Mamush Teklie Mekuria

BEHAVIORS OF REINFORCED CONCRETE SLAB

VOIDED BY CIRCULAR PAPER TUBES

Behaviors of Reinforced Concrete Slab Voided by Circular

A MASTER’S THESIS
Paper Tubes

BY

MAMUSH TEKLIE MEKURIA

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND CIVIL

ENGINEERING

ADDIS ABABA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

UNIVERSITY

JUNE 2020
1
BEHAVIORS OF REINFORCED CONCRETE SLAB VOIDED BY

CIRCULAR PAPER TUBES

By

MAMUSH TEKLIE MEKURIA

A Thesis Submitted as a Partial Fulfillment to the Requirements for the Award of

the Degree of Master of Science in Civil Engineering (Structural Engineering)

to

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND CIVIL ENGINEERING

ADDIS ABABA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY

JUNE 2020
2
 Declaration
I hereby declare that this thesis entitled “Behaviors of Reinforced Concrete Slab
Voided by Circular Paper Tubes” was composed by myself, with the guidance of my
advisor. The work contained herein is my own except where explicitly stated otherwise in
the text, and that this work has not been submitted, in whole or in part, for any other
degree or professional qualification.

ii
 Certificate
This is to certify that the thesis prepared by Mr. Mamush Teklie Mekuria entitled
“Behaviors of Reinforced Concrete Slab Voided by Circular Paper Tubes” and
submitted as a partial fulfillment for the award of the Degree of Master of Science in
Civil Engineering (Structural Engineering) complies with the regulations of the
University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality, content and
quality.

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 Abstract
Voided slab construction is a way of effectively removing concrete from middle section

of a RC slab which is not carrying out a structural function, thereby reducing structural

dead weight. Voided slab construction has advantages such as reducing self-weight, Cost

efficiencies and fast Construction. However, floor stiffness of voided RC slab is less than

its solid counterpart and there is gap in literature about structural behaviors of voided RC

slabs.

This research work presents experimental and numerical investigations of voided RC

slab. Six solid and voided RC slab specimens of size 800mmx300mmx200mm were

casted and tested until failure under one-point load. Also, leveraging advantages of FEA,

effect of influential variables such as void size, loading type, concrete compressive

strength, and effect of top reinforcement were thoroughly studied.

Experimental test results indicated as compared to control solid RC slab, 60mm diameter

paper tube voided RC slab exhibited 12 %, 15.54 %, 25.50 %,14.64 % and 6.71% loss in

strength, cracking load, stiffness, ductility, and toughness respectively where as for

90mm diameter paper tube voided RC slab respective values were 20 %, 19.87 %, 38.80

%, 25.50 % and 12%. Also, as void size increased from 60mm to 90mm, voided slab

failure mode changed from flexural to shear. Finally, FEA, ACI 318M-19 and EC2 codes

showed good agreement with experimental results.

Keywords: Voided RC slab, Ductility, floor Stiffness, Finite element analysis

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 Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I would like to thank my Advisor Dr. Tesfaye Alemu, for all the help
and guidance he provided me. My hearty gratitude is also extended to Dr. Temesgen
Wondimu for his support in major courses to do this paper.

I am very grateful to ERA in collaboration with AASTU for providing me MSc. study.

I thank to EiABC University laboratory staffs and Ethiopian Construction Design and
supervision work corporation, who support my work during the laboratory test activities.
Special thanks to Mr. Beka Benti (instructor at Adama Science and Technology
University). He constantly helps me by editing my thesis paper and encouraged me to
finish my master’s degree.

Most importantly, I am grateful to my friends, Dawit Adrissie, Ermiyas Tadesse and

Fasile Aleneh for their support and encouragement. They have always stood with me and
believed in me.

I am indebted to many of my friends and to all individuals who have contributed directly
or indirectly for providing a stimulating environment throughout the preparation of this
thesis.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my Wife W/ro Sara Habte, my son Sofoniyas
Mamush and my family for their unconditional love, constant encouragement, and
tremendous support. Without them, these accomplishments would not have been
possible.

Mamush Teklie
June 2020

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Declaration ....................................................................................................................................... ii
Certificate........................................................................................................................................ iii
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... iv
Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................................... v
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................ vi
LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ viii
LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................ ix
LIST OF EQUATIONS ................................................................................................................... x
LIST OF SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................... xi
CHAPTER 1 .................................................................................................................................... 1
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Motivation .............................................................................................................................. 1
1.2 Statement of the problem ....................................................................................................... 2
1.3 Objective of the study ............................................................................................................ 3
1.3.1General objective ............................................................................................................. 3
1.3.2 Specific objectives .......................................................................................................... 3
1.4 Research Questions ................................................................................................................ 3
1.5 Significance of the Study ....................................................................................................... 4
1.6 Scope and Limitation of the study ......................................................................................... 4
CHAPTER 2 .................................................................................................................................... 5
LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................................ 5
2.1 General ................................................................................................................................... 5
2.2 Existing Studies on Hollow Core Slab................................................................................... 6
2.3 Research Gaps...................................................................................................................... 11
CHAPTER 3 .................................................................................................................................. 12
METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................................ 12
3.1 Experimental Test Investigations ......................................................................................... 12
3.1.1 Details of Experimental Test......................................................................................... 12
3.1.2 Properties of the Slab Specimens .................................................................................. 13
3.1.3 Casting and Curing of Slabs ......................................................................................... 15
3.1.4 Slab Test Setup ............................................................................................................. 16
3.2 Finite Element Numerical Investigations ............................................................................. 19

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 3.2.1 Data Used from Experiment ......................................................................................... 19
3.2.2 Element types using in FEM models ............................................................................ 20
3.2.3 Modeling and Meshing ................................................................................................. 22
3.2.4 Loads and Boundary Conditions ................................................................................... 24
3.2.5 Analysis Method ........................................................................................................... 25
3.2.6 Analysis Results ............................................................................................................ 25
CHAPTER 4 .................................................................................................................................. 26
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS .................................................................................................. 26
4.1 Experimental and Numerical Results ................................................................................... 26
4.1.1 Load-Deflection Behaviors of Slab............................................................................... 26
4.1.2 Crack pattern and failure mode ..................................................................................... 29
4.1.3 Ultimate strength and weight reduction ........................................................................ 32
4.1.4 Comparison of experiments versus FEA Results .......................................................... 33
4.1.5 Flexural Stiffness, Ductility and Toughness ................................................................. 38
4.1.5.1 Flexural Stiffness ................................................................................................... 38
4.1.5.2 Ductility Ratio ........................................................................................................ 39
4.1.5.3 Toughness .............................................................................................................. 40
4.2. Additional Parametric study using FEA ............................................................................. 41
4.2.1 Effect of compressive strength of concrete ..................................................................... 41
4.2.2 Effect of loading type ..................................................................................................... 42
4.2.3 Effect of top layer of reinforcement................................................................................ 43
4.2.4 Effect of size of circular tubes ...................................................................................... 44
4.3 The proposed theoretical calculation of slab capacity based on ACI318-19 and EC2 Codes
................................................................................................................................................... 45
4.3.1 Computation of Ultimate Moment Capacity Based on ACI 318M-19 & EC2 ............. 45
4.3.2 The Proposed Method for Calculating the Ultimate Load for Slab .............................. 47
CHAPTER 5 .................................................................................................................................. 49
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ........................................................................ 49
5.1 Conclusions .......................................................................................................................... 49
5.2 Recommendations ................................................................................................................ 51
References ...................................................................................................................................... 52
APPENDIX A: ANSYS Mechanical APDL19.0 Input Data ......................................................... 54
APPENDIX B: Load-Deflection Results ....................................................................................... 64

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 LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1 Details of specimens ......................................................................................... 14
Table 3.2 The mixing proportion of Concrete .................................................................. 14
Table 3.3 Material Properties ............................................................................................ 14
Table 3.4 Elements types parameters used in FEM models ............................................. 22
Table 4.1 Load-deflection of all experimental test slab results ........................................ 27
Table 4.2 Load-deflection of Finite Element Analysis test slab results ........................... 27
Table 4.3 Effect of D/H ratio on reduction of weight and strength .................................. 33
Table 4.4 Comparison of the experimental and finite element results ............................. 34
Table 4.5 Effect of D/H ratio on stiffness, ductility and toughness .................................. 41
Table 4.6 Ratio of Experimental and Calculated Ultimate Loads of Slabs using
ACI318M-19 and EC2 codes and also Numerical loads. ................................................. 48
Table B.1 Load-Deflection of average Experimental Result ............................................ 64
Table B.2 Load-Deflection of Finite Element Analysis Result ........................................ 66

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 LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 3.1 Cross-sections of slab specimens (a) Solid slab (b) Voided-tube(60mm)
(c)Voided-tube(90mm) and (d) Circular paper tubes ....................................................... 15
Figure 3.2 Preparation of the test specimen steps: (a) Concrete mixing process (b)
Pouring and casting process (c) After casting and smoothing the finished surface(d)
Cubes Specimens testing and its result ............................................................................. 16
Figure 3.3 Test Setup for slab specimens .......................................................................... 17
Figure 3.4 Specimen inside the testing frame ................................................................. 18
Figure 3.5 Element type (a) CPT215 Structural Solid Geometry (b) REINF264 Solid
Geometry (c) SOLID185 Solid Geometry ........................................................................ 21
Figure 3.6 Modeling and meshing of solid slab, voided slab and steel reinforcement ..... 23
Figure 3.7 Loading and Restrained Condition of Simply Supported Slabs ...................... 24
Figure 4.1 Load-deflection response of average experiment slab specimens ................... 28
Figure 4.2 Cracks pattern of all slabs at collapse from experimental and FEA results. ... 31
Figure 4.3 (D/H) ratio vs Ultimate strength ......................................................................... 32
Figure 4.4 Comparison of load-deflection response of Experimental and FEM results ... 35
Figure 4.5 Deflection and stress of FEM results............................................................... 37
Figure 4.6 (D/H) ratio versus Flexural Stiffness................................................................... 38
Figure 4.7 (D/H) ratio versus Ductility ................................................................................ 39
Figure 4.8 (D/H) ratio versus Toughness ............................................................................. 40
Figure 4.9 Effect of compressive strength of concrete ......................................................... 42
Figure 4.10 Effect of loading type ..................................................................................... 43
Figure 4.11 Effect of top layer of reinforcement ................................................................. 44
Figure 4.12 Load-Deflection of slabs SS200, CPT90 and CPT100 ................................. 45
Figure 4.13 Distribution of stress-strain across the slab depth ......................................... 46

