Numerical modeling of steel fiber reinforced concrete composite exposed to high loading rate

This study investigates the behavior of plain and steel fiber-reinforced concrete exposed to quasi-static and dynamic loadings. However, the most significant effort has been directed to the dynamic loading. Previous research has shown that the addition of steel fibers to conventional concrete can significantly enhance many of the desired engineering properties of hardened concrete, such as fracture toughness, flexural strength, etc. Many experimental and numerical studies indicate that the strength of such composites is rate-dependent, i.e., it is profoundly affected by increasing dynamic loading. This concept applies to the composite components, including concrete, reinforcing steel fibers as well as the bond interaction between them. The work presented herein provides a numerical view of the dynamic behavior of plain and steel fiber-reinforced concrete and investigates the influence of steel fibers on conventional concrete matrix. Three numerical programs are carried out. In the first program, the bond behavior between the steel fiber and adjacent concrete matrix is studied. In the second program, the impact behavior of plain and steel fiber-reinforced concrete slabs are investigated. The models were developed and calibrated. Their quality, reliability, and limitations are assessed by conducting a series of numerical case studies. The computed results are verified by comparison with the available experimental data. The dynamic behavior of plain and steel fiber-reinforced concrete is investigated in the third program, including both compressive and tensile behavior. This part aimed to study the contribution of steel fibers to the global strength or rather a resistance behavior of fiber-reinforced concrete under dynamic loading with little attention to the effect of steel fibers on the crack development.