Steel Fibre Performance in Concrete with Expansive Additives under Restrained Hardening Conditions

Abstract

Steel moulds in the form of a rigid cubical shell were developed in order to investigate single steel fibre pull-out resistance in concrete with expansive additive under restrained hardening conditions. The cubical shell (100 x 100 x 100 mm) with wall thickness of 5 mm was designed with two openings – a small 4 mm hole for fibre embedment in concrete and a larger opening for filling the concrete. Standard beam (100 x 100 x 400 mm) and cube (150 x 150 x 150 mm) samples were also manufactured and hardened under and without restrained conditions, where the restraint was realised by rigid standard steel moulds. All the restrained conditions realized by either the developed cubical steel shell (for single fibre pull-out) or existing beam and cube moulds simulate internal (from steel fibres in concrete) and external (from friction against sub-base) restraints that hinder expansion of the concrete due to the use of special expansive additives in a flooring slab structure installed on ground. Samples with a single hooked-end steel fibre (50 mm long and 0.75 mm in diameter), with and without expansive additive were manufactured and tested in the developed mould geometry. The results show that restrained expansion in concrete with expansive additives positively affects concrete compressive strength, single fibre pull-out and flexural behaviour. Concrete compressive strength increases by 7.5 %, single fibre delamination resistance increases by 24 %, the peak pull-out load by 10.8 % while the flexural strength increases by 3.1 %.