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Behavior and strength of beams cast with ultra

high strength concrete containing different types
of fibers

M.M. Kamal, M.A. Safan, Z.A. Etman & R.A. Salama

To cite this article: M.M. Kamal, M.A. Safan, Z.A. Etman & R.A. Salama (2014) Behavior and
strength of beams cast with ultra high strength concrete containing different types of fibers, HBRC
Journal, 10:1, 55-63, DOI: 10.1016/j.hbrcj.2013.09.008

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HBRC Journal (2014) 10, 55–63

Housing and Building National Research Center

HBRC Journal

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FULL LENGTH ARTICLE

Behavior and strength of beams cast with ultra high

strength concrete containing different types of fibers
M.M. Kamal a, M.A. Safan a, Z.A. Etman a,*
, R.A. Salama b

a
Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Menoufia University, Egypt
b
Doctoral Fellow, Ministry of Irrigation and Public Works, Egypt

Received 5 June 2013; revised 15 September 2013; accepted 23 September 2013

KEYWORDS Abstract Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) is a special type of concrete with extraordi-
Silica fume; nary potentials in terms of strength and durability performance. Its production and application
Ultra-high strength concrete; implement the most up-to-date knowledge and technology of concrete manufacturing. Sophisti-
Fibers; cated structural designs in bridges and high-rise buildings, repair works and special structures like
Reinforcement; nuclear facilities are currently the main fields of applications of UHPC. This paper aimed to eval-
Shear strength uate the behavior of ultra-high strength concrete beams. This paper also aimed to determine the
effect of adding fibers and explore their effect upon the behavior and strength of the reinforced con-
crete beams. A total of twelve simple concrete beams with and without shear reinforcements were
tested in flexure. The main variables taken into consideration in this research were the type of fibers
and the percentage of longitudinal reinforcement as well as the existence or absence of the web rein-
forcement. Two types of fibers were used including steel and polypropylene fibers. The behavior of
the tested beams was investigated with special attention to the deflection under different stages of
loading, initial cracking, cracking pattern, and ultimate load. Increased number of cracks was
observed at the end of loading due to the use of fibers, which led to the reduced width of cracks.
This led to increased stiffness and higher values of maximum loads.
ª 2013 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Housing and Building National Research
Center.

Introduction

Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) is a new class of

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +20 1009727355, +20 482238232.
E-mail address: dr_zeinab_2006@yahoo.com (Z.A. Etman).
Peer review under responsibility of Housing and Building National
Research Center.
Production and hosting by Elsevier
concrete that has developed during recent decades. First re-
search carried out on UHPC was originated in the mid
1990s. UHPC is a cementations material that contains a high
quantity of cement, silica fume, low quantity of water, incor-
porates large amounts of fibers and high-range water reducing
agent (HRWRA). UHPC exhibits remarkable ductility, dura-
bility and strength properties [1–4]. Dili and Santhanam [3]
reported that the quartz powder was useful for its reactivity