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 LIST OF EQUATIONS
𝑾𝒔−𝑾𝒗
𝑾𝑹 = ∗ 𝟏𝟎𝟎% Equation 3.1……………………………….13
𝑾𝑺
𝒇𝒚
𝒂 = 𝑨𝒔𝒕 ∗ 𝒇𝒚 (𝒃∗𝒇𝒄) Equation 4.1……………………………………45
𝒂
𝑴𝒖 = 𝑨𝒔𝒕𝒇𝒚(𝒅 − 𝟐) Equation 4.2……………………………….46
𝑨𝒔𝒕𝒇𝒚
𝑴𝒖 = 𝑨𝒔𝒕𝒇𝒚(𝒅 − 𝟐𝜼𝒃𝒇𝒄) Equation 4.3……………………………….46
𝑨𝒔𝒕
𝝆= Equation 4.4……………………………….46
𝒃𝒅
𝛒𝐟𝐲
𝑴𝒖 = 𝒃𝒅𝟐𝐟𝐲(𝟏 − ) Equation 4.5……………………………….46
𝟐𝛈𝐟𝐜
𝒒𝑳𝟐
𝑴𝒖 = Equation 4.6……………………………….47
𝟖

𝑷𝒖 = 𝒒𝒃𝑳 Equation 4.7……………………………….47

𝑴𝒖 = 𝑷𝒖𝑳/𝟖𝒃 Equation 4.8……………………………….47
𝝆𝒇𝒚
𝑷𝒖 = 𝟖𝝆𝒃𝟐𝒅𝟐𝒇𝒚(𝟏 − 𝟐𝜼𝒇𝒄) Equation 4.9……………………………….47

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 LIST OF SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS
D=Diameter of longitudinal hollow tubes
H =Thickness of slab
Δy =Displacement at the yield force
Δu=Displacement at the ultimate force
Pu= Ultimate load carrying capacity
q = Intensity at Working load
Pcr=Cracking load
W= self-weight of the slab
Wv=self-weight of voided slab
Λu =Ultimate deflection
Λcr= Cracking deflection
Mu = ultimate moment carrying capacity of the section
Ac=Compression area of concrete
Ast=Area of tension steel reinforcement
Av=Area of voids within the critical section
Ec=Concrete modulus of elasticity.
fy = characteristic tensile strength of reinforcement
f'c = specified cylinder compressive strength of concrete
ρt= the ratio of tensile reinforcement
d= the effective depth of the slab
b= the width of slab section
a=depth of compression zone
c=location of neutral axis
L= center to center span length of slab
Cc=Concrete compression force
T=Resultant forces from tension zone
Ƞ=a factor to convert the irregular shape of the concrete stress into the rectangular shape
β= effective height of the compression zone
(ANSYS) ANalysis SYStem
(APDL) ANSYS parametric design Language
(CPT60) RC slab with 60mm diameter of circular paper tube
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(CPT90) RC slab with 90mm diameter of circular paper tube
(D/H) Voided-tube diameter to slab thickness ratio
(E) Modulus of elasticity
(Ex) Modulus of elasticity in x-direction
(Ey) Modulus of elasticity in y-direction
(Ez) Modulus of elasticity in z-direction
(FEA) Finite element analysis
(Gx) shear modulus in x- direction
(Gy) shear modulus in y- direction
(Gz) shear modulus in z- direction
(HCS) Hollow core slab
(HCU) Hollow core unit
(HSC) High Strength Concrete
(NA) Neutral axis slab section
(PPHC) Full-scale precast pre-stressed hollow-core slabs
(PRxy) xy poison’s ratio
(PRxz) xz poison’s ratio
(PRyz) yz poison’s ratio
(PC) Precast Concrete
(Pu)EXP=Experiment ultimate strength result
(Pcr)EXP=Experiment Cracking load result
(Pcr)FEA= Finite element Cracking load result
(Pu)FEA= Finite element ultimate load result
(RC) Reinforced concrete
(ρ) steel ratio
(SS200) RC solid slab with 200mm thickness
(SAP) Structural Analysis Program
(UTM) Universal Testing Machine

xii
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Motivation
The slab is a very important structural element in building construction and it uses to
offer flat surface to a structure and distribute loads to the supported beams and
columns. Since it consumes more concrete and steel reinforcement, the dead load
acting on the slab or the self-weight of the slab is increasing. To overcome these
disadvantages, voided slab plate is the best structural option since the load transfers
from the slab structure only on the column portion not throughout the slab.
Voided slab is a RC slab with an internal void former that replace the concrete between
the lower and the upper reinforcement.
This system allows to reduce the self-weight, which have special benefit for foundations
with low bearing capacity of soil, and induces materials and cost savings, as fire
resistance and for electrical and mechanical purposes.
The use reinforced concrete slab as a primary construction material in Ethiopia has been
the trend for the past four decades. The current norm in Ethiopia on voided slab
technology has not been applied to residential, high-rise, and industrial floor slabs due to
lack of design codes and specifications regarding the use of this innovative slab
technology. Voided slabs technology is the most appropriate for the Ethiopian building
construction development because they have excellent architectural benefits (electricity,
telephones and wiring ducts) as well as they are available abundantly, light in weight and
relatively cheap.
To share such advantages, the implementation of the voided slab must be addressed. As
a result, it has many benefits on a rapid growth of the country economy.

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1.2 Statement of the problem
A longitudinal tube voids through the one-way RC slabs in constructions has been several
advantages such as reducing self-weight, Cost efficiencies and fast Construction.
In other hand, the structural behaviors of one-way RC slab need special treatment during
design, since the loads is carried in one direction and any errors in design results in early
failure of slabs. The presence of voids in this direction could raise this problem.
The previous researcher assessed the effects of voids on one-way RC voided slab
based on deflections and ultimate strength at the failure stage or/and service stage.
However, the effects of the parametric study (void tube diameter to slab thickness
ratio with varying in size of tube) on the behaviors of the slab structure has not been
adequately inspected well, especially for one-way slabs.

Besides, the basic structural behaviors like floor stiffness, ductility ratio and
toughness have not been comprehensively examined in the past studies.
Therefore, this research work fills in perceived void in literature by investigating
structural behaviors of one-way RC slabs voided by different tube size to investigate the
effects of void size to slab thickness ratio compare with solid RC slab. In addition to
these, after the validation of the FEA solution was checked, the effect of some additional
parameters on the behavior of slabs were studied using finite element software ANSYS.
Finally, the flexure strength and load carrying capacity of the tested slabs were
determined as per the EC2 and ACI 318M-19 codes.

2
1.3 Objective of the study
1.3.1General objective
Objective of this research work is to investigate structural behaviors of RC slab voided
by circular paper tubes.
1.3.2 Specific objectives
• To study use of longitudinal circular paper tube as partial concrete replacement
in RC slab.
• To quantify structural gains or loss of RC slabs voided by different tube diameter
to slab thickness ratio as compared to solid RC slab.
• To show the effects of some additional parameters on the behavior of slabs
(not in test studies) by using nonlinear finite element software ANSYS, after the
validation of the finite element solution is checked.
• To study ultimate failure load and failure modes of RC slabs voided by different
tube size as compared to solid RC slab.
• To determine the flexure strengths of the slabs as per the ACI 318M-19 and EC2
codes using theoretical hand Calculation.

1.4 Research Questions

• What are performance gains in using RC slab voided by longitudinal paper tube
as compared to solid RC slab?
• What are crack patterns, failure load and mode of RC slab voided by longitudinal
paper tube as compared to solid RC slab?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of using RC slab with voids?

3
1.5 Significance of the Study
Researchers and practitioners can potentially benefit from the output of this research
work. Such as: -
• It will increase awareness of practicing the Voided Technology, the RC slabs with
longitudinal paper tube system, is the most effective solution to concrete
structures against extreme loading such as earthquake, impact and blast loading.
• To gain an understanding relative to weight reduction, behaviors, capacity and
cost benefit of RC slabs voided by longitudinal hollow system.
• Faster construction time, Less Material Consumption, Less Energy consumption
as a result the total cost of the building become reduced.
• To develop constructions as flexible and generally applicable and to pick up
changes in a time period reaching far into the next century our country.

1.6 Scope and Limitation of the study

This research work experimentally investigates behavior of cast-in-situ one-way RC slab
voided by circular paper tube. Further, numeral investigation using ANSYS nonlinear
finite element analysis would be performed to account parameters not explicitly
addressed in experiment study mainly due to limitation in availability of testing
machines.
This study is carried out investigates the structural behavior and benefits of one-way RC
slabs voided by longitudinal paper tube system by using Finite Element Analysis ANSYS
software and Experimental investigation methods. Also, this study is specifically focused
on slab behavior and does not include other monolithic members such as supports beams
and columns. This is as mentioned before it is due to limitation in testing machine setups.

4
 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 General

A voided slab is a cast-in-situ or precast reinforced concrete slab usually used in building
floors, bridges, etc. The acceptance of reinforced concrete voided slab is related with
seismic areas, cost efficiencies and fast construction, reduce self-weight, and consumes
less materials.

The lower weight is very important issue because it reduced the costs of transportation
and construction costs. The slab with continuous holes is being as heating and/or cooling
ducts and as channels for electrical wiring. In addition, sound transmission and vibrations
among building floors can be minimized using voided slabs.

However, these hollow cavities significantly decrease the slab shear resistance, thus
reduce its structural integrity. Most of the previous studies were focused on the effects of
voids on the one-way voided slabs in terms of ultimate strength and deflections at the
service stage and/or the failure stage. The complexity of the load distributions has
motivated research efforts to investigate the alternatives to achieve the necessity of floor
stiffness, ductility, and toughness.

5
2.2 Existing Studies on Hollow Core Slab
Yang in (1994) showed that Pre-stressed webs ability to withstand shear failure is
calculated using a dedicated design formula. The additional shear stresses that the webs
are subjected to due to pre-stressing were taken into account in this method. The
suggested procedure for predicting web’s shear failure showed a good degree of accuracy
when comparing the results from the finite element model and the results obtained from
the formula. This formula, by the advised procedure, proved its practicality and can be
used to account for different scenarios related to changes in design parameters such as
changes in loading cases, types of cross sections, pre-stressing, material and finally
geometric parameters. The results clearly state that the proposed procedure is more
efficient and has a greater potential to predict shear failure in webs than the methods
specified in the design codes. This formula was tested on several slab samples to
determine its efficiency.

Pajari (2004) carried out four tests specimens on pre-stressed hollow core slabs units. The
slab units, two of the mentioned slabs have a thickness and a span of 400mm, 6m
respectively, and the other two have 200mm, 4m respectively. With respect to width, all
of the four specimens were 1200mm wide. Both of the two sets of specimens were
subjected to pure torsion to determine their torsion resistance. For the first set of
specimens (400mm thick slabs), the obtained torsion stiffness was similar to the value
that was theoretically calculated. However, the second set (200mm thick slabs) showed a
30% lower stiffness than what was predicted by the theoretical calculations. The expected
torsion resistance came up to be 60% and 70% percent of what was recorded during
testing for the 200mm and 400mm slabs respectively. Taking into account that the lower
typical value of concrete tensile strength was considered in the calculations. The failure
mode during tests was similar to what was expected, i.e. 45º cracking with respect to the
longitudinal axis of the slab unit located in the top flange. The tested specimen showed
substantial ductility after failure to withstand this considerably unexpected failure mode.
The tested specimens under this condition didn’t collapse but the test had to be stopped
due to the extreme rotation.

