FLOORS AND

STEELCRETE™ - PROVIDING THE

TECHNOLOGY & MATERIALS FOR
HIGH PERFORMANCE CONCRETE
TECHNICAL SUPPORT
Firth Industries is able to provide technical support
related to most aspects of the use of concrete in
PAVEMENTS
construction. This support takes the form of:-
Steelcrete Specification for Industrial 1. Liaison with the owner, architect, engineer and
Floors & Pavements or contractor to develop a cost effective and

In addition to the general requirement for Dramix

steel fibre as detailed in the general Steelcrete
brochure the specification shall include the following.
1. The concrete shall include ______kg/m3 of Dramix
65/60 steel fibres consistent with the
recommended dosage of design outputs from
“Dramix Pro” calculations. An alternative will be
accepted where:
• an equal "equivalent flexural strength" when
tested in accordance with JSCE SF4 can be
demonstrated.
• A guaranteed, certified limit state design that
incorporates the combined stresses due to live
load, thermal gradient and shrinkage stress is
provided.
2. Where Steelcrete SFRC is to be used the following SUGGESTED READING
clauses shall be included in the specification
• The steel fibres are to be made from hard drawn
low carbon steel, in accordance to ASTM A820.90 2. ACI Committee 544 (1993), “Guide for Specifying Proportioning, Mixing, Placing and
Type 1 and shall have a tensile strength greater
than 1000MPa.
• The fibres shall preferably be collated in such a way 4. ACI Materials Journal. March-April 1993 Vol 88 No2.
that the risk of balling is eliminated.
• To ensure adequate overlap between fibres to carry 5. Steel
the load continuously through the element the 6. Gopalaratnam VS. Shah SP et al.,(1991) “ Fracture Toughness of Fibre Reinforced
spacing(s) shall be greater than 0.45l where:
s> (πd2l/4v)0.33
Where d= fibre equivalent diameter (mm); l= fibre
length (mm); v= fibre volume fraction (0.01 =
80kg/m3 for steel fibres)
A free design software package namely, Dramix
Pro is available from Firth - simply call Firth
On-Line to arrange for a demonstration and
installation instructions. Firth will provide design
advice and assistance where needed.
technically appropriate High Performance
Concrete solution that invariably offers
FIRTH STEELCRETE™
advantages to all parties, 'the win, win, win
approach'
2 Presentation to interested parties and formal
training courses on the design of Steelcrete.
Report preparation that details the design
methods and assumptions used for any analysis.
Published papers and output from computer
models are also available.
3. Guidance on the placing of Steelcrete to
achieve the desired quality - ask for Firth’s
Steelcrete video.
1. ASTM C1018, “Standard Test Method for Flexural Toughness and First Crack
Strength of Fibre Reinforced Concrete (Using Beam with Third Point Loading)”.
Annual Book of ASTM Standards V04.02.
Finishing Steel Fibre Reinforced Concrete”. ACI Materials Journal, Jan/Feb 1993,
Vol 90 No1, pp 94-101.
3. Antoine E., Najim H., (1991), “Bond Slip Mechanisms of Steel Fibres in Concrete”.
Bekaert NV (1990) “Design Manual for Industrial Floors with Dramix Steel Fibre
Reinforced Concrete”
Cheng-Tzu T.H., Rajun L.H., Ezeldin A.S.,(1992) “Load Deformation Behaviour of
Fibre Reinforced Concrete Beams”, ACI Structural Journal Nov/Dec 1992.
Concrete”, A Report of the Concrete Materials Research Council, - ACI Materials
Journal July - August 1991.
7. Johnston.C.D., Zemp.RW., (1991), “Flexural Fatigue Performance of Steel Fiber
Reinforced Concrete - Influence of Fiber Content, Aspect Ratio, and Type”. ACI
Materials Journal V84 No4, July/August 1991, pp 374-383.
8. JSCE (1984) “Recommendation for Design and Construction of Steel Fibre
Reinforced Concrete” Concrete Library of JSCE No 3
9. Maage.M., (1978), “Fibre, Bond and Friction in Cement and Concrete”. Testing and
Test Methods of Fibre Cement Composites. RILEM 1978. Lancaster. pp 329-336.
10. Morris AD, GG Garrett., (1981) “A Comparative Study of the Static and Fatigue
Behaviour of Plain and Steel Fibre Reinforced Mortar in Compression and Direct
Tension. The International Journal of Cement Composites andLightweight Concrete
Vol 3 No 2 May 1981 pp 73-91.
11. Ramakrishen, Wu and Hosalli, (1989), “Effect of Rate of Loading and Flexural
Strength on Fatigue Performance of Concrete”. TRRL Laboratory Report CR547,
Berkshire, UK.

