Effects of steel fibers on flexural strength and impact resistance for self-consolidating concrete plates

Abstract

Self-Consolidating Concrete (SCC) can be considered as a major innovative satiric expansion in the future of concrete materials and technology during the recent three decades. It has evolved to make adequate compaction with easy concrete placement in constructions, which have overcrowded the restricted zones and reinforcement. This research aims to experimentally study the effect of steel fibers volumetric ratio (Vf ) and effect of chicken wire in enhancement of the behavior of the normal strength SCC. Two types of SCC concrete mixes were prepared and cast for this purpose. One of them was normal strength SSC to serve as a reference mix, while 0.75 % of steel fibers was used in the second one. Slump-flow test, L-box, J-ring and V-funnel tests had been done to investigate the properties of fresh SCC. Compressive strength of the reference SCC was about (33.5MPa) and for 0.75% steel fibers SCC was about (39.7MPa). In addition to that, six identical plate’s specimens of (400×400×20) mm were cast and tested to study the effect of steel fibers and chicken wire on the impact load resistance and flexural load of SCC. Results show that the impact load resistance for steel fibers SCC concrete had been increased by about 60% compared with the reference normal strength SCC mix, while an increase in impact load resistance for SCC of about 50% was gained by using chicken wire mesh. It was noted that the use of 0.75% steel fibers-SCC and chicken wire-SCC plates show an increase in impact resistance and flexural strength by about 20% and 2% compared to the reference normal strength SCC, respectively. The results also indicate that using steel fibers is useful in holding up the formation of transverse cracks and providing affirmative restraint to the successive growth of cracks of plate’s specimens.