SHEAR CAPACITY FOR PRESTRESSED-PREFABRICATED HOLLOW

CORE CONCRETE SLABS,WITHOUT SHEAR REINFORCEMENT

PINTEA Augustin,
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, e-mail: augustinpintea@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT
Eurocode 2 presents a design method for formulating the capacity against shear effort, a method that standard EN 1168:2005 +
A3:2011 puts to use for preventing web shear failure of hollow core prestressed-prefabricated concrete slabs. But this method has
the drawback of ignoring the shear efforts owing to the transfer of the prestressing force. The results gathered from testing FGP
200 and FGP 320 prefabricated hollow core slabs indicates that this method should not be used when designing prestressed-
prefabricated hollow core slabs that lack shear reinforcement, due to the large overestimating nature of this practice when
considering web shear resistance.

Keywords: Eurocode 2, shear capacity, pretensioning, critical point

Received: January 2012

Accepted: January 2012
Revised: March 2012
Available online: May 2012

INTRODUCTION
As mentioned in European Standard EN 1168:2005 + A3:2011 [1], adopted by CT321-
Concrete and prefabricated concrete products technical committee to be the equivalent romanian
standard; these type of slabs can be used as structural elements within buildings or other types of
civil engineering jobs,excepting bridges. In case of structural elements for buildings, they have
perfect usability as floors, roofs, and also type F and G vehicle zones which are not subjected to
strain stress and are in accordance with EN 1991-1-1 standard.The certification process applied for
assessing the conformity of prestressed-prefabricated hollow core concrete slabs, regarding
essential characteristics, 2 +, states that: For the intended use of these slabs, the certification
process has to be based on the conformity evaluation procedure resulted from the application of
articles within this European standard. This procedure forsees that, the resistance to shear failure
obtained from calculus has to be confirmed afterwards by physical testing of full scale models
conformable to article 4.3.3.3, and in accordance with standard appendix J. Article 6.2.2. Initial
type testing try-outs, specifies the following observation; to confirm the good working order of
production equipment, the criteria checking from J5, needs the calculation of shear stress capacity,
indifferent of the presence or absence of mechanical resistance properties declaration by the
manufacturer that intends to introduce these products to market.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The mechanical resistance of hollow core prestressed-prefabricated concrete slabs can only
be checked at this stage of European standardisation process by using the calculus method;
nevertheless a good working order of the production equipment is imperative, because the concrete
properties used as entry data for the calculation of the resistance to shear failure depends on it.
Due to certain product specifications (the lack of transversal reinforcement) , a few additional
calculus rules are needed to EN 1992-1-1: 2004[2] method. On top of that, researching done on
extruded hollow core prestressed-prefabricated concrete slabs led to specific calculus rules, used on
a large scale, but not yet integrated in EN 1992-1-1:2004[2].
1. Shear Capacity
For extruded hollow core prestressed-prefabricated concrete slabs without web shear
reinforcement, the resistance to shearing stress of cracked sections resulted from slab deflection, are
calculated based on the following expressions (6.2a) and (6.2b) taken from EN 1992-1-1:2004[2]:
1
VRd , c = CRd , c k (100 1 f ck )3 + k1 cp bw d (1)

with a minimum value of:

VRd , c = (Vmin + k1 cp )bw d (2)
In the uncracked areas after the bending force is applied(where tensile strength resulted from
0,05
deflection is smaller than f ctk ), the shearing force capacity is limited through the tensile
c
strength of concrete. In these areas, the shearing force is calculated using the following expression
(6.4.) from EN 1992-1-1:2004[2]:
Ib
VRd , c = w ( f ctd ) + 1 cp f ctd
2
(3)
S
But, expression (3) has the drawback of not taking in consideration the shearing stress
resulted from transfer of prestressing force. Such a stress cannot be ignored and for this reason the
figure presented below ilustrates its effect. If there is no contact between A and B:

a) before release b) after release

Fig.1. Detaching manner for the two pieces of a hollow core slab (bottom and upper pieces),
when shearing stress is missing at the release of the prestressing force [9]

