Comparative Analysis of the Bearing Capacity and Cracking of Reinforced Concrete and Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Cylindrical Shells

The paper outlines a method for comparative analysis of the load-bearing capacity and crack formation of reinforced concrete and fiber-reinforced concrete cylindrical shells based on experimental studies. To implement this task, the authors have developed a special stand. The results of tests of reinforced concrete and fiber-reinforced concrete cylindrical shells, which had the same geometric parameters, are presented. The fiber-reinforced concrete shell had additional dispersed reinforcement with steel fiber with curved ends, which was added at the stage of mixing the concrete mixture in an amount of 1% by volume of concrete. The shells were hinged at four points and loaded with a vertical distributed load applied along four strips, each 13 cm wide, and only along the body of the shell. The load-bearing capacity of the reinforced concrete shell was 101.6 kN, and the first crack appeared at a load of 64.5 kN, which is 63.48% of the load-bearing capacity. Before the loss of bearing capacity, 10 cracks with the same initial opening width of 0.05 mm had formed in the shell. The load-bearing capacity of the fiber-reinforced concrete shell was 149.9 kN, and the first crack appeared at a load of 74.9 kN, which is 49.97% of the load-bearing capacity. Before the loss of bearing capacity, 12 cracks with the same initial opening width of 0.05 mm had formed in the shell. The load-bearing capacity of the fiber-reinforced concrete shell turned out to be 1.48 times greater than that of the reinforced concrete shell.