Numerical simulation of bending response of reinforced concrete and fibre-reinforced concrete beams

Abstract

The aim of this work is to understand the behaviour of members made of fibre reinforced concrete (FRC). The members under study were fibre reinforced concrete beams with no conventional reinforcement, as well as fibre reinforced concrete beams with longitudinal and transverse reinforcement. For the FRC specimens, a high-strength cement mix with the addition of steel fibres, was used. Conventional reinforced concrete beams and reinforced concrete beams strengthened by an FRC jacket were also studied in the same terms, for comparison reasons. The beams were tested under either monotonic (static tests), fully cyclic (positive and negative bending moments), or one-direction cyclic (positive bending only) three- or fourpoint bending. The validity of each proposed numerical model for the behaviour the FRC beams is established by comparing the numerical predictions with the experimental results. © Civil-Comp Press, 2008.