Construction and Building Materials 168 (2018) 556–569

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Evaluation of mechanical properties of steel fiber reinforced concrete

with different strengths of concrete
Wasim Abbass, M. Iqbal Khan ⇑, Shehab Mourad
Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, King Saud University, P. O. Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia

h i g h l i g h t s

Direct tension, comp and flexural strengths with various fiber volume fractions.

Fibers of various lengths and diameters used for various concrete strengths.

Fiber contents and lengths caused significant effect on the mechanical properties.

Proposed analytical model showed good agreement with the experimental results.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Concrete has high brittleness along with low tensile strength and tensile strain capacities. Such unsatis-
Received 14 October 2017 factory performance can be improved with the addition of steel fibers in concrete. Steel fiber reinforced
Received in revised form 7 February 2018 concrete (SFRC) has gained popularity in the last decades because of its superior performance. Its main
Accepted 21 February 2018
advantages include hindrance in macro crack propagation, prevention of growth of micro cracks to
macroscopic level, improvement in ductility and residual strength after formation of the first crack,
and high toughness. This study investigates the effect of adding steel fibers with different lengths and
Keywords:
diameters on the mechanical properties of concrete for three values of concrete strength. In this study,
High strength concrete
Steel fibers
hooked ended fibers of three lengths (40, 50, and 60 mm) and two diameters (0.62 and 0.75 mm) were
Fiber content used with three water-to-cement ratios (0.25, 0.35, and 0.45). Steel fibers were added with three volume
Mechanical properties fractions, 0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5%. Thirty concrete mixes were prepared and investigated. The results indi-
cated that the addition of different content and lengths of steel fibers with increasing water-to-cement
ratios caused significant change in the mechanical properties of concrete, with an increase of about
10–25% in compressive strength and about 31–47% in direct tensile strength. The increase in the fiber
content from 0.5% to 1.5% increased the flexural strength from 3% to 124% for fiber with the smaller
aspect ratio of 65, whereas, for the higher aspect ratio of 80, a 140% increase in the flexural strength
was observed compared to the concrete without any fibers. With the consideration of steel fibers of dif-
ferent lengths and diameters, an analytical model for stress strain relationship of fiber reinforced con-
crete under compression is proposed. There is good agreement between the proposed model and the
experimental results.
Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction reinforced concrete plays a significant role in developing modern

Construction of high-rise buildings, long span bridges, and off-
shore structures has made steel fibers important in improving
the properties of concrete such as strength, toughness, energy
absorption capacity, and durability. The addition of steel fibers in
high performance concrete (HPC) can improve the brittle behavior
and the energy absorption capacity [1–5]. Hence, steel fiber
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: miqbal@ksu.edu.sa (M.I. Khan).
concrete technology, which represents a new class of construction
concrete. In recent years, extensive research performed to explore
the use of steel fiber in producing high strength fiber reinforced
concrete (HSFRC). The comparison between mechanical properties
of high strength fiber reinforced concrete has been presented [6].
The addition of hook end steel fiber with different aspect ratio
and crimped round steel fibers in concrete has influenced the com-
pressive and split tensile strength and it was found that both the
fibers at different levels for same mix has affected both properties
[7]. Split cylinder tensile and flexural strength increased up to 30%

