Behavior of Steel Fibre Reinforced Concrete Beams and Plates Under Static Load

Abstract

Concrete structures are often subjected to various types of static and dynamic forces. Fibre reinforcement improves the behaviour of reinforced concrete plates and beams. Experimental investigations were made to study static behaviour of 36 specimen of steel fibre reinforced concrete plates and 6 specimen of R.C.C Plates. Variables considered are percentage volume of fractions of steel fibres, aspect ratio and the thickness of plates. The two different end conditions are: i) two opposite sides fixed and two opposite sides free, and ii) four sides fixed for central concentrated load under static monotonic loading conditions. The observations of crack width, crack pattern, load vs deflection, strain measurements were studied. The ductility increases of the order of 65% to 80% in the case of beams with steel fibre contents 0.5% and 0.75%, respectively. When the fibre content is increased to 1% the ductility increases in the order of two and a half times irrespective of the aspect ratio of the fibres. Provision of 1% steel fibre content increases the stiffness of the plates substantially irrespective of whether the plate is fixed on two sides or on four sides. Stiffness also increases over two and a half times when the plate thickness is 30 mm. Addition of steel fibres increases the stiffness by 25% for plates fixed on four sides and 18% for plates fixed on two sides. Steel fibre reinforced concrete plates and beams exhibited smaller crack width compared with R.C.C. DOI = 10.3860/jrsce.v4i3.630 Journal of Research in Science, Computing, and Engineering 4 :3 (2007), pp. 11-28