Modeling the Behavior of Steel-Fiber Reinforced Concrete Ground Slabs. I: Development of Material Model

Steel-fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) brings favorable properties to concrete ground slabs. The use of the material is limited by the lack of an appropriate analysis method. This paper is the first in a series of two regarding research aimed at providing a modeling approach that can be used to model the behavior of SFRC concrete and SFRC ground slabs. Here, an improved generalized analytical method is presented to determine the tensile stress-strain ($\sigma \mathrm{\text{-}}\epsilon$) response using an inverse analysis. The tensile $\sigma \mathrm{\text{-}}\epsilon$ response is determined by using either the experimental moment-curvature ($M\mathrm{\text{-}}\varphi$) or load-deflection ($P\mathrm{\text{-}}\delta$) responses. The validity of the inverse analysis is evaluated by comparing calculated and measured tensile $\sigma \mathrm{\text{-}}\epsilon$ responses. The tensile $\sigma \mathrm{\text{-}}\epsilon$ response is subsequently utilized in nonlinear finite-element analysis of an SFRC beam with the purpose of examining the tensile $\sigma \mathrm{\text{-}}\epsilon$ relationship. The calculated results compare well with the experimental observations.