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Punching Shear Capacity of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete Slab- Column

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Conference Paper · September 2019

DOI: 10.2749/newyork.2019.0467

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Josef Landler Oliver Fischer

Technische Universität München Technische Universität München
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Punching Shear Capacity of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete Slab-
Column Connections

Josef Landler Oliver Fischer

M.Sc. Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing.
Technical University of Munich Technical University of Munich
Chair of Concrete and Masonry Chair of Concrete and Masonry
Structures Structures
Munich, Germany Munich, Germany
josef.landler@tum.de oliver.fischer@tum.de

Civil Engineering studies, Civil Engineering studies,

University of Applied Sciences Technical University of Munich
Munich, B.Eng. 2012 (TUM), Dipl.-Ing. 1988
Civil Engineering studies, PhD in Civil Engineering 1994,
Technical University of Munich Bundeswehr University Munich
(TUM), M.Sc. 2014 Since 2009 Professor of the Chair
Since 2014 Research Assistant, of Concrete and Masonry
Chair of Concrete and Masonry Structures TUM
Structures TUM

Contact: josef.landler@tum.de

Abstract
To design flat slabs directly supported on columns, the punching shear resistance of the slab is a main factor.
It can be increased in the vicinity of the slab-column connection with punching shear reinforcement, like
bent up bars or shear studs, to bear the high reaction forces. However, the usage of punching shear
reinforcement requires the knowledge of special design rules and often leads to problems and deficiencies in
construction.
Fiber reinforced concrete seems to be a promising alternative to conventional punching shear
reinforcement. To investigate the load bearing behavior of the slab-column connection using fiber reinforced
concrete, a total of eight punching shear tests were performed. The specimens were realized with a typical
top and bottom flexural reinforcement, but without punching shear reinforcement. Varied parameters were
the slab thickness with 250 mm and 300 mm and the fiber content Vf with 0.5 Vol.-% and 1.0 Vol.-%. To
investigate the influence of modern fiber types, normal- and high-strength steel fibers with normal- and
double-hooked-ends were used.
In all eight experimental tests, the intended punching shear failure was achieved. The capable load using
fiber reinforced concrete increased by 20 % to 50 % compared to the reference tests without steel fibers,
depending on the fiber type and the fiber content Vf. Additionally, this load increase was accompanied by a
significant improvement in ductility. The post-cracking behavior was noticeably influenced by the used steel
fiber type. An influence of the slab thickness or steel fiber type on the shear strength contributed by the
fiber reinforced concrete could not be determined.
Keywords: punching shear strength, steel fiber reinforced concrete, macro steel fiber, flat slab, slab
column connection

