Review and design of structural fiber reinforced concrete elements

Abstract

This thesis reports main issues, and findings in designing FRC structural elements and presents a new approach for predicting the real residual flexural behavior of FRC elements validated using non-linear finite-element analysis and existing experimental data. The literature survey prior to the work using systematic search and search analysis helped to identify the major gaps in the field of FRC structural element design and crystalized the idea of the need for new method and approaches. The motivation of this work is to represent the real post-cracking flexural behavior of FRC elements as it is yet not represented well in fib Model Code guidelines; and to make the structural use of FRC material as the ONLY reinforcement in linear structural elements true, as well as to present a suitable analytical and numerical model for general use in analysis and design for FRC structural elements. The main conclusion of this study is that the presented new approach is reliable and capable to represent the real flexural response of FRC elements in the scope of this work and unveil the limitations of fib Model Code in this regard