1687-4048 ª 2013 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Housing and Building National Research Center.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hbrcj.2013.09.008
56
during heat treatment. Voo and foster [5] present an overview
of the material characteristics of a Malaysia blend of ultra-
high performance ductile concrete (UHPdC). A comparable
study occurred between UHPdC structures and conventional
reinforced concrete (RC). They provided the enhanced dura-
bility of UHPdC for significant improvements over the design
life. The compressive strength more than 200 MPa was
achieved by Richard and Cheyrezy [6]. According to Viveka-
nandam and Patnaikuni [7] HPC with small aggregates is sim-
ilar to a strong rock. In the mid 1980s, HPC with compressive
strength up to 110 MPa was considered for precast and pre-
stressed structural members. Compressive strength of UHPC
up to 145 MPa was demonstrated by Sobolev [8]. This value
of compressive strength was achieved by using high-perfor-
mance cement and eliminating the coarse aggregate. Graybeal
[9] reported that UHPC tended to have very low water content
and can achieve sufficient rheological properties through a
combination of optimized granular packing and the addition
of high-range water-reducing admixtures. The reduction of
the water-cement ratio results in a decrease in porosity and
refinement of capillary pores in the matrix. In HPC water to
cement ratio ranges usually between 0.28 and 0.38. Allena
and Newtson [10] reported that the water to cement ratio in ul-
tra-high performance concrete can even be lower than 0.2.
They made attempts to develop UHSC mixtures with locally
available materials. Maroliya [11] illustrated that the greatest
compressive strengths obtained were 165.6 MPa for UHSC
with steel fibers and 161.9 MPa for UHSC without fibers.
The behavior of RPC in direct tension was investigated.
Although high-strength concrete is often considered a rela-
tively new material, its development has been gradual over
many years [12,13]. The possibility of achieving high strength,
durability and improved ductility with the use of UHSC
encourages researchers and engineers to use this modern mate-
rial in many practical applications like nuclear waste contain-
ment structures, high rise structures, long span bridges and
walkways. So UHSC lead to use in a wide range of applica-
tions [14–17]. Flexure members in reinforced concrete struc-
tures are designed to fail in a ductile manner. Upper limits in
design codes set the amount of longitudinal reinforcements
to ensure yielding of steel before concrete reaches crushing
strains. Different design codes predicted the shear strength
and flexural strengths for UHS reinforced concrete beams
[18–21]. Common shear failure patterns are shear-tension,
shear compression, diagonal tension and arch-rib failures.
The details of various failure modes are illustrated in ACI-
ASCE [22]. Charron et al. [23] studied the permeability of Ul-
tra-High Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC).
UHPFRC presented outstanding hardened properties, and a
highly low permeability was noticed. Their properties make
it extremely attractive for the rehabilitation of existing struc-
tures and for new conceptions. UHPFRC is characterized by
a significant tensile strain hardening that can be used to
optimize the mechanical performance of composite structural
elements. Dario Redaelli and Aurelio Muttoni [24] tested a series
of large-scale unreinforced and reinforced UHPFC specimens.
They studied the effect of the amount and type of reinforce-
ment on the reinforced specimens. The specific response of
reinforced UHPFC members at cracking is analyzed. Voo et.
al. [25] studied the behavior of ultra high-performance steel
fiber-reinforced concrete beams under shear load. Span-
to-depth, ratio, the quantity and type of steel fibers were used
M.M. Kamal et al.
throughout this investigation. They observed a good correla-
tion with a mean model to the experimental strength ratio of
0.92 and coefficient of variation of 0.12. Muñoz et al. [26] ex-
plored the bond characteristics between UHPC and NSC un-
der varying stress configurations and environmental
conditions. The experimental program showed that the bond
performance between UHPC and NSC is adequate for bridge
overlay applications, regardless of the degree of roughness of
the concrete substrate, the age of the composite specimens,
the exposure to freeze-thaw cycles and the different loading
configurations.
The world’s first engineering structure designed with UHPC
was the Sherbrooke footbridge in Sherbrooke, Quebec, built in
1997 [27]. The concrete had a compressive strength of 150 MPa
and contained 2.5% steel micro fibers (by volume). UHPC has
been used for more than 25 years as wear protection in hydrau-
lic and pneumatic transport and storage systems of abrasive
materials like coal, fly ash, cement, steel, silica sand and chem-
icals [28]. In 2002, contractor Bouygues built a footbridge over
the Han River running across Seoul in South Korea. Jointly
conceived by the City of Seoul and ‘‘France’s Year 2000 Com-
mittee’’ to commemorate the new Millennium, the footbridge
symbolizes the cooperation and friendship between South
Korea and France. Furthermore, the design and construction
of the third bridge in France, in 2007 located just to the west
of Rouen, this small bridge has a single 27-m-long span and
is 14-m wide [29].
The objectives of the experimental program described with-
in this paper were (i) studying the behavior of concrete beams
cast with UHPC under flexure loading. (ii) Studying the effect
of the type of fibers and the percentage of longitudinal rein-
forcement as well as the existence or absence of the web rein-
forcement on the structural behavior of test beams.
Experimental program
To achieve the main aim of the current study, an experimental
program, including the test of twelve beams with and without
web reinforcement was conducted. The beams were designed
to have adequate resistance against flexure failure. Simply sup-
ported beams (100 · 150 · 1000 mm) were cast and tested
until failure. The beams under investigation were either rein-
forced with two bottom rebars of 10-mm diameter (reinforce-
ment ratio q = 1.2%) or 12-mm diameter (reinforcement ratio
q = 1.7%). The geometrical and reinforcement details of the
tested beams are shown in Fig. 1.
Materials
Locally produced ordinary Portland cement (CEM I 52.5 N)
conforming with the requirements of E.S.S. 4756-1/2007 with
specific gravity of 3.16 and Blain fineness of 4850 cm2/gm
was used. Locally produced silica fume (SF) was delivered in
15-kg sacks. According to the manufacturer, the powder had
a specific gravity of 2.2 and specific surface area of 17 m2/gm.
Natural siliceous sand having a fineness modulus of 2.72 and
a specific gravity of 2.58 was used. A modified polycarboxylate
Admixture was used as a high range water reducer conforming
to ASTM C 494 (types A and F) [30]. The admixture is a
brown liquid with a specific gravity of 1.2 at 20 C. Two types
of fibers were used to improve the mechanical properties of
Behavior and strength of beams cast with ultra high strength 57

