BEHAVIOUR OF RESTRAINED SIFCON TWO WAY SLABS PART 1: FLEXURE

In this two-part paper, the response of restrained SIFCON two-way slabs is investigated. In part-1, different restrained SIFCON two-way slab specimens were loaded in flexure using the Whiffle-Tree loading arrangement and first crack loads, ultimate loads and load- deflection responses were obtained. In part-2 results from punching shear tests performed on SIFCON two-way slabs are reported. Black steel wire fibres were used in the production of SIFCON slab specimens and the influence of fibre volume percentage on flexural and punching shear behavior is investigated. In this paper, the influence of volume percentage of steel fibres on strength and stiffness characteristics of slurry infiltrated fibrous concrete (SIFCON) slabs is investigated by testing nine numbers of SIFCON slabs under flexural loading. In order to compare the results, three numbers of fibre reinforced concrete (FRC) slabs and three numbers of plain cement concrete (PCC) slabs are taken as control specimens. The test results indicate that the SIFCON slabs exhibit high strength, high energy absorption and more ductility characteristics compared to the control specimens. SIFCON slabs with higher fibre volume fraction(12%fibre volume) exhibit superior performance among other slab specimens. Analysing the crack patterns noticed in the experimentation, yield line analysis has been performed and the bending moment coefficients for SIFCON slabs are calculated.