Blind competition on the numerical simulation of continuous shallow steel-fiber reinforced concrete beams failing in bending

This article describes the second blind simulation competition (BSC) organized by the fib WG 2.4.1, which aims to assess the predictive performance of models based on the finite element method (FEM) for the analysis and design of fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) structures. Slabs supported on columns or piles have becoming competitive applications for FRC due to the technical and economic benefits may be obtained by combining properly the fiber reinforcement mechanisms to those provided by conventional reinforcement placed, as a strip, in the alignment of columns/piles. Therefore, a representative zone of this structural system, namely a hybrid fiber reinforced concrete (R/FRC) shallow beam, is chosen in this BSC to show the potentialities of FRC in these types of applications, as well as to assess the predictive performance of FEM-based computational models on the design verification at serviceability and at ultimate limit state conditions (SLS and ULS, respectively). Two statically indeterminate shallow beams of two equal spans were tested up to their failure, by recording the applied loads, the strains in the conventional reinforcements and in the FRC of the critical zones of the structure. By using digital image correlation, the average crack width at the level of the flexural reinforcements was recorded. The participants had to predict these results by receiving information about the mechanical properties of the materials, the geometry of the prototypes and their loading and support conditions. In this article, the rules and the results of this 2nd BSC competition are presented, and the data obtained experimentally is thoroughly analyzed.