Numerical modeling of the behaviour of SFRC elements in presence of multiple cracks

In this work, 2D-PARC constitutive relation has been extended to the analysis of SFRC elements subjected to plane stresses. The proposed model is based on a strain decomposition procedure, which easily allows to take into account multiple cracking stages. The total strain is so obtained by superposing the strain of concrete between two adjacent cracks to those of the cracks, while the stress is the same in all the “materials”. The mechanical behaviour of steel fibre reinforced concrete, in which the only resistant mechanisms across crack are due to aggregate and fibre contributions, has been adequately accounted in the cracked stiffness matrix. This model has been implemented into a FE code and validated by simulating some experimental tests carried out on SFRC slabs, representing a portion of industrial pavements included between joints, in which the failure is dominated by the presence of multiple cracks. These comparisons have highlighted that the proposed nonlinear approach is able to correctly represent slab behaviour until failure.