Compression Field Analysis of Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Based on the Cracked Membrane Model

Compression field approaches are well-established methods used to analyze the load-deformation behavior of reinforced concrete elements subjected to in-plane shear and normal forces. In this paper, the simplified Cracked Membrane Model, considering rotating, stress-free cracks, is extended to include the effect of fiber reinforcement. The key advantage of the proposed compression field approach is that it yields the most important factors for the design and analysis of fiber-reinforced concrete (FRC)—that is, crack opening and spacing—directly. A solution procedure is developed herein for two practical design cases for webs of girders without conventional shear reinforcement. In both cases, the applied load can typically be increased after cracking even when using strain softening FRC. The model is shown to predict the response of available test data on uniaxially reinforced FRC panels satisfactorily, but fails to capture failures governed by sliding of cracks in elements containing high fiber dosages.