Firth Industries Limited Scancem Materials Pty Ltd supply Dramix steel fibres to Firth Industries Ltd.
Private bag 99904, Newmarket, Auckland Dramix is a Bekaert Registered Trade Mark
Firth Industries Limited is an ISO 9001 certified supplier
Information in this brochure has been jointly prepared by Firth Industries and Scancem Materials. It cannot be reproduced or copied for any
purpose without the written permission of Firth. While the information and /or specification contained herin is, to the best of our knowledge true
and accurate, no warranty is given or implied in connection with any recommendation or suggestion, made by us or our representatives, agents or
distributors as the conditions of use and any labour involved are beyond our control. Consult your nearest Firth office for further information.

you can with concrete you can with concrete

F R E E FA X : 0 8 0 0 8 0 0 5 3 0 E M A I L : f i r t h @ f c l c i s . c o . n z

INTRODUCTION
In Europe “Steelcrete” type concrete replaced
mesh in 20million square metres of floors in
1997. Reductions of concrete thickness of up to
25% with a fibre dosage rate of 20kg/m3 was
not uncommon. Firth Steelcrete floors and
pavements are easier to construct, less costly
and very flat. A burnished high performance
surface can also be achieved with Firth
Steelcrete™.
CONSTRUCTION
Firth Steelcrete floors and pavements provide
enormous benefits to the contractor in speed
and simplicity of construction. Trucks deliver
concrete to the work face, as there is no mesh
to hinder access. Traditionally contractors place
mesh in the afternoon and pour concrete in the
morning. Steelcrete concrete can be placed
continuously, allowing larger slabs to be poured
each day. Steelcrete contributes to a more crack
resistant slab, so there is lower risk of cracking
due to long term drying shrinkage, load and
Fig 1. Team NZ Syndicate’s slab at the Viaduct Basin, Auckland. Firth Steelcrete provided a cost effective solution combined with
rapid construction. Steelcrete is discharged exactly where it is needed without the need for a pump.
Cover Photo: A high performance Firth Steelcrete™ slab - a quality feature of Challenge Petrol Stations, where surface and
fatigue performance as well as ease of construction were a must.
FIRTH STEELCRETE™
impact. Firth has developed specific
Steelcrete mix designs to enable standard
concreting techniques to be used in placing,
BENEFITS OF STEELCRETE FLOORS AND PAVEMENTS
screeding and finishing.
Compared To Mesh Compared to Other Steel Fibres
Firth Steelcrete Floors and Pavements makes • Eliminates concern that mesh may not be • Most economical solution using high
use of Dramix 65/60 steel fibres with the placed at the right location in the pavement performance Dramix fibres at low
following general features: • Stops macro cracks that are formed before the dosages
crack reaches the mesh depth • Excellent surface finish by using a low
Geometry- • By reinforcing throughout the concrete, the dosage of the highest performance
fibres help prevent failure at joint edges fibre
• Enables concrete trucks to be driven up to • Proven performance in full scale load
concrete work face and often eliminates the tests
60 mm 0.90 mm • When performance equivalence with
need for pumping
• Provides resistance to impact from hard respect to mesh is required - Steelcrete
Tensile Strength- wheels with Dramix may be the only option.
- on the wire: minimum 1150 MPa • No corrosion damage; spalling of concrete is (Fig 7)
- low carbon conforms to: - DIN 17 140-D9 precluded because the fibres are so small.
- EN 10016-2- C9D
Energy Absorbed (Joules)
For specialised technical performance data
ask Firth On-Line for Product Data Sheets on Compared to Synthetic e.g
Dramix 65/60 steel fibres - samples of fibres
Polypropylene Fibres
are also available on request.
The main reason for using synthetic e.g
polypropylene fibres in fresh concrete is to
reduce “plastic shrinkage” cracking at an early
age; e.g up to 12 hours. That is, to provide
early age toughness. Steel fibres are added to
concrete to provide toughness in the hardened
state thus reducing cracking due to long term Fig 11.
Performance comparison of Dramix, mesh and synthetic fibre
drying shrinkage, load and fatigue (fig. 11). reinforced concrete.
Fig 12. Large external yard designed with Firth Steelcrete to provide a slab for heavy trucking and forkhoist activity. Many owners
now recognise Firth Steelcrete to be a performance and cost effective alternative to bitumen based applications.
The distribution of fibres throughout the DESIGN
matrix also gives protection to joints and Full scale tests on Steelcrete (fig 2) at various institutions have confirmed that the (Dramix Pro)
edges, areas that provide the majority of design approach is conservative. A structural guarantee can be provided where engineers
problems in floor slabs (fig 9). require this.

