Significant research efforts have been devoted to achieving high performance of slab – column connections subjected to lateral loading. Solutions such as using stirrups and headed studs have been shown to work well. With the development of concrete materials with enhanced properties, new possibilities have arisen to employ solutions that are easy to apply and cause less congestion of reinforcement. A total of nine tests on flat slab specimens subjected to combined gravity and lateral loading are discussed, including two new specimens with High Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete (HPFRC) over a limited region near the column. The main experimental variables were the flexural reinforcement ratio and the punching shear improvement method: none, headed studs, High Strength Concrete (HSC) or HPFRC. It is shown that excellent behavior is achieved with a relatively small amount of HPFRC, extended up to 1.5 times the effective depth of the slab from the face of the column. Punching was completely avoided until the end of the loading protocol (6% drift) for the specimens with HPFRC, whereas reference specimens without punching shear reinforcement failed at 1% drift and specimens with HSC reached 3% drifts. Additionally, the use of HPFRC led to an increased unbalanced moment transfer capacity and lateral stiffness, though this effect was more pronounced for specimens with lower flexural reinforcement ratio.

This paper presents the application of a low-cost thick-shell nonlinear finite element analysis (NLFEA) procedure to estimate the punching shear resisting performance of reinforced concrete slab-column connections under variable connection shear stress conditions. Variation of connection stress conditions stems from columns with different cross section aspect ratios, different distributions of gravity loading conditions, and slabs constructed with significantly different planar reinforcement conditions in the orthogonal directions. In this regard, thirty-five isolated slab-column connection specimens presented in the literature were analyzed using a shell finite element-based analysis procedure and the results from these analyses were used to assess NLFEA model performance. All results were developed using a predefined set of material models and analysis parameters, defined on the basis of prior and unrelated validation studies, and were shown to provide good agreement with experimental findings without the need for calibration studies or the adoption of case-specific failure criteria. From the findings obtained, it was determined that the thick-shell NLFEA employed is suitable for estimating the punching shear response for slabs subjected to varied and highly non-uniform shear stresses within the connection regions and provided similar levels of precisions as that previously obtained for isolated slab-column connections constructed with idealized geometries and reinforcing conditions, subjected to idealized loading conditions.

The design, analysis, and performance of structural concrete slabs under punching shear loading conditions are topics that have been studied extensively over many decades and are well documented in the literature. However, the majority of the work reported in these areas is generally related to conventional concrete slabs subjected to highly idealized loading conditions. Structural engineers need to find new, innovative ways and methods to design new structures but also to strengthen existing infrastructure to ensure safety, resilience, and sustainability. These challenges can be addressed through the use of integrated systems and high-performance technologically advanced materials. We live in a new era of improved computational capabilities, advances in high-performance computing, numerical and experimental methods, and data-driven techniques, which give us broader access to larger and better data sets and analysis tools. These new advancements are essential to develop deeper insights into the structural behavior of concrete slabs under punching shear and to implement and analyze new materials and loading conditions. This Special Publication presents recent punching shear research and insights relating to topics that have historically received less attention in the literature and/or are absent from existing codified design procedures. Topics addressed include: the usage and impacts of alternative/modern construction materials (new concrete and concrete-like materials, nonmetallic reinforcement systems, and combinations thereof) on slab punching shear resistance, novel shear reinforcement or strengthening systems, the influence of highly irregular/nonuniform loading and support conditions on slab punching shear, impact loading, new design and analysis techniques, and the study of the punching shear behavior of footings. This Special Publication will be of interest to designers who are often faced with punching-related design requirements that fall outside of traditional research areas and existing code provisions, as well as for researchers who are performing research in related areas. Perspectives from a broad and international group of authors are included in this Special Publication, relating to a variety of punching-related problems that occur in research and practice. In particular, researchers from the United States, Canada, Ecuador, the Netherlands, Italy, Brazil, Israel, Portugal, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, and Germany contributed to the articles in this Special Publications. To exchange views on the new materials, tests, and analysis methods related to punching, Joint ASCE-ACI Committee 421, “Design of Reinforced Concrete Slabs;” Joint ASCE-ACI Committee 445, “Shear and Torsion;” and subcommittee ACI 445-C, “Punching Shear,” organized two sessions titled “Punching shear of concrete slabs: insights from new materials, tests, and analysis methods” at the ACI Spring Convention 2023 in San Francisco, CA. This Special Publication contains several technical papers from experts who presented their work at these sessions, in addition to papers submitted for publication only. Co-editors Dr. Katerina Genikomsou, Dr. Trevor Hrynyk, and Dr. Eva Lantsoght are grateful for the contributions of the authors and sincerely value the time and effort of the authors in preparing the papers in this volume, as well as of the reviewers of the manuscripts. Aikaterini Genikomsou, Trevor Hrynyk, and Eva Lantsoght Co-editors

This paper presents an investigation of the bond performance of corrosion-free sand-coated glass fiber reinforced polymer bars (GFRP) implanted in two types of fly ash-based eco-friendly concrete. Steel reinforcement is prone to corrosion and is expensive to fix, therefore finding an effective alternative has become a must. One of these alternatives is GFRP bar. On the other hand, conventional concrete (CC) is not issueless, as it significantly affects the environment through its high-intensity CO₂ emissions. Thus, other alternatives have been looked into to mitigate the CO₂ problems. One of these alternatives is partially substituting Portland cement with another CO₂ emission-free material such as fly ash. In this study, two levels (50% and 70%) of high-volume fly ash concrete (HVFAC) were used to investigate their bond performance with GFRP bars. Cylindrical specimens were tested under the effect of pullout load. Furthermore, the bars were investigated chemically and microstructurally to see if the fly ash had some influence on the GFRP bar. For concrete, performance rank analysis was carried out to identify the best concrete mixture in terms of slump, unit weight, cost, and bond strength. In addition, to verify the experimental work, two-dimensional finite element models were built using translator elements to present the bond action between the concrete and its reinforcement. The results of the investigation showed that the bond strength of GFRP bars was less than that of mild steel owing to GFRP bar deformation. In addition, CC resulted in a higher bond strength than HVFAC. The bar analyses did not yield any obvious signs of microstructural deterioration or chemical attack.

The damage to infill walls caused by earthquakes often represents a major safety issue in reinforced concrete buildings. For this reason, masonry infill retrofit is increasingly adopted in high seismic hazard countries to increase the in-plane capacity of the walls and to avoid out-of-plane failure modes. On the other hand, the infill strengthening might significantly modify the seismic performance of the buildings, influencing the failure modes and the global ductility. Recent studies assessed that the enhancement of the in-plane strength of the infill can cause brittle failure in lightly shear reinforced columns. In this study, non-linear analyses are performed on reinforced concrete framed buildings to investigate the influence of the infill strengthening and column shear reinforcement on seismic performance. A three-dimensional numerical model is developed to assess the seismic capacity and the failure modes depending on the frame’s and infill’s details. The proposed study aims to encourage a smart design of the infill retrofit, geared toward a global performance enhancement rather than the mere strengthening of the single infill wall.