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.02.164
0950-0618/Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 W. Abbass et al. / Construction and Building Materials 168 (2018) 556–569
as compared to plain concrete for different contents of steel fibers
[8]. Effect of steel fibers in combination with coarse aggregate was
investigated on the compressive and flexural toughness of high
strength concrete. The results indicated that the mechanical prop-
erties of high strength fiber reinforced concrete are volume frac-
tion of aggregate and both compressive strength and flexural
toughness are significantly influenced with increase in fiber con-
tent [9]. Results indicated that the HRWRA fiber reinforced light-
weight aggregate concrete showed considerable improvement in
compressive, splitting, flexural strengths, impact resistance, static
modulus of elasticity, and Poisson’s ratio at 60 and 90 d of curing,
compared to the fiber reinforced lightweight aggregate concrete
without HRWRA. Increase in the fiber content improves both the
peak load and the post cracking behavior of concrete [10–13]. Con-
versely, the same parameter related to properties of fiber such as
aspect ratio, shape, modulus of elasticity, and the bond between
fiber and cement matrix, affects the overall mechanical behavior
of the material [14,15]. High strength fibers with different contents
were found to have positive effect on the mechanical properties of
the high strength concrete [16]. Steel fibers with hook ends were
recommended to be used for further studies for better workability
and were reported to increase the ductility [16]. Experiments were
conducted to investigate the effect of bond of hook end steel fibers
on the different strengths of the concrete and results revealed that
with the increase in strength of matrix, peak pullout load and post
peak pullout load was increased [17]. The influence of adding fibers
on the properties of concrete, such as compressive strength, tough-
ness, post cracking load resistance, tensile strength, and durability,
had been investigated and improvement in mechanical properties
of concrete using different fibers had been reported [18–20]. The
effect of the fiber aspect ratio on the mechanical properties of con-
crete and optimal value of the aspect ratio for strength had been
reported [21]. Beyond a certain value of aspect ratio of 60, ductility
increased rather than the strength of concrete with the addition of
steel fibers.
Steel fiber high reinforced concrete had been reported for the
improved ductile response of structural members [19]. Steel fibers
in high strength concrete had been used to limit the development
of macro cracks in concrete elements. The addition of fibers had
also affected the high residual concrete strength after the appear-
ance of first crack and had increased the toughness [22]. Results
indicated that the strain capacity and the post peak ductility of
concrete improved after using steel fibers, with the fiber content
of 1% found to be the minimum limiting value for significant
improvement in the flexural response of concrete. Higher compres-
sive strength led to lower ductility under flexural loading [23].
Experimental work had been carried out to investigate the effect
of the fiber volume content on the mechanical properties of HPC
[24]. The post peak behavior of HPC significantly improved by
the inclusion of the steel fibers. In addition, increase in the fiber
volume content had significant effect on the properties of HPC
[24]. Investigation had been reported on the mechanical properties
of concrete with different grades using different content of fibers
[25]. The increase in the fiber volume content had increased the
mechanical properties of the concrete. In addition, predictive mod-
els were presented for the mechanical properties of fiber rein-
forced concrete using different fiber volume contents [25].
As discussed above, the mechanical properties of SFRC are
mainly dependent upon fiber parameter, fiber content, matrix
strength, and fiber matrix interaction. Although extensive research
is being conducted on steel fiber reinforced concrete, however, lim-
ited work has been done regarding different strengths of concrete
and the use of different sizes of fibers with various aspect ratios,
lengths, and contents. The research work available in the literature
mostly deals either with small fiber lengths or with a single fiber
aspect ratio. In addition, most of the published studies are related
557
to either normal strength concrete or high strength concrete and
show the relationship between the compressive strength and the
split tensile strength of SFRC, without any data on the direct tensile
strength. However, there is still contradiction in such relationships
[25–29]. Perumal [29] and Xu and Shi [26] have reported that the
flexural strength and the indirect tensile strength have nonlinear
relationship, whereas Nataraja et al. [28] has suggested that flexu-
ral strength and indirect tensile strength are linearly correlated.
Therefore, the correlations reported in the literature for large sets
of data for the SFRC and HSFRC are not clear. Hence, an investiga-
tion of the relationships of the flexural strength, the tensile
strength, and the compressive strength of SFRC and HSFRC by col-
lecting a large set of data is required.
An effort has been made in this research to investigate the
effects of different fiber parameters, which can vary simultane-
ously, on the mechanical properties of concrete with different
strengths. This paper presents the effects of adding steel fibers
with different contents, lengths, and diameters on the mechanical
properties of concrete with different water-cement. The main aim
of this research was to provide comprehensive information on the
mechanical properties of steel fiber reinforced concrete by consid-
ering significant parameters of both concrete and fibers. The rela-
tionships among different basic mechanical properties of fiber
reinforced concrete are developed and compared with the findings
from other researchers. In addition, an analytical model for the
stress-strain relationship of the fiber reinforced concrete under
compression is proposed.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Materials
2.1.1. Cement
ASTM Type I ordinary Portland cement (OPC) from a local
cement plant was used. The chemical composition of the cement
used in this study is presented in Table 1.
2.1.2. Admixture
High-range water-reducing (HRWR) modified poly-carboxylate
based super plasticizer conforming to the requirements of the
ASTM C494 type F was used.
2.1.3. Fine and coarse aggregates
Two types of sands, namely the crushed sand and the fine sand,
with different particle sizes were used for the preparation of mixes.
The fineness moduli are 1.47 and 4.66 for the fine and the crushed
sand, respectively. The fine and the crushed sand were combined
to achieve the fineness modulus of 2.54. Coarse aggregate with a
maximum size of 10 mm was used for the preparation of the mix.
2.1.4. Fibers
Three different hooked ended steel fibers were used for the
SFRC in this study. Three different lengths of steel fibers with var-
ious diameters were proposed for this work. The tensile strength
and the Young’s modulus of the used steel fibers were 1250 MPa
and 210 GPa, respectively. Other properties of the used steel fibers
are summarized in Table 2. The physical property of the hook end
fiber is shown in Fig. 1. Three different mixes were prepared with
different water/cementitious ratios (0.25, 0.35, and 0.45). The pro-
portions and the contents of the three mixes including the content
of the steel fibers are presented in Table 3. In total, thirty different
concrete mixes were prepared as shown in Table 4. In the mix
design, water/cementitious ratios of 0.25, 0.35, and 0.45 and the
slump of 100 ± 25 mm were chosen for the concrete without fibers.
Fibers with three different lengths (40, 50, and 60 mm) and with
558 W. Abbass et al. / Construction and Building Materials 168 (2018) 556–569

Table 1
Chemical composition of cement.

SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 CaO MgO SO3 Na2Oeq Loss on Ignition (%) Specific Gravity Fineness
m2/kg
20.2 5.49 4.12 62.43 0.71 2.61 0.26 1.38 3.14 373

Table 2 trowel and the specimens were covered with plastic sheet to main-
Properties of hook ended steel fiber. tain moist conditions. The specimens were demolded after 24 h
Length Diameter Aspect ratio and cured under 100% relative humidity at the temperature of
(mm) (mm) (l/d) 22 ± 2 °C until the age of testing.
1 40 0.62 65
2 50 0.62 80
2.2. Methods
3 60 0.75 80

The test setups for the direct tension tests, the compressive
strength tests, and the flexural strength tests are shown in Fig. 2.
The compressive strength test was performed under uniaxial com-
pressive load using compressometer and data logger as shown in
Fig. 2. Two LVDTs were mounted through compressometer to mea-
sure the displacement and the load by Toni tech machine. The load
and the displacement was recorded through a Data Logger. Flexu-
ral strength test was performed on the prism of 150  150  600
specimen with third point loading test as shown in Fig. 2. The load
was applied at a rate of 0.2 mm/min. and LVDTs were attached to
record the deflection of the specimen. The method for direct ten-
Fig. 1. Physical appearance of hooked end fiber.
sion test of concrete was used with two steel bars extending from
the concrete cylinder of 150  300 mm [30]. A rebar of 20 mm
diameter passing through the concrete with disconnection at the
Table 3 middle was used to ensure the alignment of the load and the fail-
Mix proportions in a ratio form for all mixes. ure of the concrete in tension. The male and female joints on the
Cement Content (kg/m3) 550 450 350 rebar ends were prepared to debond the steel rebar to ensure the
failure of concrete occurs in the concrete. The two ends were oiled
w/c ratio 0.25 0.35 0.45
Cementitious ratio 1 1 1 to debond the ends of the rebar. Two strain gauges were attached
FA ratio 1.24 1.59 2.28 on the surface of the concrete along the length of the cylinder to
CA ratio 1.91 2.34 3.08 measure the longitudinal strain and two LVDTs were also mounted
SP dosage (% by weight of cem.) 0.25 0.15 0.12 to measure the deformation of the cylinder along its length. A load-
Fiber content (%) by volume 0.5 0.5 0.5
Fiber content (%) by volume 1.0 1.0 1.0
ing rate of 0.3 mm/min was applied to test the tensile strength of
Fiber content (%) by volume 1.5 1.5 1.5 the concrete. Three specimens were cast for each type of the test
and for each mix. The compressive strength specimens were tested
after 7 and 28 d, while all other specimens were tested after 28 d.
The average strengths of the three specimens were computed and
two different diameters (0.62 mm for the fiber lengths of 40 and
presented in the results.
50 mm, and 0.75 mm for the fiber length of 60 mm) were used in
the mixes with three different fiber contents (0.5%, 1.0%, and
1.5%). The mix was designated F15L40, where F15 represents the 3. Results and discussion
fiber content (1.5%) and L40 denotes the length of the fiber (40
mm). 3.1. Effect of the fiber parameters on the compressive strengths
All aggregates were added to the mixer and mixed for few rev-
olutions to ensure the absorption of water by the aggregates and The average compressive strength results of the three speci-
then the cement was mixed in a dry state for few minutes. Pre- mens for all mixes with different contents of fibers at 7 and 28 d
mixed super plasticizer with water was added to the aggregates are shown in Fig. 3. The compressive strength of cylinders after
and mixed for three minutes, followed by a rest of three minutes, 28 d with different fiber contents and lengths are shown in Table 4.
then mixed again for two minutes. The mixer was stopped and It can be seen that the addition of fibers in concrete has increased
the concrete mixture was cast in different molds according to the the compressive strength. With an increase in the fiber content
specimen sizes. For fiber reinforced concrete, fibers were added from 0.5% to 1.5%, mild increase in the compressive strength of
to the concrete after the preparation of the concrete mixture and about 2% to 8% at 28 d was observed for the higher strength con-
mixed for five minutes to allow well dispersion of the fibers in crete with w/c = 0.25) compared to the improvements of 7 to
the concrete. 15% in high strength steel fiber-reinforced concrete by Song [31].
Concrete cylinder specimens of 100  200 mm were cast for the A slightly higher increase in the compressive strength of about
standard compressive strength test in rigid plastic molds. Flexural 10% to 25% is noted for the concrete with moderate strength (with
specimens of 150  150  600 mm were prepared for the flexural w/c = 0.35 and 0.45), as shown in Fig. 3. This increase in the com-
strength tests of the fiber reinforced concrete, while cylindrical pressive strength may be attributed to the confining effect pro-
specimens of 150  300 were prepared for the direct tension tests. vided by the fibers to the concrete. The ultimate compressive
The flexural specimens were cast in two layers and then subjected strength of the concrete increased because of the arresting of the
to vibration for 15–20 s for each layer. Extra material from the top growth of cracks, depending on the bond strength of the steel fiber
surface of the mold was removed and properly levelled with a and the matrix. It was also observed that the mix workability was
 W. Abbass et al. / Construction and Building Materials 168 (2018) 556–569 559

Table 4
Mechanical properties of high performance fiber reinforced concrete at 28 d.

