Abstract
The effects of steel fiber length (lf = 30 mm, 40 mm, 50 mm and 60 mm) and coarse aggregate maximum size (Dmax = 10 mm, 20 mm, 30 mm and 40 mm) on fractural properties of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) was investigated. The results show that the fracture energy (Gf) of SFRC reaches its maximum when Dmax increases to 30 mm, and it increases first and then decreases as lf increases, but it still has a significant increase compared to the control concrete. The Gf ratio increases first and then decreases as the lf/Dmax increases. The Gf of the SFRC fracture surface follows the same trend as the fractal dimension. The rational range of the lf/Dmax is 2.5–4 for the considerable strengthening effect of steel fiber on fracture performances of concrete with the Dmax of 10 mm and 20 mm and 1.5–2.33 for that concrete with the Dmax of 30 mm and 40 mm. The finite element analysis results are compared with the experimental results, and the results show that the fracture process of the finite element model is consistent with the experiment.
Highlights
Concrete often takes the form of brittle failure because of its high brittleness [1].Adding steel fiber to concrete has the effect of strengthening and toughening because it could limit the expansion of internal microcracks and the development of macrocracks [2,3].steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) is widely used in many fields such as pavement, hydraulic structure, civil construction, port and so on [4].Han et al [5,6,7,8,9,10] found that the tensile strength of concrete is affected more significantly by steel fiber than the compressive strength
It increases as the volume fraction of steel fiber increases, and flexural tensile failure of specimens requires much energy, improving the flexural tensile strength of concrete [11,12,13]
The results show that the fracture toughness and Gf of concrete increase with the increase in the coarse aggregate maximum size [16,17,18,19,20,21] and volume fraction [22,23]
Summary
Han et al [5,6,7,8,9,10] found that the tensile strength of concrete is affected more significantly by steel fiber than the compressive strength. It increases with the increase in volume fraction of steel fiber. The larger coarse aggregate makes the uniform dispersion of steel fibers in the concrete plays a detrimental role, and the bending toughness of SFRC is affected. The smaller the coarse aggregate maximum size, the better the working properties of concrete
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