An improved test method and numerical analysis for crack opening resistance of FRC round determinate panels

This paper presents a numerical analysis of a material test program investigating the crack opening properties of fibre reinforced concrete (FRC) round determinate panels (RDP). The objective of this research is to set up a modified RDP test method to improve the current ASTM C1550 test method for FRC and fibre reinforced shotcrete (FRS) composite. By this test method, a kind of light small-diameter panels are applied and more crack information can be obtained by a new rotation angle measuring technique. It is shown that this modified test method can be used to effectively evaluate the crack opening resistance of FRC. The finite element analysis was then performed to clarify the crack propagations and failure mode of FRC RDP panels. It helps establish a reasonable theoretical method to predict the structural response of RDP, combining with this modified testing technique. Foundation item: Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (50708084) and Wuhan Chenguang Science and Technology Project for Young Experts (20035002016-30)