Numerical study on concentrated load capacity of chosen HC floors

Precast prestressed hollow core floors are able to distribute concentrated loads due to the presence of cast on site joints and torsional stiffness of individual units. By considering this phenomenon in design, the directly loaded element is able to withstand loads much higher than in case of a single element analysis. The current design method provided by European Standard EN 1168 as well as different analytical methods can provide results that do not fully represent the actual performance of the floor. Due to that fact that a sparse amount of experimental data on full scale floor exists, out of which just a handful is documented well, the results of code provisions and analytical models are difficult to evaluate. Based on previous numerical analyses, validated by existing experimental data, numerical models of three hollow core floors were prepared which were used to design new experiments on full scale hollow core floors. Analysis focuses on the Ultimate Limit State of the HC floors, obtained failure loads are compared to single element results and with the results of the EN 1168 standard calculations.