Fig. 1 Geometrical and reinforcement details of the tested beams.

concrete, including steel and polypropylene fibers. Plain steel

Table 2 Compressive strength of the different concrete mixes.
fibers with 0.2 mm diameter and 13 mm length with aspect ra-
tio (L/D) 65 were used. The polypropylene fibers used were Mix No Types of fibers Compressive strength (Mpa)
produced by SI Concrete systems, USA with 20 mm length 3 days 7 days 28 day
and aspect ratio (L/D) 12.5. According to the manufacture 1 – 43.0 67.4 127.0
data sheet, the polypropylene fibers (fibrillated type) have a 2 Steel fibers 64.3 88.0 135.0
specific gravity of 0.91 and comply with ASTM C1116 Type 3 Polypropylene fibers 49.0 77.6 130.0
III [31]. High tensile deformed steel rebars (nominal diameters
10 and 12 mm) were used as tension reinforcement. The rebars
investigation are shown in Table 3. A test beam was reinforced
had a yield stress of 550 MPa. Mild steel rebars were used for
using either 2A10 or 2A12 main bars providing reinforcement
stirrups with yield strength of 350 MPa.
ratios of 1.2% and 1.7%, respectively. A test beam was defined
Casting and testing procedures by letter C followed by the diameter of the two reinforcing
main bars (10 or 12 mm), followed by the letter W in case of
beams having web reinforcement and either P or S denoting
A 60-liter mixer was used in mixing concrete. Based on the
the beam of polypropylene or steel fibers. The beams were
results reported in the paper [32], three concrete mixes were
stripped after 24 hours of casting and cured under the wet
selected for this research based on the compressive strength cri-
cloth for 28 days. After 28 days of casting, the test beams were
terion. The selected mixes incorporated silica fume content of
painted in white to facilitate showing the cracks. The beams
10% as a replacement of the cement content was used. A
were tested under four-point loading until failure. The loading
superplasticizer dose of 0.5% of the total powder content by
configurations were allowed keeping the shear span constant at
weight was used. Two types of fibers (steel and polypropylene
300 mm so that the shear span-to-depth ratio was 2.0. The load
fibers) were added to the concrete at 40 and 1 kg/m3, respec-
was applied at equal increments of 5.0 kN utilizing a 200 kN
tively. The absolute volume method was used to design the
capacity hydraulic flexure machine. The mid-span deflection
concrete mixes. Table 1 shows the details of the three concrete
was measured for the tested beams using dial gauges. Strain
mixes. The dry materials were thoroughly mixed for two min-
was measured at the mid-span of the beams using 20 mm
utes. The admixture was added to the whole amount of the
mechanical strain gauges. The measurements and observations
mixing water that was then slowly added to the dry compo-
were determined for each load level. The cracks were traced
nent. Mixing was continued until the constituents were thor-
after each load increment. The test was continued after the
oughly mixed. The workability of the three mixes was
ultimate load was reached in order to evaluate the post-peak
adjusted to being at the same level of workability. Slump test
behavior of the tested beams with web reinforcement. Fig. 2
was carried out on the fresh concrete. The measured slump
illustrates the test set-up of the tested beams.
for the three selected mixes was 60 ± 5 mm. Wooden forms
were used for molding the reinforced concrete beams. The in-
side faces of the forms were greased to prevent water absorp- Analysis and discussion of test results
tion. The reinforcement was placed inside the forms, and the
concrete was cast. Nine cubes (70 · 70 · 70 mm) were cast to Cracking and modes of failure
determine the actual compressive strength of each mix. The
geometrical and reinforcement details of the tested beams are Fig. 3 shows the cracking patterns for the tested beams at fail-
shown in Fig. 1. Table 2 reports the mechanical properties of ure. The load applied by the testing machine was written close
the different mixes. The details of the tested beams under to the point to which the crack propagated in order to trace the