6
Mahdi in (2011) performed a non-linear analysis on a hollow reinforced concrete slab
through a finite element method of plate bending and beam elements. Basically, the study
was to divide the HCS into two chief parts, which are hollow pates that represent the top
and bottom flanges and stiffening beams which represent the vertical webs between
webs. Results from modified computer programs that have the ability to analyze different
types of reinforced a pre-stressed hollow slab in addition to finite element solutions were
compared against experimental results. That is to prove the ability and potential of
computational non-linear models to obtain similar results to experimentally obtained
results. The behavior of hollow reinforced and pre-stressed slabs against some changes in
the model and material parameters was able through parametric studies when the load-
deflection response is obtained. These parameters contained within the influence of
concrete strength, pre-stressing tendon amount, existence of holes, hole size, hole shape
and failure concrete crushing strain. Generally, the acceptable level of matching between
the results obtained from finite element and the investigational work.

Rahmanet al.in (2012) tested a full-scale precast pre-stressed hollow-core slabs (PPHC),
using various (a/d). In order to determine failure load of slabs, the slabs were loaded until
it reached its failure point. About 15 slabs with 5 to 2.5 meters’ spans and with 200, 250
and 300 millimeters in depth, they were tested using four-point load test. For a depth
greater than 200mm the results were interesting such the failure type of HCS has varied
from pure bending to bending-shear mode. Furthermore, the shear strength of (PPHC)
slabs has reduced with the increment in depth. Also, during the loading tests, it was noted
that a transition from flexure shear to web shear failure as a function of (a/d) has
occurred. The final analysis of the results presented that obtainable ACI318M code
formula has miscalculated the flexure-shear strength of the HCS. Finally, depend on the
obtained results, a modification for the existing ACI318M code equations was proposed,
in order to accurately capture the mode of failure and failure load capacity of the slab.

Lee (2014) studied the web shear capacity of hollow core slabs (HCS) through a large
number of shear tests. The analysis of results indicated that the minimum shear
reinforcement requirement for deep HCS members are too severe, and that the web-shear
strength equation in ACI 318 code does not provide good estimation of shear strengths

7
for HCS members. Thus, in this paper, a rational web-shear strength equation for HCS
members was derived in a simple manner, which provides a consistent margin of safety
on shear strength for the HCS members up to 500 mm deep.

Haruna (2014) studied the flexural behavior of precast pre-stressed concrete hollow-core
units with cast-in-place concrete topping, through load testing of five full-scale
specimens. The specimens were divided into two groups wide and narrow. A cast-in-
place concrete was cast on top of the hollow-core units selected from the two groups to
form a composite system. Presence of cast-in-place topping slab improved the behavior
of hollow-core units by increasing the flexural crack initiation and maximum load
capacities as well as the stiffness. As a result of premature loss of composite behavior,
the predicted load capacity of these specimens assuming a fully composite behavior
remained on the non-conservative side. The results obtained in this study suggested that
floor system made of cast-in place concrete topping placed over the machine finished
surface of precast concrete hollow-core units with no interfacial roughening is not able
to provide the interface shear strength required to develop a fully composite behavior.

Mansour et al in (2015) investigated the bending performance of a precast reinforced

concrete floor or slab having steel fibers concrete topping. The characteristic of hooked-
end steel fibers of length of 30 mm and a diameter of 0.75 mm were implemented. Since
the behavior of slab based on the interaction between the new and old concrete, various
kinds of roughness of the surfaces at the interface were used to offer fine bonding
between the two layers. Depend on investigational results; the flexural behavior was
displayed to be determined by not only on adding the steel fibers to the topping slab but
also on the type of surface interface roughness. To study the composite samples, the
interface bond slip was also calculated during the experiment. The results presented a fine
consistency of roughness in on condition that bonding interface strength. It was shown
that roughness of the transverse direction offers the good bonding interface strength.
Although the results displayed the interface slip at center, slip was not noticed at either
end of the sample.

8
Ibrahim et al in (2016) presented using an experimental type of research the shear-
flexural strength of composite slabs of HCU (hollow core unit) and concrete top cover.
Fourteen composite slabs samples were tested in a three-point load type of test. The
samples had different apparent roughness and surface condition before designing the
concrete top cover. Two dominate types of surface roughness were studied which are
smooth and irregular surface. Also, even though the moisture conditions were dry and
optimum wet, the behavior of the longitudinal joint between the HCU panels was studied.
Values obtained by formulas in the Euro code 2 and the previous researcher were similar
to what was obtained from the experiments. The results showed that the two factors
mentioned previously (surface roughness and longitudinal joint) affect the degree of
stiffness and shear-flexural strength. The optimum HCU surface nature found to be
achieved are the combination of rough and wet condition which is able to increase the
stiffness and shear strength, while the longitudinal joint between HCU panels minimize
the slab shear strength. The research found that the horizontal shear is not what governs
the strength and response of slabs. The Euro code 2 does not give an estimate for shear
strength, whilst the previous researcher equation was able to provide that.

Abed in (2016) presented a study that includes both numerical research and
investigational work regarding the shear strength of concrete slabs with longitudinal
hollow cores. The studied specimen had different hollow cores dimensions and were
examined under different load conditions by varying the distances of ratios (a/b). The
dimensions of the tested specimens were (2.05m) in length, (0.6m) in width and (0.25m)
thickness. It can be showing that for load-deflection result with each enlarges of load
until the final load which failed with it. Both the cracking load failure load was recorded
during in addition to noting the spread of the cracks and the associated deflection at the
center of the slab under two-line loading. Results obtained from testing showed a 21% to
33% reduction in the ultimate strength of solids and 13% to 48.5% reduction in deflection
in the center of the slabs relative to the increase in the shear span ratio from 2 to 2.5 and 3
respectively. In addition, a reduction in the ultimate strength by (5. 49%, 15.75 and
20.6%) was found due to the existence of the circular hollow cores with a diameter of
(75,100 and 150mm). Finally, the load of HCS was reduced by nearly 31% to 45%, at the
same time an increase in the deflection by 24.8% and 68.5 %was noticed respectively.
9
Foubertet al, in (2016) examined the behavior of flexural strengthened hollow-core slabs.
Theses slabs were improved with NSM carbon fiber reinforced polymer strip to increase
strength. There were 7 full scale samples which were simply supported subjected to load
(monotonic load pattern) up to failure. The variables in this testing were the use of
different pre-stressing type of internal reinforcement ratios in addition to three different
NSM reinforcement ratios. This investigation type of study looked closely to failure
modes, cracking, deflections, load-strain relationship and strengthen capacities. This
investigation also included a comparison between the laboratory results and theoretical
analysis or estimates that were adopted by relevant standards such as the Canadian and
the American standards. The findings of this investigation showed that the capability of
pre-stressed hollow-core slabs to resist flexural and shear were efficiently improved
through NSM-CFRP strengthening. This research showed that strengthening with NSM
laminates enhanced both the deformation ductility and energy absorption of pre-stressed
hollow core slabs unlike the non-pre-stressed concrete slabs.

Wariyatnoet al, in (2017) carried out an experimental test on samples involve a solid slab
such as a reference and a HCS type 1 (use PVC pipe to create the cavities) and a HCS
type 2 (using Styrofoam to create the cavities). The slab thickness was 12 cm; the result
showed that HCS type 1 and 2 can decrease the weight of the slab by about (24% and
25%) as related to the solid slab. The flexural strength of HCS type 2 is larger than the
HCS type 1; so that, it is less than the reference slab with totally differences in steel
diameter. The value of the flexural stiffness of the solid slab is greater than HCS type 1
and 2. A crack that occurs in the solid slab is distinguished as flexural crack, although the
cracks which occur in the HCS type 1 and 2 are shear cracks.

10
2.3 Research Gaps
Several studies investigated the influence of the voids on the structural performance of
voided slabs. The report showed that the previous investigations conducted on the one-
way voided slabs were comparatively few than two-way slabs. In the case of one- way
slab, the load is carried in one direction and any errors in design may results in early
failure of slabs. The presence of voids in this direction could raise this problem.

However, floor stiffness of voided RC slab is less than its solid counterpart and there is
gap in literature about structural behaviors of voided RC slabs. Besides, the effects of
variation of void size to slab thickness (D/H) ratio on load distribution, crack pattern and
failure mode have not been studied well by the previous researchers. In addition to these,
the optimum reduction of weight and ultimate capacities based on void size to slab
thickness (D/H) ratio also have not been addressed well.

This thesis focuses on the structural behaviors of one-way slabs voided by circular paper
tubes and it has been experimentally inspected based on the influence of (void tube
size/slab thickness) parameter. To address such concerns, the results of voided slabs have
been compared to those of a solid control slab in structural behaviors such as: self-weight,
load-carrying capacity, failure mode, deflection, stiffness, ductility, and toughness.

In addition to these, after the validation of the FEA solution was checked, the effect of
some additional parameters such as concrete compressive strength, loading types, top
layer reinforcement on the behavior of slabs have been studied using finite element
software ANSYS. Finally, the flexure strengths and load carrying capacity of the slabs
were also determined per the ACI 318M-19 and EC2 codes.

11
 CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY
This chapter presents detail about both the experimental and finite element numerical
activities and procedures. Experimental methods have been used as a means to analyze
specific components; however, it is time taking and relatively costly. Currently, the use of
FEA has increased due to increasing knowledge and capabilities of computer software
and hardware. It is time efficient and cost effective. FEA has now become the best
method to analyze concrete structural components. Here in this study, the experimental
method, numerical method and analytical method are studied.

3.1 Experimental Test Investigations

3.1.1 Details of Experimental Test
The experimental tests were consisting of six simply supported reinforced concrete one-
way slab. All slab specimens have dimensions of (800mm) length, (300mm) width and,
(200mm) thickness with different size of circular tubes and without tubes were used. To
make the continuous longitudinal hollows within the slabs, paper tubes are used. Two
diameters are used: 90mm size and 60mm size. The tube voids were fixed in their
positions using binding wires.

In the name of the specimen, the symbol indicates the presence or absence of voids (SS =
RC solid slab and CPT = RC with circular paper tube slab). SS200 is a normal RC slab;
CPT60 and CPT90 are RC voided slabs with circular paper tube of diameter 60mm and
90mm respectively.
The comparative specimens for SS200, CPT60 and CPT90 slab were with the same slab
thickness, except that circular paper tubes were applied to CPT60 and CPT90.
The position of the bottom and top flange of concrete was fixed 70mm and 55mm for
tube void diameter of 60mm and 90mm respectively. The tubes were distributed with the
same spacing inside the slabs by two tubes in the longitudinal direction. The spacing
between tubes was 60mm for both CPT60 and CPT90 specimens. Two sizes of circular
cores with two different values of tube diameter to slab thickness ratio (D/H) was
considered in experimental work as shown in Table 3.1.

