Punching shear strength of steel fibre reinforced concrete slabs

► Mechanical model for punching strength of steel fibre reinforced concrete slabs. ► Contribution of concrete and fibres coupled through the hypothesis of critical shear crack theory. ► Validation against a wide number of available experimental data. ► Simple design equation for the punching shear capacity of steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC). The ultimate strength of reinforced concrete slabs is frequently governed by the punching shear capacity, which may be increased with addition of traditional fitments such as reinforcing steel, headed studs or shear heads. In addition to these traditional methods of strengthening against punching, steel fibre reinforcement has proved to be an effective and viable alternative. The addition of fibres into the concrete improves not only the shear behaviour but also the deformation capacity of reinforced concrete slabs. This paper presents a mechanical model for predicting the punching strength and behaviour of concrete slabs reinforced with steel fibres as well as conventional reinforcement. The proposed model is validated against a wide number of available experimental data and its accuracy is verified. On this basis, a simple design equation for the punching shear capacity of steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) slabs is proposed.