The bottom part of the hollow core slab tends to contract at the release of the prestressing
force; and because the bottom piece of the slab is connected to the upper one, there has to be a
shearing stress which keeps them together. This means that the design method for shearing stress
capacity presented in Eurocode 2, (which deals with web shear failure prevention due to applied
shear stress on the prestressed-prefabricated hollow core concrete slabs without a shear
reinforcement) is ignoring the shearing stress at the release of the prestressing force. However, in
the web of a prestressed hollow core slab the nature of stress is essentially two-dimensional; and
because the compressive principal stress being relatively small, its effect on the transversal tensile
strength is also small. Due to a short design length, lack of shear reinforcement and absence of
stiffening to prevent flexural strain; in these prestressed-prefabricated hollow core concrete slabs, a
diagonal shear crack in the web close to the support zone principially needs a failure.
Thereby a failure criterion is formulated like this:
I = f ct (4)
where: I is obtained from the following expression:
 2

I = + + 2 (5)
2 2
The vertical normal stress resulted from support pressure is taken into consideration in such a
way, that the applied failure condition is not to close to the support area, where vertical stress
component is effective and reduces I . When choosing the failure criterion, beside the maximum
principal stress, we have other principal types of stresses too, so the question about calculating the
maximum principal stress arises. Two-dimensional elastic linear analyses entails knowing how the
transfer of prestressing force is done from the tendons to the concrete.
1.1. Shear capacity, according to CP 110
The British Code of Practice CP110, [6], recommends the use of following expression, when
calculating the shear resistance of a web:
b I
Vc = w w f ct 0,8 cp f ct
2
(6)
Sw
P
cp = (7)
A
1.2. Shear capacity according to Walraven and Mercx
Walraven and Mercx proposed a similar formula for calculating web shear resistance, their
work entitled The bearing capacity of prestressed hollow core slabs [7] addresses this subject in
more detail:
b I
f ct cp f ct
2
Vc = 0,75 w (8)
S
with 0,75 being the calibration factor.
The difference between these two approaches, is that I and S are calculated for the whole
transversal cross-section, taking the prestressing force at the inner edge of the support.
n
1 (Yc y )(Yc Ypt ) M
cp ( y ) = + Pt (l x ) Ed (Yc y ) (9)
t =1 Ai l l
- possitive if there is compression, while Y is the height of the critical point situated on the
fracture line.
Eurocode 2 has adopted expression (8) under the following form:
b I
VRd , c = w ( f ct ) 2 + 1 cp f ct (10)
S
Expression (10) is equivalent with expressions (4) and (5), when the shearing effort in the
considered point , cp is calculated this way:
1 Scp
cp = V (11)
bw I
According to this expression the maximum shearing effort, and as a result the maximum
principal stress have the highest values when:
S cp
has the maximum value
bw
In the case of hollow core slabs with rounded or oval inner voids, the maximum principal
stress is obtained at the centroidal axis of the transversal cross-section, or very near to it.
1.3. Shear capacity according to Yang
In the case of one tendon layer, Yang [8] proposed the following expression for the calculus
of shearing stress:
1 Acp Scp e dP Scp
= + V (12)
bw A I dx I
The first term of the afore mentioned expression:
1 Acp Scp e dP
t = (13)
bw A I dx
its attributable to the transfer of prestressing force. And if this term leads to the expression (11),
then expression (13) suggest the fact that the maximum shear stress doesnt necessarily have the
positioning in the vicinity of centroided axis.
The maximum principal stress may be positioned in other places on the slab. As a
consequence the horizontal normal stress, for one tendon layer slabs, is calculated as follows:
P Pe + M
= + z (14)
A I
According to SR EN 1168:2005 + A3:2011 standard, the critical point is situated on a straight
line that forms a = 35 o degree angle with the horizontal axis. This line has its origin at the edge of
the support flange and VRd ,c expression has the lowest value.
Concerning the FGP 320 hollow core slabs(with non circular voids), the critical point was
situated a little lower than the point of intersection between the flat web and the inferior support
flange.

