Several experimental tests have demonstrated the effectiveness of steel fibers in substituting the minimum code required shear reinforcement in beams, particularly in precast high performance concrete structures. Despite the large number of experimental results available, only a few numerical studies…
Several experimental tests have demonstrated the effectiveness of steel fibers in substituting the minimum code required shear reinforcement in beams, particularly in precast high performance concrete structures. Despite the large number of experimental results available, only a few numerical studies have been so far published concerning fiber reinforced concrete structures. The behavior of full scale steel fiber reinforced concrete beams is herein analysed using a smeared crack damage model provided by the latest release of ABAQUS (V. 6.3). The numerical model is validated against the experimental results obtained on full scale FRC beams. The numerical results allow to correctly predict the experimental response, particularly with respect to the first cracking point, the initial crack pattern, and its development. The results allow a better understanding of fiber reinforced concrete structures under shear loading and will be used as a basis for developing a new design procedure for such kind of structures.