12
In this study the effects of the self-weight of specimens was considered using the
measurement instrumentations before resting the slabs on the testing frame and using
theoretical hand calculation based on Equation 3.1.
𝑾𝒔−𝑾𝒗
𝑾𝑹 = ∗ 𝟏𝟎𝟎% …………………………………… 3.1
𝑾𝑺

Where, WR=Weight reduction percentage

Ws= Total weight of solid slab
Wv=Total weight of void slab
3.1.2 Properties of the Slab Specimens
For slab specimens, mixing ratio, properties of Concrete and Steel Reinforcement
materials are summarized in tabular form.
The reinforcement design for one- way slab was done based on the design procedure
given in ACI318-2014 for both solid slab and voided-tube slabs. The main longitudinal
reinforcement consists of 4 bars with (Ø10mm) at top and at bottom with center to center
spacing80mm while the secondary transverse reinforcement consists of 6 bars (Ø10mm)
at top and bottom with center to center spacing 150mm.The concrete cover of reinforcing
bars for all sides was 25mm as given in Figure 3.1.
To estimate the mechanical properties of concrete, cubes with dimensions of 150 x 150 x
150mm were made for each series of specimens. Ordinary Portland cement (OPC), coarse
aggregate (gravel) size 4 to 16mm, and natural fine aggregate (sand) with 4.75mm
maximum size were used to production of the concrete used for casting specimens of the
study as shown in Table 3.2.
The Compressive strength of concrete cubes was evaluated after 7days and 28days curing.
An average of 3cubes for each test was used to estimate the compressive strength and the
mixing proportion of cube concrete grade result was 44.50MPa. The result of
Compressive strength of concrete and mechanical properties of reinforcing bars presented
in Table 3.3

13
 Table 3.1 Details of specimens

Table 3.2 The mixing proportion of Concrete

Table 3.3 Material Properties

14
Figure 3.1 Cross-sections of slab specimens (a) Solid slab (b) Voided-tube(60mm)
(c)Voided-tube(90mm) and (d) Circular paper tubes
3.1.3 Casting and Curing of Slabs
The slabs were cast in EiABC University. A wooden frame of (800mm) length, (300mm)
width and, (200mm) thickness was used as the formwork to cast the slabs. An electrically
operated concrete mixer was used for mixing of concrete. Concreting of slabs was done
immediately after mixing and hand compactions were used for concrete compaction. The
specimens were numbered for identification and cured in curing tank. After 24hours, the
side planks of the mold were dismantled and the slab specimens were cured continuously
for 28days using wet gunny bags. Figure 3.2 illustrate the preparation of test specimen
steps.

15
Figure 3.2 Preparation of the test specimen steps: (a) Concrete mixing process (b)
Pouring and casting process (c) After casting and smoothing the finished surface(d)
Cubes Specimens testing and its result
3.1.4 Slab Test Setup
The nominal dimension slab specimens are models having (800mm) length, (300mm)
width and (200mm) thickness. The slabs which have span length 650mm (center to center
of supports) were tested under single line loads with different void diameter to slab
thickness ratio (D/H).
The slab to be tested was placed in the loading frame of capacity 2000kN under one-point
loading and the test setup is shown in the Figure 3.3. A steel plate with (50x300mm) was
put under one-line loading with rubber pieces to prevent the crushing of concrete's
surface. A force was applied using a hydraulic jack. Loading was controlled with
software. The monotonically loading was applied with increased (1kN/s) increments. The
slab was loaded until failure occurred. The acting force and deflection of the specimens at
the middle length of slab were measured during the test. The cracks at ultimate load were
recorded and noticeable during the test.

16
Figure 3.3 Test Setup for slab specimens

17
 Figure 3.4 Specimen inside the testing frame
During experimentation the results are obtained corresponding each experiment and
results are presented in next sections. The results are compared with different codes and
finite element analysis. The introduction of finite element method is presented below.

18
3.2 Finite Element Numerical Investigations
Finite Element Analysis is very important to be sure that the structural model is giving
reasonable results and can predict the actual behavior of the structure. The best way to
verify the exactness of the model is to relate the results with experimental results.
A nonlinear finite element analysis has been carried out to analyze a solid and void slab
with the same materials properties used in the experimental work. For the present study
ANSYS Mechanical APDL 19.0 is being used. It is very accurate in predicting the
cracks and crushing behavior of the reinforced concrete. Modeling is one of the most
significant aspects for the FE analysis. This numerical procedure is typically used when
the difficult addressed is too complex to be solved satisfactorily by experimental
methods.

The leading objective of the FEA study is to understand the structural behavior and
determine the effects of parametric study of solid and tubes voided slabs, and identify
the factors that affect the structural capacity. The established finite element model was
first verified with experimental results. The effects of some additional parameters were
carried out to investigate the influence of tube void diameter to slab thickness ratio (not
in experiment test studies) by using FEA software ANSYS, after the accuracy of the
finite element solution was checked. Exactness in the modeling of element type and
size, geometry, material properties, boundary conditions and loads are absolutely
necessary for close numerical idealization of the actual member.
The rudimentary material characteristics such as compressive strength and tensile
strength of experimental results were used as a data during the finite element modelling.
3.2.1 Data Used from Experiment
Dimensions and Detailing.
Based on experimental data, all slabs were (800mm) length, (300mm) width and,
(200mm) thickness. The span length of (650mm) is resting on simply supports at their
ends. All specimens have the same slab thickness (H), and reinforcement ratio (ρ). The
actual dimensions with slab geometry and details of specimens were present at Figure 3.1
The main longitudinal reinforcement consists of 4 bars with (Ø 10mm) at bottom and at
top with center to center spacing 80mm while the secondary transverse reinforcement

19
consists of 6 bars (Ø10mm) at top and bottom with center to center spacing 150mm. The
concrete cover of reinforcing bars for all sides was 25 mm.
3.2.2 Element types using in FEM models
The following were the element types used in the ANSYS Mechanical APDL 19.0:
• CPT215 for concrete
• REINF264 for discrete reinforcing
• SOLID185 for steel plate
CPT215 Element Description
CPT215 is a 3-D eight-node coupled pore-pressure mechanical solid element. The
element is defined by eight nodes having four degrees of freedom at each node:
translations in the nodal x, y, and z directions, and one pore-pressure degree of freedom
at each corner node.
CPT215 has elasticity, stress stiffening, large deflection, and large strain capabilities.
Various printout options are available.

REINF264 Element Description

Use REINF264 with standard 3-D link, beam, shell and solid elements (referred to here
as the base elements) to provide extra reinforcing to those elements.
The element is suitable for simulating reinforcing fibers with arbitrary orientations. Each
fiber is modeled separately as a spar that has only uniaxial stiffness. You can specify
multiple reinforcing fibers in one REINF264 element. The nodal locations, degrees of
freedom, and connectivity of the REINF264 element are identical to those of the base
element. REINF264 has plasticity, stress stiffening, creep, large deflection, and large
strain capabilities.

SOLID185 Element: An eight nodes solid element was used for modeling steel plate's
supports. The element is defined with eight nodes having three degrees of freedom at
each node translations in x, y and z directions. Steel plates were added at support and
point of loading locations in the finite element models (as in the actual slabs) to provide a
more even stress distribution over the support and point of loading areas. An elastic
modulus equal to 200000MPa and Poisson’s ratio of 0.3 were used for the plates. The
steel plates were assumed to be linear elastic materials.

20
Figure 3.5 Element type (a) CPT215 Structural Solid Geometry (b) REINF264 Solid
Geometry (c) SOLID185 Solid Geometry

21
 Table 3.4 Element types parameter used in ANSYS19.0 nonlinear FEA
Para Param Para Description const formulas
meter eter meter ant
Elasti
Type --
Subtype E Modulus of elasticity -
city -- v Poisson’s ratio -
Plasti Drucker- fuc Uniaxial compressive strength C1 fuc ≥ fut
city Prager fbc Biaxial compressive strength C2 fbc = 1.15fuc
fut Uniaxial tensile strength C3 fut =
yield
1.4(fuc/10)
function
Compress sigcv Intersection point abscissa between C6 sigcv ≤ -fuc/3
^2/3
ion cap compression cap and Drucker- Prager yield
R Ratio between the major and minor axes of
function C7 R≥0

Hardening D the cap

Hardening material constant C5 D ≥0
Rt Tension cap hardening constant C4 Rt ≥ 0
Dam -- gamto Tension and compression damage thresholds C8 & gamto ≥ 0
age gamc C9 gamco ≥ 0
-- betat
o Tension and compression damage evolution respe betat ≥ 0
C10
betac constants ctivel betac ≥ 0
&
Nonl -- c Nonlocal interaction range parameter -C11
y
ocal resp
-- m Over-nonlocal averaging parameter - m>1
ectiv
ely
3.2.3 Modeling and Meshing
In this study, the slabs were modeled as volumes. The concrete model that represent the
slabs with and without longitudinal void tubes are formulated by drawing areas at plan(x-
y) in the first step and subtract the cores areas and then extrudes them in (x-direction) to
form the volume of the slabs as shown in Figure 3.6. In the present study, the net from
longitudinal and transverse steel reinforcement bars which formed the reinforcement
model was created through line element between nodes of each adjacent concrete solid
element, so the two materials shared the same nodes.

22
All the concrete CPT215 elements are meshed as rectangular brick element with 25mm
size. Meshing of the rebar element made same size of 25mm as steel rebar is joined
element between the spacing of the nodes created by the meshing of the concrete. In
some regions especially in hollow block slabs, the size of element needs to be smaller
than 25mm; this depends on the location and distribution of both the steel reinforcement
and steel plate.

Figure 3.6 Modeling and meshing of solid slab, voided slab and steel reinforcement

23
3.2.4 Loads and Boundary Conditions
The loading and support dimensions of steel plates were (50 x300) mm. Two steel plates
of (20mm) thickness are modeled using (SOLID185) elements, were added at the support
and one steel plate at loading locations with the same size of concrete mesh in order to
avoid stress concentration problems. This will provide a more even stress distribution
over the support area.

The (SOLID185) elements which are used to model steel plates at supports have three
degrees of freedom UX, UY and UZ. These degrees of freedom at the bottom face of
these plates are restrained with a single line of supports which placed under the centerline
of the steel plate to allow rotation of the plate below the concrete slab with the required
positions as a simply support to simulate the real boundary conditions as shown in Figure
3.7. The left steel plate was restrained in Y direction (UY=0) and the right steel plate was
restrained in X and Y direction (UX=0, UY=0).

Figure 3.7 Loading and Restrained Condition of Simply Supported Slabs

The external loads were applied on one steel plate over the surface of concrete slabs with
the required locations. These loads were applied in the form of concentrated loads on all
top nodes of plates to simulate the real loads which adopted in the experimental work.