w/c Ratio Mix ID Compressive Percentage increase Tensile Percentage Flexural Percentage
strength w.r.t. F0 strength increase w.r.t. F0 strength increase w.r.t. F0
MPa % MPa % MPa %
0.25 F0 85.5 4.114 5.47
F5L40 87.8 2.7 4.451 8.2 5.6 2.4
F10L40 90.3 5.6 4.851 17.9 8.67 58.5
F15L40 92.7 8.4 5.329 29.5 12.27 124.4
F5L50 87 1.8 4.617 12.2 6.53 19.5
F10L50 90.7 6.1 4.951 20.3 8.8 61
F15L50 93 8.8 5.319 29.3 13.33 143.9
F5L60 86.6 1.3 4.557 10.8 6.8 24.4
F10L60 91.6 7.1 4.895 19 9.33 70.7
F15L60 93.8 5.413 31.6 13.6 148.8

0.35 F0 61.7 9.7 3.654 4.89

F5L40 69.4 12.5 3.84 5.1 6.03 23.1
F10L40 72.3 17.2 4.01 9.7 9.6 96.1
F15L40 75.9 22.9 4.212 15.3 10.75 119.6
F5L50 73.8 19.6 4.06 11.1 6.48 32.4
F10L50 76.4 23.8 4.2 14.9 8.45 72.7
F15L50 77.3 25.1 4.31 18 9.12 86.3
F5L60 68 10.1 3.94 7.8 6.29 28.6
F10L60 70.6 14.4 4.55 24.5 9.03 84.4
F15L60 78.6 27.4 4.69 28.4 11.16 128

0.45 F0 52.4 3.26 4.35

F5L40 60.7 15.7 3.36 3.1 4.51 3.5
F10L40 64.1 22.2 4.04 23.9 5.41 24.3
F15L40 62.3 18.8 4.47 37.1 9.75 123.9
F5L50 55.8 0.7 3.63 11.3 5.43 24.7
F10L50 62.3 18.8 4.26 30.7 7.31 67.8
F15L50 64.2 22.4 4.71 44.5 9.93 128.2
F5L60 58.9 12.3 3.62 11 5.93 36.3
F10L60 59.7 13.9 4.18 28.2 9.2 111.3
F15L60 66.2 1.9 4.79 46.9 9.6 120.6

adversely affected by an increase in the fiber content, which ulti-
mately resulted in less compaction of concrete. Additional, it was
observed that the compressive strength was slightly increased by
the increase of the fiber aspect ratio, owing to the effective arrest-
ing of crack growth.
3.2. Effect of the fiber parameters on the tensile strengths
The tensile strengths of the steel fiber reinforced concrete mixes
after 28 d are shown in Table 4. Unlike the compressive strength of
the SFRC, more pronounced increase in the tensile strength of the
concrete with the addition of fibers was observed, with the values
of 11% and 47% for 0.5% and 1.5% fiber contents, respectively, at 28
d. The direct tensile strength and the fiber content relationships for
different concrete strengths are shown in Fig. 4. It has been
observed that the tensile strengths increased linearly with an
increase in the fiber content. The tensile strength of concrete with
lower water-to-cement ratio has shown a reduced increase in the
tensile strength of about 31%, whereas the concrete with higher
water-to-cement ratio shows enhancement in the tensile strength
of about 47% in the F15L60 mix, which may be due to arresting of
the cracks. The tensile strength of the concrete has increased lin-
early with an increase in the fiber content for all water-to-
cement ratios. The enhancement in tensile strength was more pro-
nounced in the concrete with lesser strength, owing to the
decreased toughness of the matrix and occurrence of crack arrest
through fiber bridging. The benefit of the fiber for the enhance-
ment in the tensile strength of concrete is dependent upon the
crack arrest and the fiber transferring energy.
3.3. Effect of the fiber content on the flexural strength
The flexural strengths of the SFRC mixes after 28 d are shown in
Table 4. More pronounced improvements in the flexural strengths
were observed in different mixes with different fibers lengths and
contents. The flexural load-deflection curves of the HPC with dif-
ferent fiber contents and different lengths of fibers are shown in
Fig. 5. It is observed that the deflection corresponding to the ulti-
mate load increases with the increase in the fiber content. The
increase in the fiber content from 0.5% to 1.5% has increased the
flexural strength from 3% to 124% for the fiber with the smaller
aspect ratio of 65, whereas for the higher aspect ratio of 80, 140%
increase in the flexural strength has been observed compared to
the concrete without any fibers. For smaller lengths of the fiber
and lesser content of the fiber, an almost negligible effect on the
increase in the flexural strength is observed. It can be seen that
the concrete with higher fiber content has a descending load-
deflection curve, as shown in Fig. 5(a)-(i), whereas at the fiber con-
tent of 1%, after the first crack load, an increase in load with
increasing deflection is observed, which can be attributed to the
deflection hardening behavior of concrete. The deflection harden-
ing behavior has been observed in the concrete with volume frac-
tion of 1% of fiber for all lengths of the fibers, as shown in Fig. 5(a).
The initial parts of the load deflection curves for all water-to-
cement ratios with different fiber contents are observed to be lin-
ear, as shown in Figs. 5(a)–(c). From Fig. 5, it can be clearly
observed that with the fiber volume fraction of 1%, there is an
increase in deflection hardening behavior compared to the other
two percentages of 0.5% and 1.5%. For the fiber volume fraction
of 1%, increase in the strength can be observed after the first crack
strength (as seen in Figs. 5(a)–(c)), as the fiber bridging cracks pro-
duce a more efficient behavior in concrete, leading to a better
deflection hardening behavior. It can be observed that the ascend-
ing part of the load deflection curve can be characterized by non-
linearity. For volume fraction of 1% of fibers in all mixes with
different water cement ratios, a deflection hardening behavior is
noticed. An increase in the load and the deflection for greater
aspect ratio fibers is not noticed after the increase in the fiber
560 W. Abbass et al. / Construction and Building Materials 168 (2018) 556–569

