Experimental Investigation of the Flexural Behavior of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete

Abstract

This research study is conducted to investigate the flexural behaviour of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) prisms incorporating different types and volume fractions of steel fibers, various grades of concrete, and different specimen depths, all tested under displacement control mode using four-point loading configuration. Two types of steel fibers (hooked end and straight) were incorporated into the concrete mixes at two different dosages (1% and 2%). Concrete mixes with compressive strengths of 40, 50, and 70 MPa were used to cast the samples. Specimen depth was also among the test variables, where prisms of depth 100, 150 and 200 mm were tested to study the size effect on the flexural behaviour of SFRC. Test results indicated that for the straight-end steel fibers, the increase in the fiber volume fraction from 1 to 2% had a noticeable effect on both flexural strength (or Modulus of Rupture, MOR) and associated prism mid-span deflection. However, for the hooked end steel fibers, there was only a limited increase in the same measured values due to reduced workability of the SFRC fresh mix. The test results also have shown that the increase in the concrete compressive strength had only a modest effect on the average MOR value, but a noticeable effect on average mid-span deflection at peak load. The latter was attributed to the relatively long length and the hooked end geometry of the steel fibers. Finally, test results revealed that specimen depth had an impact on the measured flexural strength, where increase in specimen depth was associated with reduced MOR values, a phenomenon that is commonly referred to in the literature as size effect.