Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
ABSTRACT
Recently, the use of steel fibres in precast concrete pipes as a replacement for
rebar reinforcement has been growing.
The main advantages of this material called steel fiber reinforced concrete
(SFRC) is controlling the cracking process, as well as additional benefits related to
its strength. However, distribution and orientation of the fibers are also important to
maximize its potential.
In this work the mechanical behaviour of SFRC pipes is studied by simulating
the three edge bearing test by means of a 2d model in plane strain state.
The SFRC is represented through a damage - plasticity model and, to study the
effect of fiber distribution and orientation, a probabilistic approach is used. Then, the
numerical model is solved with the aid of the Finite Elements Method coupled with
Monte Carlo simulations in order to carry out a stochastic analysis. Finally, results are
discussed and shown through pictures and comparative tables.
INTRODUCTION
Steel fiber reinforced concrete is one of the most important innovations in the
field of special concretes. The SFRC should be understood as a concrete that includes in
its composition short and discrete fibers, distributed randomly in their mass. Once the
concrete has cracked, the loss of adhesion and fiber pull-out dissipates a great amount
of energy, which leads to a significant increase in tenacity. (Blanco et.al.,2010).
In this respect, the addition of fibres provides advantages from both the tech-
nical and the economic point of view. From the technical point of view, a substantial
improvement of several mechanical properties of concrete is achieved. The use of fibres
also contribute economically, because allows saving up on the assembling operations
related to conventional reinforcement, reducing labor force, equipment use, and asso-
ciated risks (De la Fuente et al. 2010)
i i
i i
i i
MOTIVATION
Numerical simulation of fiber reinforced concrete allows the comparison and
coupling of the various constituent models with the experimental results in order to
establish the actual behavior of the material.
Numerical models do not replace the experimentation of physical models, how-
ever, to perform the latter, numerical modeling is useful in order to pre-dimensioning
trials and predicting results.
Numerical modeling is a useful tool in the analysis and evaluation of existing
structures which allows to determine causes of deformations, cracking and ultimate
loads, among others. At present days, laboratory tests can only be carried out at lim-
its that represent permissible stability for measuring equipment. With the numerical
modeling, such behavior can be obtained simulating its collapse using the mechanical
parameters measured experimentally(Caicedo Silva, 2010).
In this work, SFRC has been simplified as a homogeneous and isotropic mate-
rial. The material is represented taking into account its real composition applying the
theory of mixtures.
Numerical modeling of fiber-reinforced concrete using the theory of mixtures
can be applied with a good degree of precision to structural elements having regular
reinforcement amount.
The constitutive models describing the behavior of simple concrete are the start-
ing point to study the behavior of reinforced concrete.
Here, a constitutive model of damage-plasticity for the modeling of SFRC is
used , which allows to take the qualities of both failure mechanisms: by the side of
the plasticity mechanism allows to store inelastic deformations (permanent) associated
with a process of loading or unloading the material, and on the side of the damage
mechanism allows a degradation of elastic constants based on the law of evolution of
the damage variable.
The properties of SFRC mostly depend on the type, shape, slenderness, content
of fibers in unit volume of concrete and homogeneity of their random distribution.
The randomness of fiber distribution in concrete matrix is a significant problem in
producing a material model of fiber reinforced concrete which is reliable and easy to
i i
i i
i i
i i
i i
i i
lyze SFRC structures with or without conventional reinforcing bars (Lee, et.al.,2012)
i i
i i
i i
induces strain localization in the concrete structure. Under uniaxial compression the
response is linear until the value of initial yield, c0 . In the plastic regime the response
is typically characterized by stress hardening followed by strain softening beyond the
ultimate stress, cu . This representation, although somewhat simplified, captures the
main features of the response of concrete.
This model was implemented using a commercial software, in which these
curves were entered by points, defining the constitutive relation of the material.
i i
i i
i i
above-mentioned is used too. The extension of the model is achieved by modifying the
terms of the variables of hardening and adopting a yield function of second degree in
the components of the stress tensor. For this reason, in this modified criterion, maxi-
mum traction meridians and maximum compression meridians are curved rather than
straight, and a non-isotropic hardening occur (Luccioni et. al,1996).
For this models, a non-linear finite elements code called PLastic Crack dynamic
(PLCd) was used, in which the material response is introduced through analyticals
formulations which allows to describe the SFRC behavior.
() = Rint + e1 ()
() = 22 ()
z() = L3 () (2)
() = 4 ()
() = 5 ()
for each .
i i
i i
i i
portion of the tube of thickness em = 10mm and cross section corresponding to its
middle section.
In Figures 2 and 3, an example of distribution of the fibers in the tube and the
fraction thereof corresponding to the middle section considered, are illustrated respec-
tively. On the other hand, in Figure 3, different lengths of fibers can be observed in the
exemplified section due to the orientations of the fibers which are shown in projection
on the cross section considered together with the finite elements mesh used
Only those fibers which, totally or partially, are in the pipe fragment analyzed
is taken into account; and of them, only the part of the fiber of length l ef that is inside
the same.
