Structural and redundancy performance of power actuated fasteners as direct fastenings in fiber reinforced concrete

Abstract Currently, a wider development of modern concrete mixes in the construction industry is expected, such as concretes with alternative cement types and binders, recycled aggregates, but also concretes with dispersed fiber reinforcement to speed up our work in cutting greenhouse gases and making buildings last longer. In fact, concrete using steel or synthetic fibers is now gaining share in various applications such as industrial floors, slabs, and tunnels, and it is being introduced to the next generation of Eurocode 2. An also constantly developing fastening method is direct fastening by use of power actuated fasteners (PAFs), which offer many advantages in terms of installation speed and simplifying on‐site tasks. However, due to the significant variability in the installation and load‐bearing performance of such fasteners, particular attention needs to be given to the reliability characteristics and a redundancy‐based design approach. The objective of the presented study is to provide fundamental engineering concepts for direct fastenings and to share and discuss the experimental results on the performance of PAFs in fiber reinforced concrete. A probabilistic redundancy assessment of multiple PAFs was also conducted using MATLAB in this study to emphasize the variation in the 5% quantile of the load‐bearing capacity of PAFs when considering them in nail groups. The conclusions enable a comparative assessment for 320 tested PAFs of different fiber types and contents, allowing for useful conclusions for the design, and they provide a substantial reference for future research and applications.