António Manuel Pinho Ramos

Abstract This paper analyses the performance of the experimental setups to assess the punching strength of slab-column connections in continuous flat slabs under vertical and horizontal loading. In the last years, several experimental campaigns have been performed to investigate the punching strength of slab-column connections, but most of the experimental tests concerned isolated slab-column connections. Among the few setups aimed at reproducing the eccentric punching failure in continuous flat slabs, the setup developed at the NOVA School of Science and Technology in Lisbon is considered in this paper. The performance of the Lisbon setup is assessed through nonlinear finite element analyses, calibrated on experimental data, by comparison with numerical results of a theoretical continuous setup. Then, the performance of the isolated setups, used in many researches and at the base of some international codes, is also evaluated through the same finite element model. Numerical analyses highlight that the setup developed in Lisbon could provide reliable ultimate rotations of continuous flat slab connections, but it underestimates the punching strength. Despite isolated setups lead to similar results when compared with the Lisbon setup, the latter seems to provide a better representation of a continuous slab-column connection. The numerical analyses presented in this paper have been performed assuming monotonic lateral loading.

The use of prestress in flat slabs is a common solution, mainly because it allows larger spans and thinner slabs. Nevertheless, smaller thicknesses near the slab-column connections, along with the superposition of high shear and flexural stresses, arise the question of the slab capacity to resist punching. The punching failure results from the superposition of shear and flexural stresses near the column, and is associated to the formation of a pyramidal plug of concrete which punches through the slab. It is a local and brittle failure. The use of prestress can increase the punching capacity of flat slabs-column connections.This work presents the experimental analysis of flat slab specimens with tendons under punching. Nine slabs were tested using unbonded prestress with high strength steel tendons. The influences on the punching capacity of the vertical component of the prestress forces resulting from inclined tendons near the column and their distance to the column are analysed. The in-plane compression force due to prestress was not applied to the slabs, in order to evaluate only the deviation force influence. This work aims to improve the understanding of the behaviour of prestressed flat slabs under punching load in order to properly evaluate the punching resistance of this kind of structures. The experimental punching loads are compared with the provisions of EC2, ACI 318-11 and MC2010. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

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This work refers to experimental and 3D nonlinear FEA on punching. Numerical results were compared with experimental ones in order to benchmark the FE model and afterwards a parametric study was conducted, changing the reinforcement ratio, slab thickness, concrete strength and column dimensions, running a total of 360 models, where their effect on punching capacity is shown. EC2 and MC2010 provisions agreed approximately with experimental and FEA results. Based in the FEA results it is proposed an equation to predict the punching capacity with the introduction of fracture mechanics parameter, which was compared with several experimental results, giving good approximation.

This paper deals with the experimental and theoretical evaluation of punching shear capacity of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) slab–column connections. Five experimental specimens with a thickness of 160 mm, different fiber volume contents (0, 1.0, and 1.5%) and different flexural reinforcement ratios (0.75 and 1.5%) have been tested. The experimental results were evaluated using a physical–mechanical model based on the critical shear crack theory (CSCT). The model has given a good approximation of experimental punching shear strengths. In general, tests have highlighted a significant increase in load and deformation capacity of fiber reinforced concrete slab–column connections in comparison with reinforced concrete connections.