24
3.2.5 Analysis Method
The finite elements model for this analysis is a slab under transverse loading. For this
purpose, the static analysis type is utilized. Since all the selected elements are nonlinear,
the solution will be nonlinear. The number of sub-steps was used and the maximum
number of equilibrium iteration is limited to 500. The convergence criteria used for
analysis was displacement. There was a problem with the convergence criteria when the
slab began to crack. The convergence for the nonlinear analysis was impossible with the
default value of tolerance (0.001). The solution of this problem is to change the value of
tolerance. So, the tolerance used in this study is with a value of (0.05).
3.2.6 Analysis Results
This section compares the numerical analysis results from the ANSYS finite element
analysis with the experimental data for six slab specimens. The comparison is made
through load-displacement response, cracking load, ultimate load, and crack pattern.

The failure loads for slabs are obtained from ANSYS and compared with experimental
data. In addition, variations of the vertical displacements, appearance of cracks and
crushing of concrete is considered as analytical load and stresses distribution in the
reinforcement under the effects of ultimate loads produced are presented by imaginary
perspectives in Figures forms.

The results of the nonlinear finite element analysis by ANSYS program are presented for
all solid and hollow-core reinforced concrete slabs in chapter four.

25
 CHAPTER 4

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

4.1 Experimental and Numerical Results

In this section, the experimental investigation and FEM solution output are illustrated
and discussed. The experimental works are testing on six slabs with and without void
including the load-deflection plots, crack type and failure mode, ultimate loads and
weight reduction, Cracking and ultimate deflection, flexural stiffness, ductility and
toughness.

Comparisons between the experimental and the numerical results are made to verify the
application of the suggested numerical idealization on the tested slabs. ANSYS program
was used to analyze the same slabs and study the effect of some additional parameters on
the behavior of these slabs. The ultimate strengths, and load carrying capacity of slabs at
service load are calculated using ACI 318M-19 and EC2 codes.
4.1.1 Load-Deflection Behaviors of Slab
The average load-deflection responses of the six slab test with and without void plots
in Figure 4.1. The comparison presents between solid and longitudinal tubes voided slab
with tubes diameter 60mm and 90mm by variation of voided tube diameter to slab
thickness(D/H) ratio with ultimate load.
The differences become more pronounced with progressing the loading as shown in
Table 4.1 and 4.2. At any load stage, the deflection value increases with increasing the
diameter of tubes. In other words, as increasing void tubes diameter, the load deflection
response of the slab becomes softer especially when 90mm void tubes are used. Thus,
increasing tubes diameter results in higher deflection value at failure made in the slab.

26
 Table 4.1 Load-deflection of all experimental test slab results

Table 4.2 Load-deflection of Finite Element Analysis test slab results

The responses of the two slabs (SS200 and CPT60) failed by flexural mode were
comparable, including two distinct phases: pre-yielding phase and post-yielding phase.
The pre-yielding stage can also be divided into two parts: pre-cracking and post-
cracking. The pre-cracking part started from the commencement of the experiments
up to the appearance of the first crack, in which the deflection slowly rose with
increasing the applied load. Then, post-cracking started and continued until the tensile
reinforcement yielded. After yielding the tensile reinforcement, post-yielding or the
second phase started and continued up to the specimen collapse. In this stage, the load-
deflection responses of slabs were much softer where a deflection considerably
augmented with a marginal increase in the applied load. Similar responses were observed
in the FEA studies.

27
In contrast, the load-deflection behavior of the CPT90 specimen was without the post-
yielding phase since this specimen collapsed in shear mode.
In general, introducing voided tubes inside slabs caused a reduced in the stiffness, and
thus an increase in the deflection, compared to the SS200 slab at the same load level, as
shown in Figure 4.1. The reduced in stiffness was slight before the yielding of tensile re-
bars and became significant after that.

Figure 4.1 Load-deflection responses of average experiment slab specimens

Based on load-deflection curves the following points were noted:
The vertical deflection was linear up to cracking stage and deviated for cracking to
nonlinear stage for all the slabs. The first visual crack of the slab, the load considered as
experimental cracking load and the deflection corresponding to this load noted as
deflection at first crack. It was observed that towards the ultimate load the deflection was
increasing. By confirming the test, failure reached by yielding of bars on the tension side
and crushing of concrete on compression zone.
The experiment result showed that the solid slab carried a load of 180.81KN and causes
36.87mm deflection with crack occurring after a load of 74.85KN. as shown in Figure
4.1. Longitudinal voided slab with D/H ratio of 0.30 carried a total load of 165.45KN and
caused 39.80mm deflection; with crack occurring after a load of 72.30KN, the other
longitudinal hollow slab with D/H ratio of 0.45 carried a total load of 145.75KN and
causes 41.30mm deflection; with crack occurring after a load of 69.05KN.

28
4.1.2 Crack pattern and failure mode
All samples except the CPT90 slab failed in the flexural mode. The CPT90 collapsed owing
to the brittle shear mode. The study revealed that introducing tubes with a diameter
equivalent to 45% of the slab depth led to changing the failure mode from flexural to shear,
although the slabs were designed to fail in flexure. Besides, no concrete crushing was visible
on the top surface of the CPT90 slab. The main reason for the collapse was developing
diagonal (shear) cracks over the shear span, as shown in Figure 4.2.

For specimens failed in flexure, more vertical cracks grew and spread over the flexural span
with increasing the applied loads. Then with further load, these cracks enlarged and
propagated upward. The flexure-shear cracks also appeared in the shear span next to the
loading points in the CPT60 specimen. Nevertheless, these cracks did not propagate and
widen enough to cause failure. In these slabs, the flexural failure was distinguished by the
arrival of flexural cracks nearly to the bottom two-third of the specimen depth as well as the
crushing of concrete on the top surface of specimens at the mid-span.

As expected, the longitudinal voided slab specimens cracked at forces lower than that of the
control slab because of the direct reduction in their moment of inertia due to eliminating the
substantial volume of concrete by voids. The decreased in the cracking load become more as
the size of tubes increased, as shown in table 4.1 and 4.2.

Figure 4.2 shows the location of cracks from experimental test and finite element
analysis along the solid and voided-tube slabs with tubes diameter (60mm and 90mm)
respectively.

29
30
Figure 4.2 Cracks pattern of all slabs at collapse from experimental and FEA results
31
4.1.3 Ultimate strength and weight reduction
Table 4.1 lists the ultimate loads for all slabs in experimental work, and Figure 4.3 plots them
against (D/H) ratio. Inserting the longitudinal voided diameter of 60mm (30% of slab
thickness) in CPT60 slab caused an apparent drop about 8.50%-12% in the ultimate
strength compared to the control slab. The cavity results in the reduction in the minimum
load capacity when compared to the load capacity of the solid slab.
For the CPT90 specimen, containing the larger void-tube diameter (45% of slab thickness),
the fall in the ultimate load was the maximum, about 19.40%-20%. This reduced in the
strength would be allocated to the growth of the diagonal cracks, spreading between loading
and supporting locations. These cracks made the CPT90 slab early collapsed in the sudden
brittle shear mode owing to reducing the critical section of concrete, which is responsible for
resisting the high shear stresses produced in the shear span. Compared to the previous study
by Abed in (2016) the decline in strength for CPT90 was similar with that of reported by
Abed in (2016) for slab having voids with (D/H) of 60%, which was 20.60%.

Figure 4.3 (D/H) Ratio versus Ultimate strength

The reductions in the self-weight of specimens CPT60 and CPT90 were 9.42%, and
21.20%, respectively, in comparison with the SS200 slab which is an added advantage
for the longitudinal voided slabs especially in structures where load is an issue as tabulated
in Table 4.3
32
It is noted that increasing void tube diameter causes reduction in weight and ultimate
capacities. Using 90 mm diameter voids have significant effect on reducing weight and
ultimate capacities in comparison with 60mm diameter voids.

Effect of hollows diameter on reduction in weight is significantly larger than its effect on
ultimate capacity. These differences become more pronounced with increasing the
diameter of voids.
Generally, the reductions in the ultimate load strength of voided slab are acceptable, compared
with a significant drop in their self-weight, where the self-weight in concrete structures
comprises a considerable part of the design loading.
The selection of optimum voided tubes diameter presents by comparison with reduction
of weight and reduction of strength. The curves are intersecting in optimum core diameter
(60mm) in which the reduction in weight nearly equals the reduction in strength and
small lost in the ultimate strength was observed as well as the drops in the stiffness,
ductility, and toughness of slab were limited.
Table4.3 Effect of D/H ratio on reduction of weight and strength

4.1.4 Comparison of experiments versus FEA Results

The load versus deflection plots obtained from the experimental and the numerical study
are presented for comparison in this section. Figure 4.4 compares the numerical and
experimental load deflection relationship for both the slabs with and without void.
A comparison between the ultimate loads of the experimentally tested slabs (Pu)Exp at
failure stage and the final loads obtained from finite element analysis (Pu)FEM is tabulated
in Table 4.4.

33
 Table 4.4 Comparison of the experimental and finite element results

The numerical investigations indicated that greater ultimate load with smaller deflection
at the ultimate load level as compared to experimental results. Those errors (between
experimental and finite element results) are essentially introduced by representing the
mathematical model by a finite-element one. The FEA solution is influenced by the
number of elements used, the number of nodes per element, the nature of element shape
functions, support conditions and loading type integration rules used in details of
particular elements.

34
Figure 4.4 Comparison of load-deflection response of Experimental and FEM results

35
The comparative study is made between by finite element analysis and the experimental
results. The following Figures 4.5 show the deflection and stress at analytical load.

36
Figure 4.5 Deflection and stress of FEM results

37
4.1.5 Flexural Stiffness, Ductility and Toughness
4.1.5.1 Flexural Stiffness
The stiffness is one of the basic parameters in evaluating the working ability of the
structural element. Various definitions for stiffness are found in the literature. Among
them, the flexural stiffness can be expressed as the force (Py) required divided by the
corresponding deflection (Δy) of one unit. Based on the load-deflection graph, all slab
specimens yield before collapse at a load in a range of 65.33kN-81.53kN, as stated in
Figure 4.6 and Table 4.5

Figure 4.6 (D/H) ratio versus Flexural Stiffness

In comparison with the solid slab (SS200), the voided slabs gave smaller flexural stiffness
about 22.18%-25.50% and 35.66%-38.80% for slab having 60mm and 90mm void
diameter respectively. This reduction in the flexural stiffness of voided slabs could be
attributed to following reasons:(1) the direct reduction in the moment of inertia of voided
slabs due to existing tube voids; (2) the presence of voids made growth and enlargement
of cracks notably fast; and (3) placing the voids directly above the tensile steel
reinforcement resulted in removing an amount of concrete surrounding these steel
reinforcement, and hence the bond strength decreased.