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2019 IABSE Congress – The Evolving Metropolis
September 4-6, 2019, New York City
1 Introduction
The design and construction of reinforced concrete
flat slabs has become increasingly common due to
the construction and architectural advantages in
office buildings, residential buildings and parking
structures. The slabs are directly supported by the
columns, without any need of additional beam
members. This results in an optimum construction
height and a flat underside of the slab.
The ultimate strength of reinforced concrete flat
slabs is usually governed by the punching shear
capacity at its slab-column connection. The
combined effect of high shear force and bending
moment leads to a spatially high stressed area.
This causes a very brittle and sudden failure mode
without warning and can lead to a progressive
collapse of the entire structure. In the past,
alternatives such as stirrups, bent-up bars or shear
studs have been established to increase the
punching shear capacity. However, all these
methods have disadvantages, such as special
design rules, and often cause problems and
deficiencies in construction.
A promising alternative to such established
systems could be the use of steel fiber reinforced
concrete in the area of the slab-column
connection. Since valid standards like the DAfStb
Guideline “Steel Fibre Reinforced Concrete” [1] of
the German Committee for Structural Concrete
(DAfStb) are available, there is an increasing use of
macro steel fibers in concrete engineering. The
addition of mechanically anchored macro steel
fibers in concrete impede the crack formation and
the subsequent crack opening with increasing load.
After the formation of cracks, the opposite crack
edges are linked to each other by the steel fibers,
which allows for the transferring of tensile forces
across the crack. Due to this behavior, steel fiber
reinforced concrete has a post cracking tensile
strength, with a softening or hardening
characteristic depending on the steel fiber type
and especially the fiber content. Ideally, the steel
fibers are randomly orientated and distributed in
the concrete matrix, so the effect of steel fibers
can be described as randomly distributed
reinforcement. The post cracking tensile strength
causes an increasing cross-sectional resistance and
a more ductile behavior regarding the load-bearing
2
and deformation behavior, e.g. for bending
moments and shear loads.
In the past 30 years, numerous researchers have
shown the potential of steel fiber concrete to
improve the punching shear capacity and ductility
of slabs [3][4][5]. Depending on the steel fiber type
and fiber content, increases in the failure load of
30 % to 60 % could be achieved in comparison to
non-fibrous specimens. However, most of the tests
were carried out on slabs thinner than 150 mm,
which are only of limited practical relevance.
Additionally, novel developments in the past years
have led to an improvement in steel fiber
performance regarding steel strength and
anchoring behavior.
The aim of this project was to investigate the load
bearing and deformation behavior of steel fiber
reinforced flat slab-column connections with
practically relevant slab thicknesses and modern
high-strength double-hooked-end steel fibers.
2 Experimental Program
2.1 Test parameters and specimens
To evaluate the structural behavior of steel fiber
reinforced flat slabs, eight punching shear tests
were carried out on the slab-column connection at
an interior column. Two specimens, one of each
slab thickness, 250 mm and 300mm, served as
references and were comprised of non-fibrous
concrete. Six specimens were made of fiber
reinforced concrete, varying the steel fiber type
and content.
All specimens consisted of an octagonal slab with a
monolithically formed column stub. The inscribed
diameter of the octagonal slab was 2,800 mm with
a column stub cross section of 300 x 300 mm. The
load introduction radius, i.e. distance to the tie
rods, was equal to 1,200 mm. The chosen concrete
cover of 25 mm led to an effective depth of
approximately 205 mm for the 250 mm and
255 mm for the 300 mm thick slab.
Table 1 summarizes the geometrical properties of
the eight specimens. The label of each specimen
(Mx-yy) indicates the values of its concrete mix (x)
and slab thickness (yy). (for more details see [2]).
2019 IABSE Congress – The Evolving Metropolis
September 4-6, 2019, New York City

Table 1: Properties of SFRC slab specimens

Residual tensile 𝟏
Vexp 𝐟𝐜,𝐜𝐲𝐥,𝐌𝟎 𝟑
c h dm ρl fc,cyl Vf Fiber strength of SFRC 𝐕𝐞𝐱𝐩 ( )
Test 𝐟𝐜,𝐜𝐲𝐥
[mm] [mm] [mm] [%] [MPa] [MPa] Type fR1 fR3 [kN]
[MPa] [MPa] [kN]
M0-25 47.8 -- -- -- -- 1170 1170
M1-25 48.1 0.5 4D 4.0 4.3 1394 1391
300 250 205 1.23
M2-25 39.8 0.5 5D 4.5 5.2 1345 1429
M3-25 48.1 1.0 5D 10.0 9.2 1740 1736
M0-30 48.2 -- -- -- -- 1639 1639
M1-30 48.9 0.5 4D 4.2 5.2 1982 1972
300 300 255 1.23
M2-30 40.3 0.5 5D 3.6 5.2 1776 1885
M3-30 47.0 1.00 5D 8.8 7.3 2316 2335
Notes: c: length of square column section; h: slab thickness; dm: average effective depth; ρl is average reinforcement ratio (ρx + ρy )/2; fc,cyl:
mean cylinder compressive strength of concrete; Vf: steel fiber content; fR1 / fR3: residual flexural tensile strength corresponding with
CMOD = 0.5 mm/ 2.5 mm; Vexp: Punching failure load

2,300 N/mm² and a strain at an ultimate strength

2.2 Materials and fabrication
In addition to a non-fibrous concrete mix (M0),
three steel fiber mixtures (M1, M2, M3) were
used. To create a better comparability of the test
results, the same concrete mix was chosen for all
four mixture types, solely the steel fiber type and
content were varied. For the column stubs, a high
strength concrete with a compressive strength of
85 MPa determined on 150 mm cubes was used.
of 6.0 %. Dramix 5D has an optimized hooked-end
geometry that prevents pulling out (Figure 1)
compared to Dramix 4D. Due to the geometry and
the material characteristics of the steel fibers, it is
possible to fully activate the fibers and to achieve a
ductile post breaking behavior.
The residual tensile strengths from the various
concrete mixtures were obtained from the flexural
test according to DIN EN 14641 [8]. The results are
summarized in Table 1.

