Influence of the Flow of Self-Compacting Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete on the Fiber Orientations, a Report on Work in Progress

Abstract

This paper presents a report about work in progress of research on the influence of the flow of SCFRC on the fiber orientations. Mechanical properties of the short steel fiber reinforced cementitious materials mostly depend on the fiber orientation and spatial dispersion. Many studies have shown that it is possible to achieve the desired fiber orientation by optimizing the parameters of rheological properties or the casting process. In order to improve the key mechanical properties, multiple statistical experiments with various factors are needed. This paper analyzes the influence of casting velocity and formwork surface quality on the fiber distribution and orientation. A suitable technique for our method was to replace Steel Fiber Reinforced Self-Compacting Concrete (SFRSCC) by a transparent polymer with similar rheological properties as SFRSCC. Preliminary analysis of the experimental results shows that the fibers tend to orient mostly perpendicular to the flow direction and turn their orientation longitudinally near the walls. Experiments showed that the fiber spatial distribution was affected by the casting velocity. Faster casting velocities provided more preferable homogeneous distribution. Moreover, the roughness of the bottom of the formwork demonstrated some influence on the fiber orientations but no significant impact on the spatial dispersion. In addition, we used the image analysis method to estimate fiber orientation and distribution.