| Title |
Optimum Design of Reinforced Steel Fibrous Concrete Beam Considering Structural Performance |
| Abstract |
The use of steel fibers in conventional concrete increases the strength and ductility under various loading conditions. A number of tests on reinforced steel fibrous concrete beam have shown that the combinational use of both steel fibers and reinforcing bars could give optimum choice to the designer. In order to examine the possibility of economical use of these combinations achieving required structural performance in terms of strength and ductility of a reinforced concrete beam, a refined optimization procedure based on nonlinear layered finite element method and nonlinear programming technique is deve1oped in this study. Six design variables-beam width and depth, fiber volume fraction, amounts of tensile and compressive rebars, and stirrup spacing-are considered in optimization. Use of steel fibers in place of steel rebars is shown to be less economical in achieving required strength and ductility of a beam except the special case when large ductility is required under the restriction to the beam depth. The developed model can be used as a tool in determining optimum and economical use of steel fibers in designing the reinforced fibrous concrete beam |