Table 1 Mix proportions.

Mix No Materials Required For One Cubic Meter (Kg)
Cement Silica fume Sand Water Superplasticizer Steel fibers Polypropylene fibers
1 874 97 1012 291 4.9 – –
2 40 –
3 – 1
58 M.M. Kamal et al.

Table 3 Details of the different beams under investigation.

Code beam* q qb q/qb Web reinforcement
B10 0.012 0.05 0.24 Without stirrups
B12 0.017 0.34
B10W 0.012 0.24 With stirrups
B12W 0.017 0.34
B10P 0.012 0.051 0.24 Without stirrups
B12P 0.017 0.33
B10WP 0.012 0.24 With stirrups
B12WP 0.017 0.33
B10S 0.012 0.053 0.23 Without stirrups
B12S 0.017 0.32
B10WS 0.012 0.23 With stirrups
B12WS 0.017 0.32
q: the reinforcement ratio qb: the balanced reinforcement ratio
*
A test beam was defined by letter C followed by the diameter of the two reinforcing main bars (10 or 12 mm), followed by the letter W in case
of beams having web reinforcement and either P or S denoting the beam of polypropylene or steel fibers.

The upper head of the testing machine
Dial gauge Two point loading
R.C. beam
Roller
The lower head of the testing machine
Fig. 2 Testing machine and test set-up of the tested beams.
propagation of cracking. Table 4 reported the failure modes of
the tested beams. The cracking behavior and modes of failure
of the beams followed by different trends based on the exper-
imental program were recorded. Using web reinforcement
changed the modes of failure for the tested beams compared
to the beams without web reinforcement. For comparison
between the results of beams, each of these two beams pos-
sessed the same properties except the web reinforcement. The
failure mode for the tested beams changing from diagonal ten-
sion to flexure ductile failure was noticed. All beams cracked in
the early stages of loading in the maximum moment region
within the middle third of the beam. Those fine flexure cracks
propagated upwards with loading and were followed by shear
cracks near the supports in the shear zone. Failure took place
due to shear in tested beams without web reinforcement as
planned. However, two distinct failure modes were observed.
(1) Diagonal tension failure: this failure mode took place in
the six beams that satisfied the requirements of this type of fail-
ure [33]. These beams were B10, B12, B10P, B12P and B10S
and B12S. While no web-shear cracks were observed, the outer
most flexure crack in the shear span propagated diagonally
toward the loading point. Immediately, prior to failure, a sec-
ondary crack stretched from the lower part of the crack along
the steel rebars and the upper part of the crack moved toward
the loading point at a flat slope. Failure was sudden and

Fig. 3 Cracking pattern for tested beams.

