The effect of slab thickness, presence of reinforcement and concrete strength on punching shear capacity of the ground-supported concrete slabs (GSCS) is an important issue in Industrial Ground-supported slab construction. In this study, a three-dimensional nonlinear finite element (FE) model for GSCS was validated with three experimental results from literature and used to assess those effects. A Concrete damaged plasticity model in ABAQUS2020 software with a suitable simulation technique and the theory-based material property was adopted. The results of FE models and predictions of the Technical Report34 (TR34) of the Concrete Society were compared with the experimental results. The average FE predicted/Experimental punching shear capacity ratio was 0.93 with a 0.06 standard deviation and the average TR34 predicted/Experimental punching shear capacity ratio was 1.01 with 0.06 standard deviation. However, the average TR34 predicted/FE predicted punching shear capacity ratio was 1.08 with a 0.13 standard deviation. TR34 prediction was little bit liberal. The results of 72 FE models were compared with the TR34 prediction. The average TR34 predicted/FE predicted punching shear capacity ratio is 1.17 with a 0.21 standard deviation. TR34 prediction was liberal compared to FE prediction. The study showed that the effects of an increase of Slab thickness, Concrete strength, and reinforcement were positive in both FE and TR34 predictions, whereas TR34 predictions were conservative up to a certain slab thickness around 115-130mm for concrete grade 20-40 MPa. As concrete strength and thickness increase, TR34 predictions become more liberal. The bottom layer reinforcement provides greater strength, however, TR34 was unable to predict that.
Keywords: Concrete damage plasticity model; Concrete strength; Ground-supported concrete slab; Non-linear finite element model; Punching shear; Reinforcement bar; Slab thickness.
© 2024 The Authors.