FLEXURAL DESIGN OF REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAMS INCORPORATING STEEL FIBERS. FIBRE REINFORCED CEMENTS AND CONCRETES: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS. PROCEEDINGS OF AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE HELD AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES, COLLEGE OF CARDIFF, SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING, UNITED KINGDOM, SEPTEMBER 18-20, 1989

A refined flexural analysis procedure was developed for concrete beams reinforced with both steel fibers and longitudinal steel bars. This analysis procedure was verified using the available test results, and it was used to perform an analytical parametric study on the flexural performance characteristics of fibrous reinforced concrete beams. The results were indicative of the effectiveness of steel fibers in facilitating the use of high-strength materials and in relaxing the constraints on maximum tension steel ratio and minimum compression steel requirements for ensuring the ductility of flexural failure in reinforced concrete beams. A simplified method of flexural design was developed based on the refined flexural analysis results. This design method consists of idealized flexural strain and stress distributions at failure, and it accounts for the effects of fiber reinforcements on the ductility of flexural failure. The developed flexural design guidelines were verified using a relatively large number of test results reported in the literature for fibrous reinforced concrete beams.(A) For the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD 827953.