Behavior and strength of beams cast with ultra high strength 59

violent due to splitting of concrete along the steel associated
with concrete crushing in the compression zone. This type of
failure could be related to the high characteristic strength of
the UHSC mix. Actually, this type of failure is not common
in normal strength concrete and is considered particular to
UHSC [34]. (2) Flexural failure: this failure mode took place
in six beams and took place in the flexure region (B10W,
B12W, B10WP, B12WP, B10WS and B12WS). As the load
was applied, a vertical crack initiated in the maximum moment
region, while other flexural-shear cracks were formed through-
out the shear region. The vertical cracks in the maximum mo-
ment region started propagating upward as the load was
gradually increased. Failure finally occurred because concrete
reached its ultimate compressive strength and was crushed.
Table 4 shows the cracking and ultimate load for each beam.
The values for the ductility index (Du/Dy) as a measure of ductil-
ity were calculated. The ductility ratio for the test beams ranged
from 1.19 to 1.74. Most of the test beams attained large deflec-
tion at failure. The increase of the yield load and its correspond-
ing deflection resulted in this reduction of the ductility ratio, as
defined in this investigation, in comparison to the control beam.
In general, the increase of the reinforcement ratio restricted the
extension of most of the cracks compared to the corresponding
beams with the lower reinforcement ratio. The number of cracks
at failure is shown Table 4. It can be seen that the number of flex-
ure cracks increased in the beams cast with polypropylene fibers
compared to the control beams. The increased number of flexure
cracks reflects enhanced steel-concrete bond characteristics. The
number of cracks in beams B10WS and B12WS was less com-
pared with their control beams. Visual inspection of the shear
failure planes in the tested beams showed that these planes were
smooth passing through the concrete in all beams. Thus, it was
illustrated that the concrete bond strength provided sufficient
resistance due to debonding.
Load – deflection curve
The mid-span deflection curves throughout the loading for the
tested beams are presented in Fig. 4. Load-deflection curves of
beams without web reinforcements basically linear up to fail-
ure were noticed. When web reinforcements were provided,
the load deflection was slightly curved after cracking. Further-
more, all the tested beams with web reinforcement were stiffer
than the beams without web reinforcement. Using fibers (steel
fibers or polypropylene fibers) enhanced the behavior of the
tested beams. All curves showed a change of the slope of the
first flexure cracking load. Increasing the reinforcement ratio
from 1.2% to 1.7% did not significantly influence the flexure
cracking loads. For the beams without web reinforcement, it
can be seen that, for control beams B10 and B12; the initial
stiffness increases as the reinforcement ratio increases. The
maximum deflection for B10 was 3.12 mm at 36.4 kN. The
maximum deflection for B12 was 2.35 mm at 44.2 kN. Poly-
propylene fibers were used in B10P and B12P. At the same
load, the deflection for B10P was higher than that for B12P.
Steel fibers were used in B10S and B12S. The deflection for
B10S was higher than that for B12S at the same load. For
the beams with web reinforcement, it can be seen that, the
deflection for B10W was higher than that for B12W. Further-
more, the deflection for B10WP was higher than that for
B12WP. For beams B10WS and B12WS, steel fibers were used.
At the same load, the deflection for B10WS was higher than
that for B12WS. Clearly, the initial cracks’ loads for the beams
(B10 and B12) were lower than that for the beams (B10W and
B12W). The initial cracks’ loads for B10S and B12S were lower
than that the load for B10WS and B12WS. For beams, B12P
and B12S compared with the B12 at the same load, the deflec-
tion for B12S was lower than B12P lower than B12. For exam-
ple: at load 15 kN the deflection was 0.129, 0.3 and 0.48 mm
for B12S, B12P and B12, respectively. This figure shows a
good behavior and stiffness for B12S and B12P compared with
B12. Beam B12P and B12S demonstrated better behavior and
yielding of reinforcement, while the initial stiffness was as high
as the stiffness of the control beams. For beams, B10WP and
B10WS compared with beam B10W at the same load, the
deflection for B10WP was lower than B10WS and lower than
B10W. This figure shows a good behavior and stiffness for
B10WS and B10WP compared with B10W. For beams,
B12WP and B12WS compared with the B12W, at the same
load the deflection for B12WS was lower than B12WP and
lower than B12W. This figure shows a good behavior and stiff-
ness for B12WS and B12WP compared with B12W. This was
attributed to the formation of additional diagonal cracks
before failure as can be seen in Figure (7).

Table 4 Experimental test results for beam specimens.

