Energy absorption potential of concrete floors containing secondary (shrinkage and temperature) reinforcements

This paper experimentally investigates the energy absorption potential of two types of concrete floors, namely, normal density concrete and structural low-density concrete, containing secondary (shrinkage and temperature) reinforcements. The test program considered the following secondary reinforcements: 1) traditional welded-wire steel mesh, 2) steel fiber and 3) poly composite fiber. To estimate the extent to which crushing of floor slab materials would help absorb energy, a series of concrete penetration tests employing patch loading was undertaken on scaled down model slabs. Each concrete-secondary reinforcement combination considered slabs of 50 mm in depth with square plan dimensions ranging from 50 to 500 mm, resulting in a total of 30 test specimens. The first part of the paper discusses the test specimens, the test setup, and the test procedure. The second part of the paper presents the experimental results and establishes the energy absorption of different concrete-secondary reinforcement combinations. Sieve analysis results of the crushed specimens were used to derive a “work index” value that relates the pulverized particle size distributions to energy inputs. The work index values of concrete-secondary reinforcement systems can be used to assess the energy dissipation potential associated with such floor slabs in buildings undergoing progressive collapse. The results indicate that floors with secondary reinforcements could play an important role in helping arrest global progressive collapse.