Preparation and mechanical performance of annularly aligned steel fiber reinforced cement-based composite pipes

Abstract

Abstract Concrete pipes are widely used in municipal structures and vulnerable to cracking and leakage when subjected to external load. To improve the mechanical properties and hence increase the cracking resistance of the pipe, steel fiber reinforced cement-based composite pipe specimens with steel fibers annularly distributed along the circumferential direction of the pipe were prepared. In the preparation of the annularly aligned steel fiber reinforced cement-based composite (ASFRC) pipe specimens, an external circular magnetic field was applied to the fresh mixture of the steel fiber reinforced cement-based composite to drive the steel fibers rotating to the circumferential direction of the pipe when the mixture was compacted. The three-edge-bearing strength and ductility of the ASFRC and ordinary steel fiber reinforced cement-based composite (SFRC) pipes were tested and compared. The results showed that annularly aligned steel fibers can effectively improve the load carrying capacity and ductility of the pipe specimens, which can be attributed to the higher orientation efficiency factor of the steel fibers and the increase in the number of steel fibers on fractured section of ASFRC pipe specimens.