38
4.1.5.2 Ductility Ratio
Ductility is a measurement, discussing the capability of a structural member to show a
significant inelastic deformation prior to collapse. The reinforced concrete members
should be designed with an acceptable ductility to ensure an adequate warning
before failure to save residents as well as their properties. Therefore, evaluating the
influence of voids on the ductility of slabs is necessary. The ductility was calculated as a
ratio of (Δu/Δy). Where Δy and Δu are the displacements at the yield point and ultimate
loads, respectively. The results are stated in Table 4.5 and Figure 4.7 with respect to
void size to slab thickness ratio (D/H).

Figure 4.7 (D/H) ratio versus Ductility

The presence of voids inside the area of one-way slabs caused a drop in the ductility value.
Although the CPT60 slab, having voids with a diameter equal to 30% of slab depth, failed in
the flexural mode as the solid slab, it lost about 13.00% -14.64% of their ductility compared
with the reference solid slab. For slab with the larger tube (CPT90, D/H = 45%), the decrease
in the ductility value was most significant, reaching about 24.30% - 25.50%, since this slab
experienced a brittle shear failure. Thus, for longitudinal voided slabs constructed in regions
seismic zone needs special consideration.

39
4.1.5.3 Toughness
The capacity of RC members to absorb energy before revealing a notable drop in the
load carrying strength is called toughness. The toughness is a very basic criterion for
reinforced concrete members susceptible to impact load or seismic load. Thus,
assessing the effect of voids on the toughness of slabs is very important. The toughness
is measured as the area below the load-deflection plot of a member up to failure load.
Table 4.5 and Figure 4.8 show the toughness values of the three slabs.

The results showed that inserting of a longitudinal void inside the slabs causes in
reducing energy absorption capacity in comparison with the control solid slab. In
reinforced concrete members, the energy absorption depends mainly on the ability of
concrete to resist fracture and cracking. The loss of an extensive amount of concrete in
the voided slabs led to reducing their toughness.

Figure 4.8 (D/H) ratio versus Toughness

In comparison with the solid slab, the drop in the toughness was approximately 3.30 %-
6.71% when the voids with a diameter of 30% of the slab thickness were employed as in
slab CPT60. This percentage rose to 10.43%-12.00% due to enlarging the diameter of
the voids to 45% of the slab depth (CPT90). As the literature shows, the slabs with the
biggest void’s ratio (D/H), the ability to absorb energy remarkably dropped and owing
to the collapse of the slab in the shear mode without displaying an excessive deflection.

40
Generally, the drop in stiffness, ductility and toughness with the voided slabs with a
diameter of 30% of the slab thickness were employed as in slab CPT60 was insignificant
as compared with solid slab. However, voided slabs with voided size greater than 30%
the slab depth have significant effect on the structural performance and it needs special
treatment.
Table 4.5 Effect of D/H ratio on stiffness, ductility and toughness

4.2. Additional Parametric study using FEA

Finite element analysis is more economical than experiment testing, especially in
parametric studies. So, in view of conducting expensive testing, the FEM has been used in
this study to investigate the structural behaviors of longitudinal voided slabs under single
point loading. The accuracy FEA was first verified with experimental results.
Additional parametric study was then carried out to identify the effects of compressive
strength of concrete, loading types and top layer of reinforcement on the behavior of the
longitudinal voided reinforced concrete slabs. The reinforced concrete voided slab having
circular tube diameter 90 mm under (D/H) equal 45% was selected to study the influence
of additional parametric using ANSYS computer software program. The material
properties like compressive strength and tensile strength were used as a data during the
finite element modeling.
4.2.1 Effect of compressive strength of concrete
It has been found that using different values of concrete compressive strength as (25,
35.6 and 45) MPa respectively on the behavior of load deflection plot. The Figure 4.9
showed that the response of the considered R.C void tube slab for different concrete
compressive strength. When the concrete strength increases from (35.6MPa) to (45MPa),
the ultimate strength increases by 15.50% as well as greater ductility and when the
compressive strength decreases from (35.6MPa) to (25MPa), the ultimate strength
reduces to about 12.78%.

41
The reversal effects of the longitudinal voids on cracking capacity, deflection, stiffness
and crack width can be solved by means of using high concrete strength in construction of
slabs. Using high concrete strength leads to upgrading in rupture modulus (fr) that
increase cracking capacity and reduce crack width. Besides, using high concrete strength
improves elasticity modulus (Ec) that increases slab stiffness with small change in
deflection value. Eventually, it is useful to using longitudinal voids in one-way slabs with
using high concrete strength. A very good example of this would be the SS200 with C-
35.6MPa and CPT90 with C-45MPa have the same ultimate strength.

Figure 4.9 Effect of compressive strength of concrete

4.2.2 Effect of loading type
The analysis results compared with the results of the same slab under single point loads
with the ratio (D/H=45%) and under uniform load on all surface nodes of the concrete
elements. The results indicate that the ultimate total load of this slab was increased from
157.57kN for single point load to 283.63kN about 80% under uniform load type with
decreasing in deflection by about 16% as shown in Figure 4.10.
It can be seen from the Figure 4.10 the polyline appeared clearly in load- deflection
curve for load values between 56.97kN and 102.55kN which refers to the
transformation stage of numerical solution from linear to non-linear behavior at the point
of cracking occurs.

42
 Figure 4.10 Effect of loading type
4.2.3 Effect of top layer of reinforcement
Figure 4.11 displays the effect of using top steel reinforcement with bottom one. The
longitudinal voided slab with tube diameter 90mm under single point loading with
(D/H) equal 45% was analyzed first with bottom and top reinforcement as presented
before then analyzing the same slab with removing the top reinforcement. It was noted
that the ultimate load capacity of the slab will be decreased by about 15% with
removing the top reinforcement. This is may be due to the existence of top
reinforcement will distribute the stresses around the tube and prevent crushing. This in
turn increases the ultimate strength capacity of the voided slab specimens and reduce the
failure modes.

43
 Figure 4.11 Effect of top layer of reinforcement

4.2.4 Effect of size of circular tubes

The longitudinal voided slabs having circular tube shapes with additional tube diameter
of 100mm was analyzed under same loading and support conditions. The analysis results
of load-deflection curves and comparison with sizes of hollow cores were presented at
Figure 4.12.
Based on analysis result, it was noted that increasing void sizes leads to reduction in
cracking and ultimate capacities. Using 100mm diameter size of tube has significant
effect on reducing cracking and ultimate capacity in comparison with using 90mm
diameter tubes for all loading stages. Increasing circular tubes diameter results in higher
deflection by 9% and reduce the ultimate load by 12% at failure.

44
 Figure 4.12 Load-Deflection of slabs SS200, CPT90 and CPT100
4.3 The proposed theoretical calculation of slab capacity based on ACI318-19 and
EC2 Codes
4.3.1 Computation of Ultimate Moment Capacity Based on ACI 318M-19 & EC2
The flexural strengths of slabs have been calculated based on EC-2 and ACI 318M-19
codes. The flexural stress across the slab thickness at the ultimate load for both codes are
showed in Figure 4.13. In the voided slabs, there are two possible shapes for the
compression zone, depending on the compression depth (a). If the compression depth
does not enter the voids zone, the compression zone is rectangular, and the ultimate
moment is determined as in the case of the solid slab (i.e. no reduction in bending
moment capacity). Otherwise, the compression zone is irregular and lengthy calculations
are needed for computing the area and center of the compression location. In this study,
the forces of the voided slabs are almost equivalent to that of the solid slabs since the
compression depth of all slabs was located above the longitudinal voided tubes and the
compression zone is considered as rectangular. The depth of compression zone (a) is
evaluated based on equilibrium condition, assuming that the failure will be initiated by
yielding of the tensile reinforcement steel (fs=fy) for an under reinforced section.
The depth of compression zone (a) is given by:

45
 𝒇𝒚
𝒂 = 𝑨𝒔𝒕 ∗ 𝒇𝒚 (𝜼𝒃∗𝒇𝒄) ……………………………………………… 4.1

Figure 4.13 Distribution of stress-strain across the slab depth

The factor ‘β’, defining the effective height of the compression zone and β = 0.8 when

fck ≤50MPa and ή is a factor to convert the irregular shape of the concrete stress into the
rectangular shape (for ACI 318M-19, ή = 0.85 and for EC2, ή = 1 when fck ≤50MPa)
Theoretically, if the location of the cavity is below the neutral axis, no reduction in
bending moment capacity will be used, since the contribution of the concrete in tension is
neglected in the analysis as can be seen in Figure 4.13.
The stress distribution block in concrete gives the exact behavior of slab’s ultimate
strength so that the capacity of the section can be calculated using the following
equations.
𝒂
𝑴𝒖 = 𝑨𝒔𝒕𝒇𝒚(𝒅 − 𝟐) ……………………………………4.2
𝑨𝒔𝒕𝒇𝒚
𝑴𝒖 = 𝑨𝒔𝒕𝒇𝒚(𝒅 − 𝟐𝜼𝒃𝒇𝒄) ………………………………….4.3
𝑨𝒔𝒕
𝝆= ……………………………………………………….4.4
𝒃𝒅
𝛒𝐟𝐲
𝑴𝒖 = 𝒃𝒅𝟐𝐟𝐲(𝟏 − 𝟐𝛈𝐟𝐜)……………………………………...4.1

46
Where,
Mu = ultimate moment carrying capacity of the section, N.mm
b = breadth of the section, mm

L= center to center span length of the slab section, mm

d = effective depth of the section, mm

fy = characteristic tensile strength of reinforcement, MPa

f'c = specified cylinder compressive strength of concrete, MPa

Ast = area of the tension reinforcement, mm2

ρ = steel ratio
Pu = Ultimate Load capacity of the section, kN
q = Load intensity of the slab specimen, N/mm2
4.3.2 The Proposed Method for Calculating the Ultimate Load for Slab
The proposed method to find an ultimate load for simply supported slab has been
predicted by using ultimate load versus displacement graph of experimental, and
matching the values with calculated ultimate load strength.
The experimental and FEA results of the ultimate loads are known in Table 4.1 and 4.2.
Besides, further investigation has been done by means of using different equations and
expressions based on the geometry of the load to compute the ultimate load carrying
capacity (Pu) of the section.

𝒒𝑳𝟐
𝑴𝒖 = …………………………………………………… 4.6
𝟖

𝑷𝒖 = 𝒒𝒃𝑳 …………………………………………………… 4.7

𝑴𝒖 = 𝑷𝒖𝑳/𝟖𝒃 ………………………………………………. 4.8

By equating equation 4.6 and 4.8 the ultimate load carrying capacity can be given as:
𝝆𝒇𝒚
𝑷𝒖 = 𝟖𝝆𝒃𝟐𝒅𝟐𝒇𝒚(𝟏 − 𝟐𝜼𝒇𝒄) …………………………………. 4.9

47
 Table 4.6 Ratio of Experimental and Calculated Ultimate Loads of Slabs using
ACI318M-19 and EC2 codes and also Numerical loads

The above Table 4.6 explains the comparative study of ultimate load from different codes
provision along with experimental values. Numerical computation gives the mean value
of 1.073, which showed that this value is closer to the experimental values.

