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This thesis aims at contributing to a better understanding of the structural response of reinforced concrete slab strips subjected to axial tension and transverse load, focusing on the influence of axial tension on the structural response. Simple, consistent models – based on mechanical principles and the assumption that plane sections remain plane – are presented, allowing a realistic description of the structural response of reinforced concrete slab strips under axial tension and transverse load. The first part of the thesis covers material properties and the characteristics of the stress-strain behaviour of concrete and reinforcing steel as well as fundamental aspects of the bond behaviour. The characteristics of the section behaviour are discussed in terms of moment-axial force strength envelopes and moment-curvature relations. The second part covers the theoretical behaviour of reinforced concrete slab strips. Taking a propped cantilever under uniform transverse load as example, three models of increasing complexity are presented: rigid-perfectly plastic model, differential equation model and numerical integration. Selected aspects of modelling are examined and the parameters influencing the flexural behaviour are investigated with a special focus on the influence of an axial tensile force. Under the assumption that flexural cracks prevent axial tensile stresses but not the transfer of shear stresses, the shear stress distribution prior to shear cracking is investigated and a cracking shear force is defined considering the elastic shear flow for the transformed section. The influences of different models and of axial tension on the uniform transverse load causing shear cracking in a propped cantilever are examined. A model subdividing the system into intact sectors and a shear-failed sector is proposed for the estimation of the structural response after the occurrence of a shear failure. The transition from the behaviour of the intact system to the behaviour following a shear failure and the influence of the length of the shear-failed sector are discussed. The third part of this thesis covers the validation of the models presented. The test set-up and procedure, the test specimens and the main results of an experimental campaign comprising twelve large-scale tests on reinforced concrete slab strips carried out at the Institute of Structural Engineering (IBK) of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) are summarised. The models introduced in the second part of the thesis are adapted to the test set-up and selected results are presented. Finally, the model results are compared with the experimental data in terms of material, section and system behaviour and the accuracy and limitations of the models are discussed. The fourth part summarises the work of the first three parts and gives an overview over the insights gained, namely that: (i) differential equation models provide a realistic description of the structural response of reinforced concrete slab strips under axial tension and transverse load; (ii) axial tension increases the ultimate resistance of the system; (iii) the system stiffness increases with increasing axial tension; (iv) that shear failure does not cause system failure in systems under axial tension (provided, that the reinforcement is detailed such that the tension can be sustained in the shear-failed zone); and (v) the accuracy of a shear failure prediction is considerably smaller than the accuracy of the prediction of the flexural behaviour.

Influence of Axial Tension on the Structural Response of Reinforced Concrete Slab Strips