Steel Rebar LVDT

Strain Gauge

LVDT

Disconnected Steel Strain Gauge

Male Female Rebar
Cylinder Joint
150x300

Direct Tension test setup

Compressometer Ring

Tonitech
LVDT Machine

Cylinder
100x200
Specimen with
compressometer
Data Logger

Prism 150x150x600
150 P 150 P 150

P LVDT P

Flexural Strength test set up

Fig. 2. Test set up for mechanical properties of Concrete. *All dimensions are in millimeters.

content from 1%, as shown in Figs. 5(a)–(c)-(i) for L60. The fibers
with lesser aspect ratio (L50 and L40) have shown more increase
in the flexural strength at 1.5% fiber content for lower strength
concrete, as shown in Figs. 5(a)–(c)-(ii, iii).
3.4. Effect of the fiber length on the flexural strength
The flexural load-deflection curves of the HPC with different
fiber contents and different lengths of fibers are shown in Fig. 6.
It can be seen that the deflection corresponding to the ultimate
load increases with an increase in the fiber length. The increase
in the length of fiber has resulted in an increase in the load and
deflection behavior of concrete. The fibers with greater length have
shown improved load and deflection behavior of the concrete irre-
spective of the fiber volume fraction. The effect of the length of the
fiber is more pronounced in the concrete with lesser strength (w/c
ratio = 0.45), as seen in Fig. 6(c). The fiber with the length of 60 mm
(aspect ratio of 80) has shown a significant increase in the flexural
load and deflection of high strength concrete compared to the
shorter fibers, as seen in Figs. 6(a) and (b). For shorter fibers (40
and 50 mm) almost similar behavior is observed for high strength
concrete, as seen in Fig. 6(a) for lower water-to-cement ratio (w/c
ratio = 0.25). The fibers with larger length show more load and
deflection in the low strength concrete, as seen in Fig. 6(c).
The relationships of the flexural strength with different fiber
contents are shown in Fig. 7. A linear relationship between flexural
strength and fiber content is observed for all strengths of concrete
with different content and length of fibers with R2 value of more
than 0.78. More significant increase in the strength caused by the
addition of fiber is observed in low strength concrete.
3.5. Relationship between the mechanical properties of SFRC
Different empirical relations between compressive strength and
tensile strength are shown in Table 5. These relations can be gen-
eralized by Eq. (1). Fig. 8 presents the comparison between the pre-
dicted curves of the empirical relationships and the obtained
experimental data points from Table 4. With the increase of the
compressive strength, the experimental data points are observed
to be closer to the ACI 318 [32] relation, as seen in Fig. 8. It can
be clearly observed that most of the experimental data points are
in good agreement with CEB FIP [33] and Choe Yuan [27]. It also
 W. Abbass et al. / Construction and Building Materials 168 (2018) 556–569 561

100.0
7 Day 28 Day 6
90.0
Compressive Strength (MPa)

80.0
5.5 y = 0.812x + 4.1194

Tensile Strength (MPa)

70.0

60.0
R² = 0.9713
50.0 5
40.0

30.0
4.5
20.0

10.0

0.0 4
F0 F5L50 F10L50 F15L50 F5L40 F10L40 F15L40 F5L60 F10L60 F15L60
Mix ID 50 40 60
(a) FRC with 0.25 w/c ratio 3.5
90.0
7 Day 28 Day
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
80.0
Fiber Content (%)
Compressive Strength (MPa)

70.0
(a) FRC with 0.25 w/c ratio
60.0
4.9
50.0

40.0 4.7

Tensile Strength (MPa)

30.0

20.0
4.5
y = 0.4573x + 3.744
10.0 4.3 R² = 0.4998
0.0
F0 F5L50 F10L50 F15L50 F5L40 F10L40 F15L40 F5L60 F10L60 F15L60
4.1
Mix ID
(b) FRC with 0.35 w/c ratio 3.9
70.0
7 Day 28 Day
3.7
60.0
Compressive Strength (MPa)

50 40 60
50.0 3.5
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
40.0 Fiber Content (%)
30.0 (b) FRC with 0.35 w/c ratio

