STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF FIBER REINFORCED CONCRETE ON PERFORMANCE OF PRECAST TUNNEL SEGMENTS

19th WORLD CONFERENCE OF THE ASSOCIATED RESEARCH CENTRES FOR THE URBAN UNDERGROUND SPACE, Belgrade, Serbia, November 4-7, 2025. (Paper No: 2.1.109,  pp. 269-280)

 

АУТОР(И) / AUTHOR(S): Fan Zhang, Wouter De Corte, Xian Liu, Yihai Bao, Luc Taerwe

 

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DOI:  10.46793/ACUUS2025.2.1.109

САЖЕТАК / ABSTRACT:

Reinforced concrete (RC) segments rebars partially replaced by fibers have attempted to prove superior performance in some studies, but the research on how the mechanical parameters of fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) (fR1 and fR3 according to the fib Model Code) and remaining rebars affect the segment properties is still limited. Moreover, when considering both the serviceability and ultimate states of the segments, multiple factors need to be studied to ensure that the FRC segments with rebars (RC-FRC segments) can be truly superior to the RC segments. For this purpose, based on numerical models verified by four-point bending tests on RC-FRC segments, this paper uses numerical simulations to explore the influence of FRC mechanical parameters and the amount of reinforcement on various segment properties such as stiffness, crack width, yield load, ultimate load, ductility, and safety reserve. A total of 92 simulations were conducted, combining different parameters: two RC segments with rebar areas 1.006 mm2 and 2.454 mm2, and ninety RC-FRC segments with rebars partially replaced by FRC (3MPa, 5MPa, 7MPa of fR1, and 0,5, 0,9, 1,3 of fR3/fR1, combining with five levels of remained rebar areas for each RC segment). Additionally, a modified FRC constitutive model was used to make the simulation more accurate when the crack width is small. The simulation results indicate that, the more of the rebars remained, the larger are the segment stiffness, yield load and ultimate load, but in all cases the ductility and safety reserve are negligibly influenced. As for FRC, the larger of the fR1, the larger are the segment stiffness, yield load, ultimate load and safety reserve, and the smaller the crack width, but it has a negligible effect on the ductility. The larger of the fR3/fR1 ratio, especially when it is larger than 0.9, the larger are the ultimate load, safety reserve and ductility, but it does not affect the stiffness and yield load of the segment. The study indicates that to ensure the performance of RC-FRC segments, the mechanical properties of the FRC and the replaced rebars should be carefully determined. Furthermore, it is recommended to replace the rebars with FRC that has a high fR1 value and a fR3/fR1 ratio larger than 0.9, to enhance the toughness of the segment.  

КЉУЧНЕ РЕЧИ / KEYWORDS:

segment, residual strength, stiffness, bearing capacity, ductility

ПРОЈЕКАТ / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

The first author would like to express his appreciation for the scholarship from the China Scholarship Council (No. 202306260206) for his study at Ghent University.

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