Figure 1. Photographs of used fibre types Dramix

4D (left) [6], Dramix 5D (right) [7]
The employed steel fibers Dramix 4D 65/60 BG [6]
and Dramix 5D 65/60 BG [7] were provided by
Bekaert GmbH. In mixture M1, Dramix 4D was
used, whereas in mixtures M2 and M3, Dramix 5D
was used. Both fiber types are hooked-end steel
fibers with a diameter of 0.9 mm and a length of Figure 2. Reinforcement layout before casting
60 mm; the aspect ratio is 65. The main differences
between the two fiber types are the used material All specimens were reinforced with a conventional,
and the geometry of the hooked end. Dramix 4D is orthogonal flexural reinforcement of B500. The
comprised of steel with a nominal tensile strength 20 mm diameter bars of the top layer, with a
of 1,600 N/mm² and a strain at ultimate strength measured tensile strength of 523 MPa, were
of 0.8 %. Dramix 5D is made of a high-strength spaced at a distance of 125 mm (h = 250 mm) or
steel with a nominal tensile strength of 100 mm (h = 300 mm). The flexural reinforcement

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2019 IABSE Congress – The Evolving Metropolis
September 4-6, 2019, New York City
ratio of 1.23 % was constant for all specimens. To
ensure a punching shear failure, this high value
was chosen to prevent an unplanned bending
failure. The 10 mm diameter bar bottom layer
reinforcement was identically spaced as the top
layer reinforcement. Figure 2 displays a
photograph of the reinforcement layout.
Figure 3. Test setup with test specimen
2.3 Test arrangement and measurements
The used test setup is shown in Figure 3. The load
was applied by a centrical hydraulic cylinder (blue).
To ensure the balance of vertical forces, twelve
circularly arranged tie rods were used. The tie rods
are anchored to an abutment plate by hollow
plunger cylinders (green). To minimize
eccentricities in load application, all hollow plunger
cylinders were linked to a common manifold and
absorbed the same load independent of its
individual displacement.
Load controlled loading in increments of 150 kN
was applied until a calculated service load Vservice
was achieved. To simulate lifetime loading, the
load was cycled ten times between VService and half
its value. VService was determined as a function of
the expected calculated failure load divided by γ =
γM ⋅ γF ≈ 1.5 ⋅ 1.4 = 2.1 Subsequently, the
specimens were continuously loaded
(displacement controlled) until failure.
During the testing procedure, several
measurements were performed to investigate the
4
punching shear behavior. The vertical
displacement of the specimens was recorded at
the column stub, along two edges of a fictitious
slab quarter and at four points along the radius of
the tie rods. To investigate the development of the
inner shear cracks, the increase in slab thickness
and the relative displacement between the column
and the slab was measured. With strain gauges,
the strains in the upper flexural reinforcement and
at the bottom concrete surface were recorded.
Further information regarding the test setup and
the performed measurements are available in [2].
3 Test Results
In all eight tested slabs, a punching shear failure
was achieved. While the non-fibrous test
specimens failed very brittle with a sudden
reduction in load, the fiber reinforced concrete
specimens showed a significant ductile punching
shear failure.
Characteristic of all specimens was the increasing
slab thickness and relative displacement between
slab and column stub at failure. After cutting the
specimen into halves, the typical punching cone
was clearly visible (Figure 5).
Figure 4 shows the load-deflection curves for all
specimens and Table 1 the achieved maximum test
loads Vexp. To reduce the influence of the varying
concrete cylinder strength of the eight slabs, the
failure loads are normalized to the concrete
cylinder strength of the equivalent specimen M0.
Figure 4. Load-deflection curves for all tests
2019 IABSE Congress – The Evolving Metropolis
September 4-6, 2019, New York City
M0-25
M3-25