Code Number Initial cracking load (kN) Ultimate load (kN) Deflection (mm) Ductility index No. of cracks at failure Failure mode
Dy Du
B10 20.0 36.4 – – – 10 Diagonal tension
B12 28.8 44.2 – – – 14 Diagonal tension
B10W 11.0 69.1 6.48 7.88 1.22 22 Flexural
B12W 20.0 98.5 5.68 6.79 1.19 21 Flexural
B10P 10.0 41.9 – – – 11 Diagonal tension
B12P 25.0 54.0 – – – 10 Diagonal tension
B10WP 11.0 71.4 12.13 15.98 1.32 23 Flexural
B12WP 18.0 105.8 5.00 7.56 1.51 28 Flexural
B10S 12.9 53.8 – – – 11 Diagonal tension
B12S 15.0 60.4 – – – 14 Diagonal tension
B10WS 10.0 78.3 9.23 14.23 1.54 16 Flexural
B12WS 27.0 103.8 6.25 10.88 1.74 21 Flexural
60 M.M. Kamal et al.

Fig. 4 Load-deflection for test beams.

Design equations
Current design codes adopted different equations for the shear
strength in concrete beams without web reinforcement. The
equations adopted by the ACI 318-2011 code [18] were found
to provide accurate predictions for shear strength. For calcu-
lating the concrete shear strength Vshear as the force causing
significant Eq. (1) based on SI units was used.
pffiffiffiffiffi
Vshear ¼ 0:166 fcy bd ð1Þ
In which Vshear is the force causing the significant inclined
cracking, fcy is the 28-day cylinder compressive strength
Behavior and strength of beams cast with ultra high strength 61

εcu=0.003 0.67 fcu Mn ¼ ðTs  T0s Þðd  bc=2Þ þ T0s ðd  d0 Þ

a/2  
c c Cc= 0.67 fcu a b ðtf þ bcÞ
N.A. þ Tf t  ð4Þ
d 2
t
d-c
tf εs tf Tf Ts ¼ As fs ð5Þ
d εtu
b Tf ¼ fb bðt  eÞ ¼ 1:64mf ðlf =Df Þbtf ð6Þ
Fig. 5 Ultimate stress and strain distribution [37]. The distance (e) is measured from extreme compression fi-
ber to top of tensile stress block of fibrous concrete. In which
Mn is the nominal moment (Mn = PnL/6, L is the clear
(MPa), b is the width of the beam cross-section (b = 100 mm) span = 900 mm), q is the reinforcement ratio (q = 0.012 or
and d is the effective depth (d = 130 mm). Shear equation has 0.017), fy is the yield strength of the tension reinforcement
been developed for fiber reinforced high-strength concrete (fy = 500 MPa), fcy is the 28-day cylinder compressive
beams by Imam [35]. Using Eq. (2) based on (SI units) for cal- strength; b is the width of the beam cross section
culating the concrete shear strength (Vshear) for the beams with (b = 100 mm) and d is the effective depth (d = 130 mm).
steel fiber reinforcement:
qffiffiffiffiffiffi Shear strength
1 þ 5:08 da pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Vshear ¼ 0:6  qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi  3 qs ð1 þ 4FÞ The experimental ultimate shear loads (Vu) are reported in
d
1 þ 25da Table 5. Simplified ACI-code design equations were used.
" sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi # Design equations assumed that the shear strength is propor-
0:44 qs ð1 þ 4FÞ tional with the square root of the compressive strength fcy.
 fc þ 275  bd ð2Þ
ðadÞ5 With regard to the wide range of the strength of the investi-
gated mixes (127, 130 and 135 MPa), the shear strength based
In which a is the shear span, and F is fiber factor
  on normalized shear strength (Vnorm) was analyzed.
Lf
F¼ Vf df ð3Þ Vnorm ¼ Vu =bdðfcy Þ1=2 ð7Þ
Df
The values of Vnorm are reported in Table 5. For the lower
where: Lf is the fiber length (mm), Df is the fiber diameter
reinforcement ratio (1.2%) the analysis for the results showed
(mm), Vf is the volume fraction of fibers, and df is the bond
that the Vnorm ranged from 0.14 to 0.2 with an average of 0.17
factor (for round fibers = 0.5, for crimped fibers = 0.75 and
for the beams without web reinforcement. For the reinforce-
for indented fibers = 1.0), da is the maximum aggregate size
ment ratio (1.7%) the analysis for the results showed that
(mm). The experimental ultimate loads (Pu) are reported in Ta-
the Vnorm ranged from 0.17 to 0.23 with an average of 0.20
ble 4. The load applied by the flexural testing machine was the
for the beams without web reinforcement. The results reported
load causing the test beams to crack. ACI 544-97 [36] reported
in Table 5 showed that the normalized shear strength increased
the flexural strength of fiber reinforced concrete sections based
by an average of 3% as the reinforcement ratio increased from
on an equivalent rectangular compression and tension block.
1.2% to 1.7% in the beams.
The compression block is defined in terms of the compressive
strength of the cylinder of the concrete matrix while the ten-
Nominal failure load
sion block depends only on the bond strength of steel fibers
(fb). Beshara et al. [37] developed the proposed flexural
strength state for high-strength fiber reinforced concrete beams The experimental ultimate loads (Pu) are reported in Table 4.
as shown in Fig. 5. The basic equations for calculating the Simplified ACI-code design equations were used to calculate
nominal moment strength (Mn) are as follows: the nominal moment (Mn). Furthermore, modified design

