Effect of Fiber Length on Direct Tensile and Impact Strength of Cmentitious Materials Containing Silica Fume

Abstract

This study is aimed to evaluate the tensile strength and impact resistance of cementitious materials which comprise steel fibers and silica fume in the mixes. Material variables include water-binder ratio, dosage of silica fume, steel fiber length and dosage. A designed tensile strength was used to perform the direct tensile in this study. Test results indicate that the compressive strength, splitting tensile strength and direct tensile strength of specimens for fiber length of 60 mm are higher than that of 35 mm. The inclusion of fibers in specimens containing silica fume has higher compressive and tensile strength; and lower impact resistance than the specimens made with silica fume. Incorporation of steel fiber and silica fume in composites achieves significantly higher increase in compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and direct tensile strength than only individual use of steel fiber or silica fume and decrease in impact resistance than only individual use of steel fiber. Finally, the proposed direct tensile testing method is suitable for determining the tensile strength of fiber reinforce cementitious materials and generating the tensile stress-strain curves easily.