Fracture behavior of SFRC slabs on grade

In concrete pavements, steel fibers are particularly suitable both for limiting shrinkage effects and for increasing the bearing capacity and fatigue resistance. In the present paper, the fracture behavior of steel-fiber- reinforced concrete slabs on grade is studied by using Non Linear Fracture Mechanics FE analyses, based on both smeared and discrete crack models. The fracture mechanics models have been validated by results from experiments on full scale slabs on elastic soil subjected to a load in the slab center. The comparison shows that NLFM analyses closely predict crack development, ultimate load and the collapse mechanism of slabs on grade. The smeared crack approach has been used for studying different loading conditions since it does not need an a-priori knowledge of the crack pattern.