Investigations on one-way flexural behaviour of biaxial voided slab with cuboid shape void formers

Abstract

Biaxial voided slab system is an innovative slab system which is being developed and adopted all over the world. It is used as an alternate for the solid slab and reduces the self-weight up to 50 % in comparison with solid slabs without significant change in its structural performance. This type of voided slab systems consist of void formers with various shapes like spherical, donut, cuboid, etc. Experimental and numerical investigations were carried out to study the behaviour of two-way cuboid voided slab under one-way flexure. Voided slab specimens were prepared and tested with commercially available cuboid shape void former. Experimental study carried out by four-point bending test and numerical study has been carried out in finite element software DIANA 10.2. Comparison of experimental and numerical studies showed that the ultimate load carrying capacity of cuboid voided slabs were 91 % of solid slab. The reduction in flexural stiffness corresponding to yield stage was observed to be 14 % of the solid slab. Ultimately, it is found that the cuboid shape voided slabs can be used as the alternate for conventional solid slab with necessary correction for loss of cross-section caused by voids.