20.0 4.9

10.0 4.7 y = 1.12x + 2.9978

Tensile Strength (MPa)

R² = 0.933
0.0
F0 F5L50 F10L50 F15L50 F5L40 F10L40 F15L40 F5L60 F10L60 F15L60 4.5
Mix ID
(c) FRC with 0.45 w/c ratio 4.3

Fig. 3. Compressive strength of FRC at 28 d. 4.1

3.9
can be observed that the experimental data points are below the
proposed curves by Xu [26] and Permul [29]. The proposed rela- 3.7
tionship given in Fig. 8 is based on the extensive experimental data 50 40 60
and gives quite conservative relationship to predict the tensile 3.5
strength to keep the designers on safe side, whereas other relation- 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
ships show over predicting strength. Fiber Content (%)
x (c) FRC with 0.45 w/c ratio
f t ¼ nf c ð1Þ
Fig. 4. Relationship for tensile strength vs fiber content for FRC at 28 d.
where f t = flexural tensile strength/ splitting tensile strength (MPa);
f c = cylinder compressive strength (MPa); and n and x = regression
coefficients. Previously available empirical relations for the flexural
strength vs the compressive strength are given in Table 6 and plot- from Fig. 9. With increase in the strength of concrete, flexural
ted in Fig. 9. The obtained experimental data can be observed to be strength can be observed to deviate more from the empirical rela-
deviating from the available empirical relations, as most data is tions, which may be attributed to different relations for high
found to be above the available empirical relations and to be closer strength concrete with fiber. The developed empirical relation
to that seen in Permul [29]. Such deviation may be attributed to the extracted from the extensive experimental data is shown in Fig. 9,
fact that the developed relationship is for the hooked ended fibers, which is more conservative than Permul [29] and in lesser agree-
which showed more increase in the flexural strength compared to ment with Xu [26] and proposed predictive equation of flexural
the compressive strength. A general trend of the increase in flexural strength can be used as it is neither giving overestimation nor
strength with an increase in compressive strength can be observed underestimated values as compared to other researchers.
562 W. Abbass et al. / Construction and Building Materials 168 (2018) 556–569

(i)L60 (i)L60

(ii)L50 (ii)L50

(iii)L40 (iii)L40
Fig. 5(a). Flexural load vs deflection curve for FRC (0.25) at 28 d for different Fig. 5(b). Flexural load vs deflection curve for FRC (0.35) at 28 d for different
percentage of fibers. percentage of fibers.

Different empirical relations between the tensile and the flexural results in Permul [29] and Xu [26], which may be attributed to
strength of concrete with different strengths are shown in Fig. 10. As the fact that different strengths of concrete and hooked ended fiber
observed, the experimental data deviate significantly below the contents with different contents may have different empirical relations.
 W. Abbass et al. / Construction and Building Materials 168 (2018) 556–569 563

(i)L60 (i)F15

(ii)F10
(ii)L50

(iii)L40 (iii)F5
Fig. 5(c). Flexural load vs deflection curve for FRC (0.45) at 28 d for different Fig. 6(a). Flexural load vs deflection curve for FRC (0.25) at 28 d for different length
percentage of fibers. of fibers.
564 W. Abbass et al. / Construction and Building Materials 168 (2018) 556–569

(i)F15
(i)F15

(ii)F10
(ii)F10

(iii)F5 (iii)F5
Fig. 6(b). Flexural load vs deflection curve for FRC (0.35) at 28 d for different length Fig. 6(c). Flexural load vs deflection curve for FRC (0.45) at 28 d for different length
of fibers. of fibers.
 W. Abbass et al. / Construction and Building Materials 168 (2018) 556–569 565

15.5 slow propagation of crack ultimately leads to an unstable crack

propagation causing the failure of the specimen. The increase in
the flexural strength is due to the carrying of the load by fiber after
13.5
matrix cracking. Concrete with fibers will sustain load after the
Flexural Strength (MPa)

y = 6.7556x + 2.6815 first crack until the fiber pullout occurs and the interfacial shear
11.5 R² = 0.9556 stress reaches the ultimate bond strength. The failure mechanism
of the fiber changes from partial fiber pullout to fiber rupture with
9.5 decrease in the fiber content for normal strength concrete, as
shown in Fig. 11. Fiber rupture is observed in the high strength
concrete (w/c ratio = 0.25) at fiber content of 1%, whereas the con-
7.5 crete with lesser strength shows partial fiber pullout and partial
fiber rupture behavior. The fibers in normal strength concrete
5.5 mostly show the pullout behavior because of the fiber matrix inter-
50 40 60 action, as shown in Fig. 12. It is observed that the optimum value of
the fiber content is 1% to achieve the best efficiency of fibers in
3.5
terms of fiber pullout followed by fiber rupture. Although more
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
ductile failure of material was observed with the increase in fiber
Fiber Content (%) content (1.5% fiber) with more load carrying capacity, there was
(a) FRC with 0.25 w/c ratio a drop of the load after the initial crack, thereby showing softening
behavior of the material.
13.5
4. Analytical modeling of the fiber reinforced concrete
Flexural Strength (MPa)

