Failure Mode and Ultimate Bearing Capacity of Precast Ribbed Panels Used for Concrete Composite Slabs

Abstract

Inverted T-shaped precast ribbed panels are used as single-span simply supported bottom plates in concrete composite slabs. The panels have regularly distributed holes in the ribs; therefore they are not only convenient for pipeline layout, but also work well with cast-in-situ concrete layer. An experiment of precast ribbed panels was carried out under out-plane vertical static loading; it was found that the panels were damaged due to concrete shear failure between rib holes near supports. This is different from mid-span bending failure observed in similar experiment by other scholars. The main reason is related to size effect of concrete shear plane. Then, finite element simulation was performed by using commercial software ABAQUS to model the failure mode and bearing capacity of the panel under out-plane vertical static loading, the numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental results. Furthermore, an equilibrium method was proposed to estimate the ultimate bearing capacity for mid-span bending failure and concrete shear failure, respectively. Finally, parametric analysis with the equilibrium method was done to investigate influences of concrete strength and cross sectional dimension on the mechanical behavior of the precast ribbed panels. Compared with the test data and the finite element results, it is concluded that the proposed equilibrium method can predict the failure mode and ultimate bearing capacity of precast ribbed panels.