Finite element modeling of UHPC slabs with dovetail joints and steel wire mesh using an innovative interfacial treating method

The joint between concrete prefabricated components is regarded as a key for structures. However, existing interfacial treatment methods in numerical simulation cannot model and predict the behavior of joint regions under various engineering conditions, leading to inaccurate results and time-consuming processes. As a continuation of the tests conducted previously, this paper presents an interface layer element method to simulate the interfacial behavior of joints between prefabricated ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) slabs that adopt dovetail joints and steel wire mesh (SWM) techniques in numerical simulation. The models that adopt both the interface layer and the conventional treating method are established and validated by previous experimental results. The results show that the method proposed can precisely simulate the overall behavior and failure mechanism of the prefabricated UHPC slabs, where the differences are less than 5%. A precise numerical model is acquired in the case of a reduction coefficient of 20% and a frictional coefficient of 1.0 for properties of the interface layer. Parametric analyses are conducted followed by to evaluate the effect of joint forms, prestressing and reinforcement on bearing capacities of the UHPC prefabricated slabs. It reveals that the dovetail joints can improve the ultimate load of the slabs by a range from 12.4% to 17.7% in comparison with the slabs with horizontal joints. Besides, both prestressing and reinforcement can enhance the bearing capacity of slabs to some extent. The conclusions can be referred for related studies.