Where ground conditions are poor and To benefit from the use of Steelcrete™ with Dramix®, it is necessary to adopt a design proce-
stub columns are used steelcrete can be dure to take account of the load bearing capacity after cracking, i.e. away from the area of
designed to span between the columns. elastic behaviour on the load/deflection graph (Fig.2) and into the plastic or hinge forming area
of the graph. The area beneath this load/deflection graph is a measure of the energy required
to achieve a certain deflection and leads to the concept of “toughness” for a fibre reinforced
concrete. This toughness can be then used to determine an equivalent flexural strength “fe” for
Fig 9. use in determining the load carrying capacity of the steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC), refer
Steel fibres are throughout the slab and they help to fig 3. The term “fe” is very specific and varies dependent on the fibre type, its aspect ratio,
prevent joint and edge failure. However, a semi rigid
epoxy is still recommended for hard wheels dosage and deflection limit. Firth Steelcrete utilises Dramix® fibres because it is the highest
performance fibre currently available. Steelcrete with Dramix is often the most economic and, in
many cases, the only fibre reinforced concrete capable of providing the load capacity required.
P1 - First crack load
Pmax - Ultimate load capacity

Fig 2.
Full scale testing verified that the limit state approach
proposed to account for live load in accordance with the UK
Concrete Societies report TR34 gives a conservative design.
Fig 3.
Deflection curve for fibre reinforced beam is the basis of the
ASTM and Japanese standards for steel fibre reinforced concrete
testing. Calculation of the equivalent flexural strength for JSCE
SF4 as shown.

Fig 4. Drystore, Westgate Transport, Port Taranaki. Firth Steelcrete was supplied as a performance effective alternative to
Fig 10. Another example of a finished Firth Steelcrete slab. Designed with “Dramix Pro” to satisfy foreseeable static and dynamic conventional reinforcement. The end result; an 18,000m2 floor incorporating Dramix 65/60 fibres, laser screeded to a high flatness
loads as well as shrinkage and thermal stress. tolerance together with a burnished finish. Virtually no steel fibres left at the surface.
Flexural strength (i.e. tensile stress at first crack) design criteria work for unreinforced concrete Steelcrete also gives better crack control than mesh. In the case of a mesh reinforced floor,
because once the section has cracked, its load carrying capacity is destroyed and the brittle macro surface cracks will develop before they reach the depth of the mesh. Steelcrete has
failure is almost instantaneous. With Steelcrete the failure mode is no longer brittle. Instead, fibres near the surface and crack control commences immediately leading to the formation of
due to the toughness imparted by the Dramix fibres, the concrete behaves in a ductile way, micro cracks (fig 7).
making the use of a limit state design approach appropriate. In this way the values for
characteristic flexural strength can be used to give permissible (design) ultimate moments. This
change from elastic to limit state design is analogous to the change in the designs of concrete
structures in the last decade.

The demands on industrial floors and pavements have increased enormously over recent years.
Elastically designed (ie unreinforced or with shrinkage mesh) modern industrial floors need to
be so thick that they become impractical. This is due to the high stress associated with the large
positive moment created by a point loads just prior to cracking (fig 5). With Steelcrete, the
bending moment remains almost constant with increasing deformation i.e. a plastic hinge is
formed, allowing for the redistribution of bending moments and the formation of a classic yield
line pattern at failure. The moments induced in Steelcrete are significantly lower than the
moments induced in plain concrete for the same load.

Fig 7.
Cracks must run to the depth of mesh before they are interrupted and macro cracks form. In Steelcrete the fibres at the surface
curtail cracks and only micro cracks are formed.

Fig 5
• Unreinforced concrete deforms, reaches ultimate moment
and a macro crack forms.
• Fibre reinforced concrete deforms, the load is spread and the
moment is redistributed as plastic hinges develop.
Microcracking over a distributed area develops instead of a
macrocrack.

Fig 6. Pouring Firth Steelcrete directly on vapour barrier over compacted hard fill. Faster construction, a simpler concreting process Fig 8. Firth Steelcrete provides yet another slab for industry with superior fatigue and impact resistance to mesh reinforced slab.
with the opportunity to reduce slab thickness.