Figure 5. Saw cut of specimen M0-25 (top) and specimen M3-25

Compared to the non-fibrous reference slabs, the The saw cuts in the non-fibrous concrete specimen
equivalent failure load was increased by about M0-25 showed a shear crack with a fine crack
20 % to 50 % depending on the fiber content. width inclined at about 20°. In contrast, the
specimen M3-25 showed a shear crack inclined at
Independent from the fiber type (mixture M1 and
about 30° with a very coarse and wide crack path.
M2) but with equivalent fiber volume, nearly
Increasing the fiber content leads to a steeper path
identical maximum loads could be achieved. The
of the shear crack and the crack width increases
reason could be found in the values of the residual
significantly. The very fine and discrete crack of the
tensile strength of the corresponding concrete
reference specimen transforms into a finely
mixtures (Table 1). The evaluation of the internal
structured crack band due to multiple crack
shear crack development has shown that the
formation. In contrast to the non-fibrous
maximum load corresponds well with the crack
specimens, the opposite crack edges are
opening of approximately 1.0 mm. Therefore, the
connected to each other by the steel fibers. The
value fR1 (CMOD = 0.5 mm) can be used as a good
shear crack formation does not lead to a sudden
comparison. Here, the values fR1 are almost in a
failure and a subsequent increase of the maximum
similar range for both mixtures M1 and M2, which
load is possible. This is accompanied by increasing
explains the nearly identical maximum loads.
crack widths and causes a very ductile failure
Regarding the contributed shear strength by the
mode.
steel fibers, no noticeable influence of the slab
thickness could be determined. During the experiment, the crack formation on the
top surface of the slab was monitored (Figure 6). A
After testing, the specimens were sawn into
difference between the non-fibrous slabs and the
quarters to examine the shear crack pattern.
fiber reinforced slabs could not be determined.
Representing all specimens, Figure 5 shows a
After the initial formation of radial cracks, the
photograph of the saw cuts of specimens M0-25
increasing load led to typical star-shaped cracks
and M3-25. Based on these two specimens, the
followed by the formation of tangential cracks until
behavior will be explained below.
a stable crack pattern was achieved.

M0-25 (reference) M2-25 (0.5 Vol.-%) M3-25 (1.0 Vol.-%)

Figure 6. Completed crack pattern of the upper surface of test specimens M0-25, M2-25 and M3-25

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 2019 IABSE Congress – The Evolving Metropolis
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Figure 6 shows the crack pattern at the top surface
for specimens M0-25, M2-25 and M3-25 with
different fiber content after the test was
completed. Specimen M1-25 showed a similar
behavior as M2-25, therefore no image was taken.
A comparison of these three specimens (Figure 6)
clarifies that the crack distribution becomes
significantly finer with increasing fiber content due
to a larger number of cracks with smaller crack
width.
4 Conclusions
An experimental investigation on slab-column
connections at an interior column made of steel
fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) was carried out.
The following conclusions can be drawn from the
test results:
- The punching shear capacity of slab-column
connections can be significantly increased by
adding steel fibers. Depending on the fiber
volume content, an increase of the maximum
punching shear resistance by 20 % to 50 %
compared to similar non-fibrous concrete
specimens is possible.
- Due to the addition of steel fibers, the failure
mode changes from a very brittle and sudden
failure to a ductile failure mode.
- The steel fiber type and the slab thickness had
no notable influence on the maximum punching
shear capacity compared to the reverence
specimens.
- Increasing the steel fiber content, the crack
width and inclination of the critical shear crack
rises. The fine, discrete crack of the reference
specimen change into a coarse crack band. On
the top surface, the crack pattern becomes
significantly finer.
5 Acknowledgements
The authors want to express their gratitude to the
research initiative “Zukunft Bau” of the German
Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban
Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) for funding
the research project this paper is based on.
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6 References
[1] German Committee for Structural
Concrete, DAfStb Guideline “Steel Fibre
Reinforced Concrete”, Beuth Verlag,
November 2012
[2] J. Landler, O. Fischer, “Steigerung der
Durchstanztragfähigkeit und Duktilität
durch die Zugabe moderner Hochleistungs-
stahlfasern”, submitted to Beton- und
Stahlbetonbau, 2018
[3] R. N. Swamy, S. A. R. Ali, “Punching Shear
Behavior of Reinforced Slab-Column
Connections Made with Steel Fiber
Concrete”, ACI Journal, vol. 79, nr. 6, pp
392 – 406, 1982
[4] S. D. B. Alexander, S. H. Simmonds,
“Punching shear tests of concrete slab-
column joints containing fiber
reinforcement”, ACI Structural Journal, vol.
89, nr. 4, pp 425 – 432, 1992
[5] K. Chanthabouala, S. Teng, J. Chandra, K.
H. Tan, C. P. Ostertag, “Punching Tests of
Double-Hooked-End Fiber-Reinforced
Concrete Slabs”. ACI Structural Journal, vol.
115, nr. 11, pp 1777-1789, 2018
[6] BEKAERT: “Dramix 4D 65/60BG”. data
sheet, 2018
[7] BEKAERT: “Dramix 5D 65/60BG”. data
sheet, 2018
[8] DIN EN 14651:2007-12 “Test method for
metallic fibre concrete – Measuring the
flexural tensile strength (limit or
proportionality (LOP), residual)”, Beuth
Verlag, 2007