11.5 y = 4.0756x + 4.4696

An analytical model for the steel fiber reinforced concrete for
R² = 0.8578
complete stress strain curve is necessary for analysis and design
9.5 of structural elements. Many empirical compressive stress strain
models have been reported in literature for fiber reinforced con-
crete [35–39]. Most of the relationships are applicable to normal
7.5 strength fiber reinforced concrete and very few are available for
high strength concrete. After investigation of various analytical
models proposed by different researchers, the basic model pro-
5.5 posed by Carreira and Chu [40] for plain concrete, which was later
50 40 60 modified by Ezeldin and Balaguru [35] for steel fiber reinforced
concrete, was used for plotting the complete stress strain curve
3.5
of the experimental data. The general formula of the model is
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
shown in Eq. (2) and parameters from different researchers are
Fiber Content (%) explained in Table 7.
!
(b) FRC with 0.35 w/c ratio 0 bðeeo Þ
fc ¼ fc ð2Þ
11.5 b  1 þ ðeeo Þb
0
where e is the uniaxial strain; f c is the compressive stress; f c is the
Flexural Strength (MPa)

compressive strength; b is the material parameter; and E 0 is the

9.5 strain at the compressive strength. In the current research, the
parameters in Eq. (2) are mainly related to the reinforcing index
y = 4.4724x + 2.9799 (RI), which is the main function for controlling the stress strain
R² = 0.782 curve of fiber reinforced concrete. The relationship among different
7.5
0 0
parameters b, E 0 , f c , f cp , E 0p , and reinforcing index (RI) are derived
through regression analysis of the data for the compressive strength
of higher strength mixes with the water-to-cement ratio of 0.25.
5.5
The following equations are found to obtain the relationship of
the compressive strength of the fiber reinforced concrete, corre-
50 40 60 sponding strain with corresponding parameters of the plain
3.5 concrete.
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 0 0
f c ¼ f cp þ 5:59RI ð3Þ
Fiber Content (%)
(c) FRC with 0.45 w/c ratio E 0 ¼ E 0p þ 0:000261RI ð4Þ
0
where f cp = compressive strength of plain concrete; E 0p is the strain
Fig. 7. Relationship for Flexural strength vs fiber content for FRC at 28 d.
corresponding to compressive strength of plain concrete; b is the
0
3.6. Failure mode of the specimen with different contents and lengths material parameter; f c = compressive strength of SFRC and E 0 is
of fiber the strain at the compressive strength of SFRC. The b value is func-
tion of reinforcing index (RI) and the relationship of b and the rein-
The failure of steel fiber reinforced concrete can be seen as pro- forcing index (RI) has been found through regression analysis of the
gressive debonding of the fibers with slow crack propagation. This experimental data, as follows;
566 W. Abbass et al. / Construction and Building Materials 168 (2018) 556–569

Table 5
Published empirical relations between compressive strength and tensile strength.

ACI 318 [32] CEB-FIP [33] Choi and Yuan [27] Xu and Shi [26] Perumal [29]
0:5 0:67 0:5 0:83 0:84
ft ¼ 0:56f c ft ¼ 0:3f c ft ¼ 0:6f c ft ¼ 0:21f c f t ¼ 0:188f c

Fig. 10. Relationship for Flexural strength vs Tensile strength for FRC at 28 d.
Fig. 8. Relationship for Tensile Strength vs Compressive Strength for FRC at 28 d.

Table 6
Published empirical relations between compressive strength and Flexural strength. overestimated the stresses in the descending branch of the stress
strain curve. However, the stress strain model proposed Ezeldin
ACI 318 [32] Ahmed and Shah [34] Xu and Shi [26] Perumal [29]
and Bagaluru [35], Nataraja et al. [37] and Ou et al. [38] have ade-
0:5 0:5 0:59 0:843
ft ¼ 0:62f c ft ¼ 0:44f c ft ¼ 0:39f c f t ¼ 0:259f c quate agreement with the experimental result, but still has slight
overestimation of the stresses in the descending branch. It can be
observed from Fig. 13(b and c) that models proposed by Ezeldin
and Bagaluru [35], Someh and Someki [36], Nataraja et al. [37],
Ou et al. [38] and Lee et al. [39] have overestimated the stresses
in the descending branch of the stress strain curve. However, the
stress strain model proposed has adequate agreement with the
experimental result, but still has slight overestimation of the stres-
ses in the descending branch. The experimental results for the high
strength concrete fiber reinforced were in agreement with the pre-
dicted proposed model.

