ABSTRACT
Despite the fact that žber reinforced concrete (FRC) has been used in construction industry for more than four decades, applications are still limited to a few market sectors. This is mainly due to the lack of standard guidelines for design procedures. To facilitate the design process, technical guidelines for FRC have been developed by RILEM committee TC 162-TDF for steel FRC (SFRC) [1-3] during the past 15 years. The committee proposed a three-point bending test of a notched beam specimen for material characterization. The elastically equivalent ²exural strength at specižc crack-mount-opening-displacement is empirically related to the tensile stress-strain model. The compression response is described by a parabolic-rectangular stress-strain model. The strain compatibility analysis of a layered beam cross section is required to determine the ultimate moment capacity. Similar to the RILEM, the German guidelines for design of ²exural members use the strain compatibility analysis to determine the moment capacity [4]. In the United Kingdom [5], the practice of FRC traditionally followed the Japanese Standard JCI-SF4 [6]; however, it has recently shifted toward and the RILEM design methodology. The Italian guideline is also based on loadde²ection curves deduced from ²exural or direct tension test [7]. The current U.S. design guidelines for ²exural members are based on empirical equations of Swamy et al. [8] and Fischer [9]. The particular types of žbers and nature of concrete were not specižed in the guidelines. Henager and Doherty [10] proposed a tensile stress block for SFRC that is comparable with the ultimate strength design of ACI 318-05 [11].