Fig.2. Location of critical point for FGP 320 slab

Geometrical symbols for the FGP 320 slab are illustrated in next figure:

Fig.3. The illustration of geometrical parameters of the considered

transversal cross-section for the FGP 320 slab

The effective web width depends on zcp and it is obtained from:

 bw = bwi ( zcp ) (15)
i

RESULTS
The slab try-outs were executed in order to obtain experimental data,which will be compared
afterwards with the data from design stage. All this effort is done in order to certify tested
specimens (by certain certification organizations) to become fully legal and market available
products. During these try-outs it has been carefully observed the way in which elements behave at
limit states like: SLEN, SLR, SLU. Within those limit states, the moment when the first cracks
appear, the closure and reopening of these cracks, the equivalent deflection and the manner of
breaking (slippage and breaking of inner strands/tendons or because of web failure due to crushing
of concrete) are of critical importance to this study. Analysing the resulted experimental data, the
following observations have been reported:
- under working loads, the deflection at the middle of the span, has smaller values than
those accepted;
- after unloading the slabs, the reopening of initial cracks only occur after adequate
loading at resistant limit state; because under working loads the cracks remained closed;
- under working loads, the slabs showed no evidence of fissurations; the cracks only
appeared after exposing the slabs to greater load values than those taken from calculus stage;
- the critical point was situated a little lower than the point of intersection between the flat
web and the inferior support flange(where the web has the minimum thickness).

In Romania, an extruded hollow core prestressed-prefabricated concrete slabs production unit

was homologated and put into service, at S.C ASA CONS ROMANIA S.R.L. TURDA.

Fig.4. Manufacturing stages for the extruded FGP 200 and FGP 320 slabs
(Photo: Pintea Augustin, 2011)
CONCLUSIONS
Equation (6.4) from Eurocode 2 presents a method for designing a slab against web shear
failure, but just for web elements that dont have a shear reinforcement. This method is also utilised
for hollow core prestressed-prefabricated concrete slabs lacking transversal reinforcement.
Based on the results from testing,Yangs design method for web shearing capacity of hollow
core prestressed-prefabricated concrete slabs is considerable better fitting testing results, compared
to Eurocode 2 method. Due to this substantially improved method of designing a slab against web
shear failure, and because of its accuracy, Yangs method should altogether replace Eurocode 2
method. Eurocode 2 method should never be used without a reduction factor in the case of hollow
core slabs with flat webs, and its applicability on other types of hollow core slabs should be
checked vigorously before using them, either numerically, or experimentally.

REFERENCES
1. *** SR EN 1168:2005 + A3:2011 Prefabricated concrete products. Hollow core slabs.
2. *** SR EN 1992-1-1:2004 Eurocode 2: Design of concrete structures Part 1-1: General rules and rules
for buildings.
3. *** SR EN 1992-1-1:2004/AC:2008 Eurocode 2: Design of concrete structures Part 1-1: General
rules and rules for buildings.
4. *** SR EN 1992-1-1:2004/NB:2008 Eurocode 2: Design of concrete structures Part 1-1: General rules
and rules for buildings national attachment.
5. *** SR EN 1992-1-1:2004/NB:2008/A91:2009 Eurocode 2: Design of concrete structures Part 1-1:
General rules and rules for buildings national attachment.
6. *** CP 110 The British Code of Practice.
7. WALRAVEN, J.C. & MERCX, W.P.M. (1983), The bearing capacity of prestressed hollow core labs.
Heron.
8. YANG, L. (1994), Design of Prestressed hollow core Slabs with Reference to Web Shear Failure. ASCE
Journal of Structural Engineering.
9. MATTI PAJARI (2005), Resistance of prestressed hollow core slabs against web shear failure. Espoo.