This paper presents an experimental study on the behaviour of the bond stress of steel reinforcing bars embedded in steel-fibre-reinforced concrete. In total, 27 specimens were subjected to pull-out tests. The main variables included the volumetric fraction of the fibre, the diameter of the reinforcing bars and the anchorage length. The results showed that the introduction of steel fibres had a significant effect on improving the bond stress performance in terms of the failure load resistance, the tensile resistance of the concrete and the reduction in the anchorage length, resulting in a more ductile bonding behaviour of reinforcing bars with smaller tested diameters. An equation to estimate the ultimate bond stress was proposed based on the prescriptions of the Brazilian design code NBR 6118, which is more accurate and considers the observed effects of the fibre addition.

Some normative recommendations are conservative in relation to the shear strength of reinforced concrete beams, not directly considering the longitudinal reinforcement rate. An experimental program containing 8 beams of (100 x 250) mm2 and a length of 1,200 mm was carried out. The concrete compression strength was 20 MPa with and without 1.00% of steel fiber addition, without stirrups and varying the longitudinal reinforcement ratio. Comparisons between experimental failure loads and main design codes estimates were assessed. The results showed that the increase of the longitudinal reinforcement ratio from 0.87% to 2.14% in beams without steel fiber led to an improvement of 59% in shear strength caused by the dowel effect, while the corresponding improvement was of only 22% in fibered concrete beams. A maximum gain of 109% in shear strength was observed with the addition of 1% of steel fibers comparing beams with the same longitudinal reinforcement ratio (1.2%). A significant amount of shear strength was provided by the inclusion of the steel fibers and allowed controlling the propagation of cracks by the effect of stress transfer bridges, transforming the brittle shear mechanism into a ductile flexural one. From this, it is clear the shear benefit of the steel fiber addition when associated to the longitudinal reinforcement and optimal values for this relationship would improve results.

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Research on behavior of flat slabs under punching shear, performed by Kinnunen, Regan and Muttoni influenced the main design recommendations. Meanwhile, studies about strut and tie model developed by Schlaich for beams, deep beams and corbels also influenced these design codes. This work aimed to adapt the strut and tie model for the punching shear resistance analysis in flat slabs. The punching shear resistance of 30 flat slabs verified through strut and tie model was compared to the one designed following Brazilian, American and European codes recommendation. Subsequently, this same model was validated by comparing the test results of 32 flat slabs. The strut and tie model results, when compared with the test results, showed a better average than those from codes, and the modified strut and tie model can become an alternative for punching shear strength prediction.

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