Behavior of Lightweight One-Way R.C Solid Slabs Containing Polyolefin Macro-Fibers-Parametric study

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the flexural behavior of lightweight foamed reinforced concrete one-way solid slabs incorporating polyolefin macro-fibers and reinforced with steel or GFRP bars under monotonic static loading. One simply supported slab was experimentally tested to validate the numerical model, while eleven slabs were analyzed using ANSYS 15 to evaluate the influence of key parameters including reinforcement type (steel and GFRP bars), reinforcement ratio, GFRP elastic modulus, fiber content, fiber aspect ratio, and steel yield strength. All slabs have an overall depth of 100 mm, a width of 500 mm, and a total length of 1300 mm with a clear span of 1200 mm. The load was applied at one-third points of the span to simulate realistic bending conditions. The results revealed that increasing the GFRP bar diameter to 12 mm and the polyolefin fiber content to 0.2% produced the highest ultimate load increases of 66.5% and 49.6%, respectively, and reduced slab deflection by 24.6% and 5.3%, respectively. These findings demonstrate the effectiveness of combining GFRP reinforcement with polyolefin fibers in enhancing flexural performance and provide a validated numerical framework for optimizing the design of lightweight foamed concrete slabs.