Empirical testing of slab-wall connections is difficult due to the required specimen size. This paper investigates the punching shear behaviour of interior slab-wall connections subjected to concentric vertical loading, and combined concentric vertical loading and uniaxial unbalanced moment using a plasticity-based nonlinear finite element model (FEM) in Abaqus. The FEM, developed to study the impact of column aspect ratio on punching shear, was calibrated considering seven isolated slab-column specimens. The analysis of isolated slab-wall connections demonstrates that punching failures can occur before one-way shear failures, although the connection capacity is much higher than the expected loads in most structures. Punching shear design methods for interior slab-wall connections subjected to gravity load only, developed from finite element analysis results, are developed and presented in the paper.

Punching shear failure of RC flat slab connections cause loss of slab’s supports. The detached slab is falling and impacting the slab below. That problem requires thorough investigation and appropriate design guidelines. This paper presents research results on various aspects of this impact scenario. The analysis is based on an advanced numerical model that has been formulated, and the impact analyses follow the damage evolution in the concrete and reinforcement until complete connections failure of the impacted slab is developed, and a progressive collapse scenario starts. The effects of slab geometry and material properties were examined, and the contribution of special shear reinforcement and integrity rebars were investigated. The potential contribution of added drop panels to enhance slab resistance were examined. The slabs impact effect on the supporting columns has been investigated as well. The suitability of current static loading design-criteria to provide safe design against dynamic/impact punching shear is assessed. It shows that the current static-loading based design standards cannot ensure resilience of flat slab connections to impact loading and therefore cannot prevent a progressive collapse scenario. Analyses results are compared with inspected failure details of a collapsed RC flat slabs parking garage building, and excellent agreement is obtained.

Developed 40 years ago by Frank Vecchio and Michael Collins, the Modified Compression Field Theory (MCFT) and its successor, the Disturbed Stress Field Model (DSFM), have proven to be robust methodologies in modeling the response of concrete structures. Originally developed for newly designed concrete structures, they have been refined over the years to expand their applicability to various engineering problems, including modeling deteriorated and repaired structures. This paper reviews the evolution and application of MCFT in modeling and assessment of deteriorated and repaired concrete structures. The first part focuses on the application of MCFT to advanced field structural assessment, including stochastic analysis procedures that incorporate field data. The second part discusses the evolvement of MCFT to account for two of the most common deterioration mechanisms, reinforcement corrosion and alkali-silica reaction. The last part explores the application of the model to structures repaired with fiber-reinforced polymer composites. It is concluded that the extension of the MCFT formulation has enabled it to reliably predict the behavior of both deteriorated and repaired concrete structures.

The limited availability of research studies related to the behavior of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete (SFRC) members subjected to torsion has hindered the development of clear and reliable design guidelines. Recent efforts by various researchers have been devoted to the development of analytical models for predicting the torsional response of SFRC members, supported by experimental results which have highlighted the efficiency of steel fibers in improving the torsional resistance and stiffness. For beams subjected to moderate or low levels of torsion, steel fibers, even at moderate dosages, have demonstrated the potential to replace minimum conventional torsion reinforcement, thus providing significant advantages for practical applications. This paper presents a discussion of the recent developments in research related to testing SFRC members under pure torsion. A comprehensive database of experimental test data is collated to provide a state-of-the-art in this respect. Additionally, the manuscript delves into analytical prediction models for the torsional capacity by some European code-oriented models, recently introduced by the Eurocode 2 as well as by the Authors of this paper. The results of model predictions are compared with available experimental data to assess the effectiveness and reliability of the models.

The modified compression field theory (MCFT) is a general model for the behavior of diagonally cracked reinforced concrete. When applied to beams and columns, a number of very significant simplifications can be made to make it easier to apply in practice for day-to-day design and strength assessment. While the methods used to generate the simplified MCFT have been explained in previous papers, the actual historical and technical process that led to the work was somewhat different than the technical arguments made in the previous publications. This paper explains the procedures that actually occurred in 1999 to 2002 to generate the equations of the simplified MCFT for members with stirrups. The process shows the importance of working backwards from solutions and engineering intuition in the generation of technical theories. While the analysis method ended up being practical and technically sound, its creation was a people-based process and learning about it can hopefully be helpful to future researchers who want to know how “it really happened”.