Bearing Capacity of Hingeless Circular Arches Made of Concrete and Fiber Concrete Under Hydrostatic Pressure

Abstract

The authors presented a numerical and experimental study of the bearing capacity of circular concrete and fiber concrete arches The authors made a stand to determine the bearing capacity of arches models under hydrostatic pressure. The hingeless arches were made of C16/20 concrete; one arch was made of unreinforced concrete, and the second arch had 1% steel anchor fiber added to the mix. ANSYS software was used for computer modeling and numerical analysis by the finite element method. When testing the concrete arch, the breaking load was 710 kN, and when testing the fiber concrete arch, it was 810 kN, that is, the bearing capacity of the fiber concrete arch determined experimentally was 1.13 times higher. The results of experimental and numerical investigations agree well with each other and with the results of theoretical calculations. Comparison of normal stresses in the experiment determined at strain gauge points with their theoretical values gives a maximum discrepancy of 9.6 % for the concrete arch and 9.2 % for the fiber concrete one. It is recommended to increase the load-bearing capacity of the structure by means of a more uniform dispersed reinforcement of the arch.