5. Conclusions

The mechanical properties of HPC are significantly improved

with the addition of steel fibers with different properties. Based
on the presented experimental investigation, the following results
can be concluded:

1. The compressive strength of the concrete with steel fiber con-

Fig. 9. Relationship for Flexural strength vs compressive strength for FRC at 28 d.
b ¼ 1:401ðRIÞ2  1:56ðRIÞ þ 2:42
Eqs. (3–5) are inserted in the Eq. (2) to generate the complete
stress-strain curve of fiber reinforced concrete. The comparison
of different predictive models and experimental data, as well as
the proposed model, has been presented in Fig. 13 for three mixes
F5L60, F10L60, and F15L60 (w/c = 0.25). It can be observed from
Fig. 13(a) that models proposed by Someh and Someki [36], have
tent of 0.5 to 1.5% was slightly increased by no more than
10% for high strength concrete (w/c = 0.25), while for the mod-
erately high strength concrete the increase in compressive
strength reached 25%. The enhancement in compressive
strength of concrete with the higher matrix strength with the
ð5Þ
addition of fibers was less than the concrete with lower matrix
strength.
2. The direct tensile strength of concrete increases to about 12%
for the case of 0.5% fiber content and the length of 50 mm in
high strength concrete (w/c = 0.25). Such increase is higher
and reaches 47% in the case of 1.5% fiber content and the length
of 60 mm in the lower strength concrete (w/c = 0.45). Concrete
 W. Abbass et al. / Construction and Building Materials 168 (2018) 556–569 567

Fiber rupture Fiber pullout

(a) Fiber content 0.5% (b) Fiber content 1.0%

Fiber pullout

(c) Fiber content 1.5% Typical failure mode of SFRC

Fig. 11. Failure of fiber with different content in Concrete.

fiber rupture
Fiber pullout
Fiber rupture

(a) High strength concrete (w/c 0.25) (b) Moderately High strength concrete
(w/c 0.35)

Fiber pullout

(c) Normal Strength concrete (w/c 0.45) Typical failure mode of SFRC
Fig. 12. Failure of fiber in different strength Concrete with 1% fiber content.

with fibers of higher aspect ratio have shown more pronounced
improvement in tensile strength than concrete with lower
aspect ratio.
3. The flexural strength of concrete with the steel fiber content of
0.5% to 1.5% has increased from 100% to 150% for fiber with
smaller aspect ratio. The concrete with 1.5% steel fibers and
with higher aspect ratio of 80 has shown an increase in the flex-
ural strength that can reach about 150% in the high strength
concrete (w/c = 0.25).
4. The co-relationship among the compressive strength, the flex-
ural strength, and the tensile strength of SFRC are derived for
different fiber contents, fiber parameters, and w/b ratio of
568 W. Abbass et al. / Construction and Building Materials 168 (2018) 556–569

Table 7
Published analytical relations for compressive stress strain curve of SFRC.

Researcher Coefficients of analytical model

0 0 0
Ezeldin Balaguru [35] f c ¼ f cp þ 11:232RI; b ¼ 1:093 þ 0:2429RI0:926 , Ec ¼ Ecp þ 9936RI; e0 þ e0p þ 1426  106 RI, f cp , e0p , and Ecp are the compressive strength,
corresponding strain, and elastic modulus of plain concrete, respectively.
Someh and Saeki [36] 0
Where f c is compressive strength, b ¼ 1:032½f c ð1 þ RIÞ
0 0:113

00:147
e 0 ¼ 0:0084f c
0 0
Nataraja et al. [37] f c ¼ f cp þ 6:9133RI; b ¼ 0:5811 þ 0:8155RI0:7406
e0 ¼ e0p þ 0:00192RI; f 0cp0 ; e0p are compressive strength and strain for plain concrete
0 0
Ou et al. [38] f c ¼ f cp þ 2:35RI; e0 þ 0:0007RI; b ¼ 0:75ðRIÞ2  2:00ðRIÞ þ 3:05
 
Lee et al. [39] 0 Aðee Þ 0
fc ¼ fc 0
(a) where e is the uniaxial strain; fc is the compressive stress; f c is the compressive strength; b is the material parameter;
A1þðee ÞB
0

and e0 is the strain at the compressive strength.

0 1
A ¼ B ¼ @ h1f 0 iAfor ec =e0 6 1:0
1þ c
Ec e0

 
l 0:957
A ¼ 1 þ 0:723 V f df for ec =e0 > 1:0
 
f
 0  
l 0:882
P A in Equ:ðaÞfor ec =e0 > 1:0
fc
B ¼ 50 0:064 1 þ 0:882 V f df
f

Where RI ¼ ðV f lf =df Þ, V f ¼ v olume fraction of fiber, lf : ¼ length of fiber, df ¼ diameter of fiber.

*

(a). Prediction of various models for F5L60 (b). Prediction of various models for F10L60
with 0.25 w/c fractions for high strength with 0.25 w/c fractions for high strength
concrete concrete

(c). Prediction of various models for F15L60 with 0.25 w/c fractions for high strength
concrete
Fig. 13. Prediction of various models for 0.25 w/c fractions for high strength concrete.
 W. Abbass et al. / Construction and Building Materials 168 (2018) 556–569
concrete and are compared with the available empirical
equations.
5. The proposed analytical model for the complete stress strain
behavior of the fiber reinforced concrete has good agreement
with the experimental results. It is more conservative than
other models proposed by other researchers.
Acknowledgment
The Authors extend their appreciation to the Deanship of Scien-
tific Research at King Saud University – Saudi Arabia for funding
the work through the research group project No. RGP-VPP-105.
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