Post-Earthquake Fire Punching Shear Behavior of GFRP-Reinforced Slab-Column Connections

Abstract

It is not uncommon for reinforced concrete slab-column assembly to experience a punching brittle shear failure type under seismic loading. This research work numerically investigates the punching shear behavior of interior GFRP-reinforcedslab-column connections under post-earthquake fire. Two experimental results reported in the article were used for validation analysis using ANSYS nonlinear finite element software program. Further, parametric studies on influential variables such as fire exposure duration, concrete grade, slab thickness, fire exposed surface, and column aspect ratio were performed to get insight into the post-earthquake fire behavior of GFRP-reinforcedslab-column connections. Finite element analysis results showed decreasing fire exposure duration, enhancing grades of concrete, increasing slab thickness, minimizing fire exposure surfaces, and increasing column aspect ratio, which improved the punching shear capacity of GFRP-reinforced slab columns. Moreover, increasing slab thickness provided good performance against post-earthquake fire loading as compared to enhancing concrete grades in GFRP-reinforcedslab-column assemblies. The research concludes that it is crucial to take post-earthquake fire into account when designing structures to ensure no collapse safety design requirements.