The mean standard deviation value given by ACI318-19 is 0.833 and EC2 gives the value
0.843 which have almost the same but which are about 25% less value than experimental
result. The load obtained from experimental varies from 9.42% to 21.20%. This is due to
the presence of cavities in longitudinal voided slabs action as it is evident that reducing
cracking and ultimate load carrying capacity.

48
 CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Conclusions
Based on the analysis results of the experimental work, nonlinear finite element
numerical investigation and theoretical calculations of both solid and longitudinally void
slabs can be summarized as stated below: -
• Load-deflection response is significantly influenced by presence of voids. This
response is softer with increasing voids size and leads to larger displacement at
failure.
• All specimens except the CPT90 slab failed in the flexural mode. The CPT90
collapsed owing to the brittle shear mode. For specimens failed in flexure, more
vertical cracks grew and spread over the flexural span with increasing the applied
loads and for specimens failed in shear the collapse was developing diagonal cracks
over the shear span.

• Reducing the self-weight of the moderate thick reinforced concrete slabs by about
21.20% with longitudinal void tubes (diameter=90mm) lead to reduce the ultimate
strength by about 19.40%-20% while reducing the weight by about 9.42% with
void tubes (diameter=60mm) lead to reduce the ultimate strength by about 8.50%-
12%. At the same time increase in deflection by 6%to 10% was noticed with
60mm and 90mm voided slabs respectively.

• The comparison result between finite element and experimental results showed
that the difference range was 8%-8.50% in ultimate load and 7%-8.20 % in
deflection. The numerical results showed that smaller deflection with larger
ultimate load as compared to experimentally results.

• In comparison with the solid slab (SS200), the voided slabs gave smaller flexural
stiffness and about 22.18% - 25.50% for slab having 60mm-tubes; this percentage
significantly increased to 35.66%-38.80% for slabs containing larger voids size
90mm.

49
• The presence of voids inside the area of one-way slabs caused a drop in the ductility
value. The CPT60 slab, having voids with a diameter equal to 30% of slab depth, it
lost about 13%- 14.64% of their ductility which is insignificant as compared with the
reference solid slab. For slab with the larger tube (CPT90, D/H = 45%), the decrease
in the ductility value was most significant, reaching about 24.30%- 25.50%, and this
slab experienced a brittle shear failure.

• The results stated that the presence of voids inside slabs resulted in less energy
absorption (less in toughness) in comparison with the solid slab. The reduction
was 3.30%-6.71% when the size of the tubes was less than 30% of the slab
thickness. For the CPT90 slab, the absorbed energy decreased about 10.43%-12%.

• Using high concrete strength leads to improvements in mechanical properties of

concrete that increase cracking capacity and slab stiffness in addition to reducing
crack width with small change in deflection value. This constructive action
substitutes the undesirable action for using voids on these values. Thus, high
strength concrete grade is very useful in voided slabs.

• When the compressive strength of the concrete increases from (35.6MPa) to

(45MPa), the ultimate strength increases by 15.50% and when the compressive
strength decreases from (35.6MPa) to (25MPa), the ultimate strength reduces to
about 12.76%.

• It was found that the ultimate strength of the voids slab increases by about
80.05% for the case of uniform load and a reduction in deflection by 16.02%
compared to one point load with (D/H) equal 45%.

• By removing the top steel reinforcement in void slab declined the ultimate
strength by about 15% due to crushing failure of top flange of concrete so that it is
recommended to use this layer to prevent this failure.

• Increasing diameter of tubes causes reductions in cracking and ultimate capacities

with increasing the deflections. Increasing circular tubes diameter from 90mm to
100mm results in higher deflection by 9% and reduce the ultimate load by 12% at
failure.

50
 • The EC2 and ACI 318M-19 codes have almost similar values in predicting the
flexural strength of slabs and less value compared to the experimental result.

5.2 Recommendations
• From a practical point of view, the use of tubes with a size less than or equal to
30% of the slab thickness is recommended since small lost in the ultimate strength
was observed as well as the drops in the stiffness, ductility, and toughness of slab
were limited as compared with solid slab.
• It is also recommended that the optimum core diameter in hollow-core slab is
(60mm) because of that the failure modes and crack types are similar with that of
the control solid slab, in addition the reduction in weight is larger than reduction in
strength.
• Using high concrete strength leads to improvements in mechanical properties of
concrete that increase cracking capacity and slab stiffness in addition to reducing
crack width and deflection. This constructive action substitutes the negative action
for using voids on these values. A very good example of this would be the SS200
with C-35MPa and CPT90 with C-45MPa have the same ultimate strength.
Therefore, high strength of concrete grade is very useful in voided slabs.
• The analysis results compared with the results of the same slab under single point
loads with the ratio (D/H=45%) and under uniform load. The results indicate that
the ultimate total load of voided slab was increased significantly under uniform
load type with decreasing in deflection. Therefor using voided slabs in the area
where uniformly distributed loads applied is more preferable than concentrated
point loads.

51
References
Yang L. 1994.Design of Pre-Stressed Hollow Core Slabs with Reference to Web Shear
Failure. Journal of Structural Engineering, ASCE. 120(9): 2675-2696.

Pajari Matti. 2004. Pure Torsion Tests on Single Hollow Core Slabs. Espoo VTT
Tiedotteita, Research Notes 2273, pp.29-28.

Mahdi A.S. 2011. Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis of Reinforced Concrete Hollow-
core Slabs. MSc. Thesis, Al-Nahrain University/Civil Engineering Department.

Rahman M. K., M. H. Baluch, M. K. Said, M. A. Shazali. 2012. Flexural and Shear

Strength of Pre-Stressed Precast Hollow-Core Slabs. Arabian Journal for Science and
Engineering. 37(2): 443-455.

Haruna S.I. 2014, “Flexural behavior of precast pre-stressed concrete hollow core slabs
with cast-in-place concrete topping”, M.S. Dissertation, Atılım University, Turkey

Lee, D.H., Park, M., Oh, J., Kim, K.S., Im, J. and Seo, S. (2014), “Web-shear capacity of
pre-Stressed hollow core slab unit with consideration on the minimum shear
reinforcement requirement”, Comput. Concrete, 14(3), 211-231.

Mansour F. R., Abu BakarS., Ibrahim, I.S., MarsonoA. Marabi B. 2015.Flexural

performance of a precast concrete slab with steel fiber concrete topping. Construction and
Building Materials. 75: 112120.

Ibrahim I.S., K.S. Elliott, b., Abdullah, R., KuehA.B.H., SarbiniN.N. 2016. Experimental
Study on the Shear Behavior of Precast Concrete Hollow Core Slabs with Concrete
Topping. Engineering Structures. 125: 80-90.

Abed S.A. 2016. Flexural Behavior of One Way Reinforced Concrete Hollow- Core
Slabs under Monotonic Loading. MSc. Thesis, Al-Nahrain University/Civil Engineering
Department.

Foubert S., Mahmoud K. and El-Salakawy E. 2016. Behavior of Pre-Stressed Hollow-

Core Slabs Strengthened in Flexure with Near-Surface Mounted Carbon Fiber-
Reinforced Polymer Reinforcement. ASCE, Journal of Composites for Construction.
20(6).
52
Wariyatno N. G., and Haryanto Y. and Sudiboyo G. H. 2017. Flexural behavior of
precast hollow core slab using PVC pipe and Styrofoam with different reinforcement.
Procedia engineering. 171: 909-916.

ACI318-14.2014. Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete (ACI 318-14) and
Commentary. American Concrete Institute, Detroit, U.S.A.

EN 1992-1-1, Eurocode 2: Design of Concrete Structures Part 1-1–General Rules and

Rules for Buildings, London Br. Stand. Inst., 2004.

PCI Manual for the Design of Hollow Core Slabs and Walls Third Edition - Electronic
Version

ANSYS19.0 Inc.2019. ANSYS User’s Manual. SAS IP, Inc., Version 19.0, U.S.A.

53
APPENDIX A: ANSYS Mechanical APDL19.0 Input Data
Materials properties
/prep7
! Always comments start with this exclamation symbol
! Units: yield strength or pressure in MPa, Force in N and length in mm
! Element type
ET, 1,215
keyopt,1,18,2 !activates the 2 extra DOFs
ET, 100,185
et, 200,200,2
! concrete material property definition
! read micro-plane: coupled plasticity damage concrete material model
! from ANSYS help file for detail information
! open ANSYS mechanical APDL help file >>> Mechanical APDL >>> Material
Reference
! >>> nonlinear material properties >>> 4.8 Micro-plane
! fuc = Concrete compressive strength is 35.6
nu = .2
fuc = 35.6
E = 4700*fuc**0.5
fub = 1.15*fuc
fut = 1.4*(fuc/10) **(2/3)
Rt = 1
Dx = 6e4
sigVc0 = -1.3*fuc
R=2
c = 1600
m=5
gamt0 = 0
54
gamc0 = 2e-5
betat = .75e4
betac = .25e4
MP, DENS,1,2400e-12
MP, EX,1, E
MP, NUXY,1, nu
TB, MPLA, 1, DPC
TBDATA,1, fuc, fub, fut, Rt, Dx, sigVc0
TBDATA,7, R, gamt0, gamc0, betat, betac
TB, MPLA, 1 ,,, NLOCAL
TBDATA,1, c, m
! Main steel rebar material property
! Material reference number 2
MP, EX,2, 200000 ! Main steel rebar modulus of elasticity
MP, NUXY,2,0.3 ! Main steel rebar poison ratio
TB, BISO, 2
TBDATA, 1,535,1000 ! 535 MPa Main steel rebar Yield strength
! stirrups steel rebar material property stirrup
! Material reference number 3
MP, EX, 3,200000 ! stirrup steel rebar modulus of elasticity
MP, NUXY, 3,0.3 ! stirrup steel rebar poison ratio
TB, BISO,3
TBDATA, 1,305,1000 ! 427 MPa stirrup steel rebar yield strength
MP, EX,4,200000 ! steel plate for loading and support
MP, NUXY,4,0.3

55
Concrete blocks geometry and meshing
/prep7
e1=25! element size 'e1'
! create concrete
BLOCK, 0,800,0,200,0,300
BLOCK, 50,100, -25,0,0,300
BLOCK, 700,750, -25,0,0,300
BLOCK, 375,425,200,225,0,300
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
! openings
k,800,0,0,1
k,801,0,1,0
k, 802,,,,
CSKP, 11, , 802, 800, 801, ,
CSYS,11
WPCSYS, , 11
! 60mm opening
!CYL4,90,100,60/2, , , ,-800
!CYL4,210,100,60/2, , , ,-800
! 90mm opening
CYL4,75,100,90/2, , , ,-800
CYL4,225,100,90/2, , , ,-800
VSEL, S, , ,6,7
CM, V_ openings, VOLU
ALLSEL, ALL
VSBV, 5, V_ openings, , DELETE, DELETE
NUMCMP, VOLUME
ALLSEL, ALL

