Numerical Analysis and Comparison of Fiber Reinforced Concrete Deep Beam

A concrete beam is probably the most widely used concrete structure in the construction industry. A lot of research has been carried out to understand the behavior of reinforced concrete and have used many different methods to calculate the ultimate capacity. Fiber reinforced concrete on the other hand have also been in use for many years for its ability to improve mechanical properties of reinforced concrete such as ductility. The main purpose of this article is to examine the behavior of deep RC (reinforced concrete) and SFRC (steel fiber reinforced concrete) deep beams with and without web reinforcements when different factors are varied. Firstly, the article provides an overview of different factors that affect the shear and flexural capacity of RC and SFRC deep beams. Software and manual calculations are presented with the help of Eurocode 2. A materially nonlinear finite element analysis (FEA) was conducted by ABAQUS software. The results obtained from the software, manual calculations and the experiment are further compared. Two parameters, percentage longitudinal reinforcement and span to depth (a/d) ratio were changed to examine the behavior. Results suggested that a/d ratio had a greater impact on the failure load and fibers improved the ductility of SFRC deep beam without web reinforcements till an extent that it matched with the behavior of RC deep beam with web reinforcements. Fibers showed a higher peak load after the beam failed implying higher residual tensile strength than RC deep beam. On increasing percentage longitudinal reinforcement, RC deep beam exhibited a positive correlation up to a certain point but later failed due to over reinforcement.