Assessment of Punching Shear Strength of Fiber-reinforced Concrete Flat Slabs Using Factorial Design of Experiments.

Design of experiments (DOE) is a systematic process that allows the investigator to design a set of experiments and study the effect of each factor on a response variable. This research proposes an application of DOE to maximize the reinforced concrete flat slabs' punching shear strength using macro-synthetic fibers. An experimental program was developed using a two-level factorial (2k) design in which three input factors; namely, fiber content, flat slab thickness and steel reinforcement ratio, were varied at two levels. The experimental program included seventeen concrete flat slabs of 1500 x 1500 mm. The main and interaction effects of these factors on the punching shear strength of the fiber-reinforced concrete (FRC) flat slabs were investigated. Using different techniques, such as main effect plots, Pareto chart, interaction plot, normal probability plot and analysis of variance (ANOVA), the experiments were analyzed to determine the significant factors. The results revealed that the flat slab thickness is the most significant factor affecting the punching shear strength of the FRC flat slabs. In addition, a linear regression model was developed to predict the punching shear strength of FRC flat slabs in terms of the most significant factors. The developed model is reliable for further prediction as high R² values were achieved. The developed model was validated using previous experimental data from the literature. Results have shown that the model is adequate in predicting the experimental punching shear capacity with a coefficient of variation of 0.18. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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