Mechanical Response of Two-Way Reinforced Concrete Slabs Under Combined Horizontal and Vertical Loads in Fire

The existing analytical methods lack a reasonable explanation for the cracking and deformation response mechanism of two-way reinforced concrete (RC) slabs under combined horizontal and vertical loads during a fire. In addition, there is a lack of comparative studies on different boundary conditions. Therefore, solid finite-element models were established using ABAQUS 6.14 software to simulate the behavior of two-way RC slabs under combined horizontal and vertical loads in fire. The models considered two different support conditions: four edges simply supported (FSS) and adjacent edges simply supported and adjacent edges quasi-fixed (ASSAQF). Based on experimental model verification, mechanical and parametric analyses were performed to further investigate the deflection, stress variation characteristics, and mechanical response of a concrete slab and reinforcements. The results show that (1) The stress redistribution process of two-way RC slabs under combined horizontal and vertical loads with these two support conditions (FSS and ASSAQF) during fire undergoes four stages: elastic, elastic-plastic, plastic, and tensile cracking. (2) Increasing the horizontal load, vertical load level, and length-width ratio and decreasing the slab thickness all shorten the fire resistance to a certain extent. (3) Compared to slabs with FSS, the stronger support condition of slabs with ASSAQF significantly prolongs the duration of the inverted arch effect stage, resulting in a superior fire resistance, with the fire resistance performance improved by 11-59%.