Fiber reinforced concrete L-beams under combined loading

The addition of steel fibers in concrete mixture is recognized as a non-conventional mass reinforcement scheme that improves the torsional, flexural, and shear behavior of structural members. However, the analysis of fiber reinforced concrete beams under combined torsion, bending, and shear is limited because of the complicated nature of the problem. Therefore, nonlinear 3D finite element analysis was conducted using the "ANSYS CivilFEM" program to investigate the behavior of fiber reinforced concrete L-beams. These beams were tested at different reinforcement schemes and loading conditions. The reinforcement case parameters were set as follows: reinforced with longitudinal reinforcement only and reinforced with steel bars and stirrups. All beams were tested under two different combined loading conditions, namely, torsion-to-shear ratio (T/V) = 545 mm (high eccentricity) and T/V = 145 mm (low eccentricity). Eight intermediate L-beams were constructed and tested in a laboratory under combined torsion, bending, and shear to validate the finite element model. Comparisons with the experimental data reveal that the program can accurately predict the behavior of L-beams under different reinforcement cases and combined loading ratios. The ANSYS model accurately predicted the loads and deformations for various types of reinforcements in L-beams and captured the concrete strains of these beams.