Punching of Self-Compacting High Strength Reinforced Concrete Flat Slabs at Edge Column

Abstract

Flat slabs are widely used as structural system due to several advantages such as easier formwork, shorter construction time which results in significant savings in construction cost, less overall height of individual floors in a multi-storey building creating additional floor space for a given height, and architectural flexibility. However they are sensitive to punching shear failure where the column along with a surrounding part of the slab suddenly punches through the remainder of the slab which is characterized by its brittleness. An experimental program has been carried out at the Concrete Research Laboratory at Ain Shams University in Cairo to investigate the effect of the different parameters on punching shear strength where six specimens were casted, two of them made of normal strength concrete and the other four made of self-compacting high strength concrete. The parameters investigated were type of concrete, presence of shear reinforcement, column aspect ratio and dimensions. The experimental results were compared with theoretical finite element model results and with various code provisions.