Then, in each element of the finite element mesh the amount of fibers (in vol-
ume, vol ef ) contained is calculated and the fraction of fiber volume in each element is
determined Areae /vol ef . Finally, with the fraction of fiber volume contributed to each
element, the properties of homogeneous equivalent material corresponding to the ele-
ment are obtained, applying the classical theory of mixtures.
i i
i i
i i
Figure 4. Finite elements mesh and fiber distribution: mid cross section
i i
i i
i i
where N f is the number of fibers, lei is the length of the fiber i in an element and ie the
corresponding orientation (in projection). From these average angles and the amount
of fibers of each element, obtained according to the abovementioned, an equivalent
material for each finite element is defined using the classical theory of mixtures, and
e
orientation with respect to the global reference system.
load uniformly distributed over the upper generatrix of the pipe, which leans on two
longitudinal strips. The procedures and all the details that should be observed during
the execution of the test are specified in tne american standard ASTM C497.
i i
i i
i i
50mm. The pipe was modeled using 3-node linear triangular elements in plane strain
state.
Figure 6 shows the proposed model and the mesh. Lower supports were mod-
eled as rigid elastic and are fixed at the bottom to prevent movement or rotation. Dis-
placement controlled loading was accomplished by applying a 20 mm downward dis-
placement at the upper bearing strip.
6 NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS
Two different cases are exposed. In the first case, the different constitutive mod-
els proposed for the SFRC were analyzed and compared, while in the second case the
influence of the random distribution of the fibers was analyzed through the Monte Carlo
method.
10
i i
i i
i i
Table 1. Properties of the mixes and parameters used in the concrete damage
plasticity model
properties were found by means of the rule of mixtures. The assumptions adopted by
the rule of mixtures theory are not always true for heterogeneous materials as SFRC,
for that reason their use in design should be used with extreme caution (Roylance,
2008).
Figure 5 shows stresses diagrams in direction of the coordinate axes. The simu-
lation gives an agreement with the typical stress distribution for the three edge bearing
test, in which the highest tensile stresses are concentrated on the outer part of the tube.
This tensile stresses are especially importants because they are what cause the failure
of the pipe.
Table 3 shows the numerical results obtained for the two samples studied, which
were compared with the experimental ones provided by the work of Mohamed. As can
11
i i
i i
i i
be seen, the values numerically obtained are very close to each other for the first two
models used here, meanwhile for the coupled damaged plasticity model with curved
meridians, higher loads and closer to the experimental ones were obtained.
Mix Model Used Ult. Load (KN) Exp. Ult. Load (KN)
Concrete damage plast. 194
SS30 Coup. dam. plast. (straight meridians) 203 256
Coup. dam. plast. (curved meridians) 261
Concrete damage plast. 199
SL30 Coup. dam. plast. (straight meridians) 192 273
Coup. dam. plast. (curved meridians) 257
The fibers that are totally or partially in the tube section corresponding to the
middle section and thickness 10 mm are determined and from them only the part
of length l f that is inside the tube fragment is considered.
12
i i
i i
i i
For each element of the finite element mesh the amount of fibers (in volume,
vol ef ) contained is calculated and the fraction of fiber volume in each element is
determined Areae /vol ef .
With the fraction of fiber volume contributed to each element the properties of the
homogeneous equivalent material corresponding to the element are calculated by
applying classical mixing theory.
As in the previous case, the properties of the mixtures were extracted from
the work of Mohamed. In order to analyze the validity of the model, the numerical
values of the failure loads obtained here are compared with experimental values of
other authors (Mohamed et al., 2014) and with those obtained previously using a unique
homogeneous equivalent material model (Ferrado et al., 2015).
The histograms of Figures 8 a) and b) show the values corresponding to the
tube failure load obtained from the Monte Carlo simulations.
Their respective means and standard deviations are indicated in each case. From
these graphs it can be seen that the distribution of the fibers has a significant influence
on the loading capacity of the tube.
Also shown in figure 9, diagrams of convergence of accumulated mean and
cumulative standard deviation, from which it is concluded that 500 simulations are
enough to obtain statistical results with a good approximation.
As can be seen, this model better matches the results previously obtained with
a single homogeneous equivalent material model.
Finally, table 5 shows the numerical results obtained together with those of
Mohamed et al 2014 and Ferrado et al 2015.
13
i i
i i
i i
7 CONCLUDING REMARKS
In this work the mechanical behavior of SFRC pipes was studied by the simula-
tion of the three edge bearing test. For this purpose two different numerical tools were
14
i i
i i
i i
Table 5. Failure loads a) Mohamed et. al. 2014, b) Ferrado et. al. 2015, c) This
work (mean value)
Fiber dosage (a) Pf Experim. (N/mm) (b) Pf Homog. Mod (N/mm) (c) This work (N/mm)
20 kg/m3 151 160 153.13
40 kg/m 3 160 171 165.7
used. From the results obtained, it can be said that by means of the proposed model
the stresses generated in the crushing test can be appreciated, and among the proposed
SFRC models, the modified coupled damage plasticity model is the one that best fit the
experimental results.
In addition, a methodology was also proposed to analyze the effect of fiber dis-
tribution on the mechanical behavior of the tubes using the finite elements method to-
gether with the Monte Carlo method. The results obtained using this methods, showed a
better approximation in relation to the unique equivalent homogeneous material model
(Ferrado et. al., 2015.). The effect of the orientation of the fibers was considered ac-
cording to a weighted average angle, and from that dominant orientation, the properties
of the equivalent homogeneous material are obtained.
As a next stage, the use of a micromodel is proposed instead of a equivalent
homogeneous model, that explicitly consider the fibers as discrete elements inside the
cementitious mix,taking into account the possible debonding and fiber slipping from
the matrix.
15
i i
i i