56
WPCSYS, -1,0
CSYS,0
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
! glue all volumes
ALLSEL, ALL
VGLUE, ALL
NUMCMP, VOLUME
! mesh volumes
LSEL, All
Lesize, all, e1
! brick element meshing
! Mesh concrete
TYPE, 100
MAT, 1
REAL,
ESYS, 0
SECNUM, ,
ESIZE,25
SMRTSIZE,6 ,0.25,1,2,10,15,1.5,0,1,4,0
ALLSEL, ALL
MSHKEY,1
MSHAPE,0,3d
CHKMSH,'VOLU'
VMESH,1
! mesh areas
LSEL, All
Lesize, all, e1
! Mesh concrete

57
ALLSEL, ALL
TYPE,1
MSHAPE,0,3d
MSHKEY,1
VMESH,1,4
! change loading plate material number
ALLSEL, ALL
VSEL, ALL
VSEL, S, , , 2,3,4
ESLV, R
MPCHG,4, ALL,
! merges all similar nodes and elements
esel, all
NSEL, ALL
NUMMRG, NODE, , ,, LOW
Steel reinforcement Geometry and meshing
/prep7
NUMCMP, KP
NUMCMP, LINE
NUMCMP, AREA
NUMCMP, VOLUME
! Define discrete reinforcing sections
! Longitudinal rebar section definition
SECTYPE,1, REINF, DISC
SECDATA, 2,113.04, mesh
! Stirrup rebar section definition
SECTYPE,2, REINF, DISC
SECDATA,3,28.26, mesh

58
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
! Main long. rebar
k,1000,0,25,40
k,1001,800,25,40
l,1000,1001
*GET, n1_1, LINE, 0, NUM, MAX, ,
LSEL, S, , , n1_1
LGEN,4, all, , , , , 73, ,0
*GET, n1_2, LINE, 0, NUM, MAX, ,
LGEN,2, all, , , ,150 , , ,0
*GET, n1_3, LINE, 0, NUM, MAX, ,
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
! Mesh main rebar
! Mesh
TYPE, 200
MAT, 2
REAL,
ESYS , 0
SECNUM, 1
LSEL ,S, , , n1_1,n1_3
lesize,all,,,1
LSEL,S, , , n1_1,n1_3
lmesh, all
/eshape,1
esel, all
nsel, all
EREINF
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

59
NUMCMP, KP
NUMCMP, LINE
NUMCMP, AREA
NUMCMP, VOLUME
! Main transvers rebar
k,1003,40,25,25
k,1004,40,25,275
l,1003,1004
*GET, n1_1, LINE, 0, NUM, MAX, ,
LSEL, S, , , n1_1
LGEN,6, all, , , 150, , , ,0
*GET, n1_2, LINE, 0, NUM, MAX, ,
LGEN,2, all, , , ,150 , , ,0
*GET, n1_3, LINE, 0, NUM, MAX, ,
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
! Mesh main rebar
! Mesh
TYPE, 200
MAT, 2
REAL,
ESYS, 0
SECNUM, 2
LSEL, S, , , n1_1,n1_3
lesize, all,,,1
LSEL, S, , , n1_1,n1_3
lmesh, all
/eshape,1
esel, all

60
nsel, all
EREINF
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NUMCMP, KP
NUMCMP, LINE
NUMCMP, AREA
NUMCMP, VOLUME
! stirrups rebar
k,1005,50,25,25
k,1006,50,25,275
k,1007,50,175,275
k,1008,50,175,25
l,1005,1006
*GET, n1_1, LINE, 0, NUM, MAX, ,
l,1006,1007
l,1007,1008
l,1008,1005
LSEL, S , , n1_1, n1_1+3
LGEN,3, all, , , 350, , , ,0
*GET, n1_2, LINE, 0, NUM, MAX, ,
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
! Mesh main rebar
! Mesh
TYPE, 200
MAT, 2
REAL,
ESYS, 0
SECNUM, 2

61
LSEL, S, , , n1_1,n1_2
lesize, all ,,,1
LSEL, S , , , n1_1,n1_2
lmesh, all
/eshape,1
esel, all
nsel, all
EREINF
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
esel, all
NSEL, ALL
NUMMRG, KP, , , ,LOW
/prep7
ALLSEL, ALL
ESEL, ALL
ESEL, S, TYPE,100
EMODIF, ALL, TYPE,1,
! delete Element 185
ETDEL,100
Boundary Condition, loading and solution
/Solution
! Fixed boundary condition
NSEL, S, LOC, Y, -25
NSEL, R, LOC, X,50, 100
NSEL, R, LOC, Z,0, 300
D, All, UY,0
NSEL, S, LOC, Y, -25
NSEL, R, LOC, X,700, 750

62
NSEL, R, LOC, Z, 0,300
D, All, ALL,0
! Loading
NSEL, S, LOC, Y, 225
NSEL, R, LOC, X, 400
NSEL, R, LOC, Z, 150
D, All, UY, -34 ! displacement controlled loading; 5mm in negative Y-direction
esel, all
nsel, all
TIME,1
NSUBST,100, 500, 50, on ! load sub steps
OUTRES, ALL,1 ! write all output
SOLVE
SAVE
FINISH

63
APPENDIX B: Load-Deflection Results
Table B. 1 Load-Deflection of average Experimental Result
Average Experimental Result
SS200 CPT60 CPT90
Disp(mm) Load (kN) Disp(mm) Load (kN) Disp(mm) Load (kN)
0.21 4.99 0.23 4.56 0.23 4.02
0.21 4.99 0.23 4.56 0.23 4.02
0.22 10.80 0.23 9.89 0.24 8.71
0.22 17.45 0.23 15.97 0.24 14.06
0.36 21.61 0.38 19.77 0.39 17.41
0.23 25.76 0.24 23.57 0.25 20.76
0.36 31.58 0.39 28.89 0.40 25.45
0.63 34.07 0.67 31.18 0.69 27.46
0.76 39.06 0.81 35.74 0.83 31.48
1.03 42.39 1.09 38.78 1.12 34.16
1.82 49.87 1.66 43.35 1.70 38.19
2.23 54.86 1.94 45.63 1.99 40.20
2.63 59.02 2.36 50.20 2.47 44.22
3.29 64.85 2.78 54.01 2.86 47.57
3.95 65.69 3.49 59.34 3.59 52.27
4.48 69.02 4.19 60.11 4.30 52.95
5.41 74.85 4.75 63.15 4.88 55.63
6.33 79.02 5.73 68.49 5.89 60.33
7.13 85.67 6.71 72.30 6.90 63.69
8.58 94.00 7.56 78.39 7.77 69.05
10.31 102.34 9.10 86.01 9.36 75.77
11.89 108.17 10.92 93.64 11.23 82.48
12.95 111.51 12.61 98.98 12.96 87.19
14.54 116.52 13.73 102.03 14.11 89.88

64
15.99 121.53 15.41 106.62 15.84 93.91
17.44 127.36 16.95 111.20 17.43 97.95
18.77 131.53 18.49 116.54 19.01 102.65
20.09 135.71 19.89 120.35 20.46 106.02
21.67 139.88 21.29 124.17 21.90 109.38
22.99 143.23 22.97 127.99 23.62 112.75
24.18 146.57 24.37 131.05 25.06 115.44
25.77 151.58 25.63 134.11 26.36 118.13
27.09 155.75 27.32 138.69 28.09 122.17
28.55 161.58 28.72 142.51 29.53 125.53
29.47 164.09 30.26 147.85 31.12 130.24
30.53 166.60 31.24 150.14 32.12 132.26
31.72 170.77 32.36 152.44 33.28 134.28
33.17 173.28 33.62 156.25 34.57 137.64
34.36 175.79 35.16 158.55 37.45 141.69
35.42 178.30 36.42 160.85 38.60 143.71
36.21 179.97 37.54 163.14 39.47 145.06
36.87 180.81 39.09 165.45 40.19 145.75

65
Table B.2 Load-Deflection of Finite Element Analysis Result

Finite Element Analysis Result

SS200 CPT60 CPT90
Disp(mm) Load (kN) Disp(mm) Load (kN) Disp(mm) Load (kN)
0.20 5.43 0.21 4.78 0.22 4.34
0.21 5.43 0.21 4.79 0.22 4.35
0.20 11.77 0.21 10.36 0.22 9.42
0.21 19.01 0.22 16.73 0.23 15.21
0.33 23.54 0.35 20.71 0.36 18.83
0.21 28.06 0.22 24.70 0.23 22.45
0.34 34.40 0.36 30.27 0.37 27.52
0.58 37.12 0.62 32.66 0.64 29.69
0.71 42.55 0.75 37.44 0.78 34.04
0.95 46.17 1.01 40.63 1.05 36.94
1.45 51.61 1.53 45.42 1.59 41.29
1.70 54.33 1.79 47.81 1.86 43.46
2.06 59.77 2.19 52.59 2.27 47.81
2.43 64.30 2.58 56.58 2.67 51.44
3.05 70.64 3.23 62.16 3.35 56.51
3.66 71.56 3.88 62.97 4.02 57.25
4.15 75.19 4.40 66.16 4.56 60.15
5.01 81.53 5.31 71.75 6.55 65.23
5.86 86.08 6.21 75.75 6.85 68.86
6.60 93.33 7.00 82.13 7.26 74.66
7.95 102.40 8.43 90.11 8.74 81.92
9.54 111.48 10.11 98.10 10.50 89.18
11.01 117.84 11.67 103.70 12.11 94.27
11.99 121.47 12.71 106.90 13.19 97.18

66
13.46 126.93 14.27 111.70 14.80 101.54
14.80 132.38 15.69 116.50 16.29 105.90
16.15 138.74 17.12 122.10 17.77 110.99
17.38 143.28 18.42 126.10 19.11 114.62
18.60 147.83 19.72 130.10 20.46 118.26
20.07 152.38 21.27 134.09 22.07 121.90
21.29 156.02 22.57 137.30 23.42 124.82
22.39 159.66 23.74 140.50 24.63 127.73
23.86 165.11 25.30 145.30 26.25 132.09
25.08 169.66 26.59 149.30 27.59 135.73
26.43 176.02 28.02 154.90 29.07 140.81
27.29 178.75 28.92 157.30 30.02 143.00
28.27 181.48 29.96 159.70 31.09 145.18
29.37 186.02 31.13 163.70 32.30 148.82
30.71 188.76 32.56 166.11 33.78 151.00
31.81 191.50 33.72 168.51 35.00 153.20
32.79 194.23 34.76 170.92 36.07 155.38
33.53 196.05 35.54 172.52 36.88 156.84
34.14 196.96 36.18 173.3 37.55 157.57

67