Punching shear Prediction of Flat slabs Reinforced with FRP Bars

Abstract This paper presents three mathematical models to estimate the punching shear (PS) strength of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) reinforced concrete (RC) slabs under concentric punching shear. These models were developed using symbolic regression (SR), extreme gradient Boosting (XGBoost), and random forest (RF). They account for the geometrical and mechanical properties of the FRP RC flat slabs at the internal column connections in the absence of moment transfer. A comprehensive database including the test results of 204 FRP RC flat slabs from the literature is used to develop these models. The proposed models achieved good agreements with the available test results. Comparisons with the existing design expressions evidenced the reliability of the proposed models.