Table 5 Experimental and theoretical loads.

Code number Vuexp (kN) Vnorm Vfs (kN) Vutheo.(kN) Vuexp/Vutheo Pu (kN) Pn (kN) Pu/Pn
B10 18.20 0.14 10.0 22.20 0.82 36.4 44.40 0.82
B12 22.10 0.17 14.0 22.20 1.00 44.2 44.40 1.00
B10W 34.55 0.27 5.0 35.30 1.01 69.1 70.60 0.98
B12W 48.65 0.38 10.0 50.10 0.97 98.5 100.20 0.98
B10P 21.95 0.17 5.0 24.31 0.90 43.9 44.68 0.98
B12P 27.00 0.21 12.0 29.20 0.92 54.0 44.68 1.20
B10WP 37.77 0.29 5.0 35.30 1.06 71.4 70.60 1.01
B12WP 52.55 0.40 14.0 49.80 1.06 105.8 100.2 1.06
B10S 26.9 0.20 6.4 29.90 0.90 53.8 59.80 0.90
B12S 30.20 0.23 7.5 35.42 0.85 60.4 70.84 0.85
B10WS 35.4 0.27 2.0 45.63 0.78 78.3 91.26 0.86
B12WS 51.25 0.39 13.5 60.84 0.84 103.8 121.68 0.97
p
Vu: ultimate shear force, Vnorm.: normalized shear stress (Vu/bd fcy), Vfs: force at first cracking, Pu: ultimate load, Pn: nominal failure load.
62
equation was used to calculate the Mn for beams with steel fi-
ber reinforcement. The values of nominal failure load (Pn) are
reported in Table 5. For the lower reinforcement ratio (1.2%),
the analysis for the results showed that Pn ranged between 70.6
and 91.26 kN with an average of 77.49 kN for the beams with
web reinforcement. For the reinforcement ratio (1.7%), the Pn
ranged between 99.59 and 121.68 kN with an average of
107.16 kN for the beams with web reinforcement. It can be
seen that beam B12WS achieved the highest Pn, which was
121.68 kN. These values were 21.43% higher than the Pn of
the corresponding control beam B12W. The results reported
in Table 5 showed that the Pn increased by an average of
29.67 kN as the reinforcement ratio increased from 1.2% to
1.7%, respectively.
Conclusions
The current work aimed at investigating the shear behavior of
simple beams with and without web reinforcement cast using
ultra-high performance concrete. The beams were loaded until
failure, and the behavior was analyzed in terms of cracking
and failure patterns, deflection and shear resistance. Proposed
design strength and ACI-code design equations were used to
check on the experimental results. Based on the available test
results and analysis, the following conclusions could be drawn:
1. Ultra-high performance concrete could be produced utiliz-
ing conventional local materials and production techniques
with regard to mixing and curing. A 135 MPa 28-day com-
pressive strength was achieved with adequate workability.
2. The use of polypropylene and steel fibers increased the 28-
day compressive strength by 2.5 and 6 percent compared to
the counterpart mixes without fibers.
3. Independent of the longitudinal steel reinforcement ratio,
the steel fibers were more efficient in increasing both initial
and ultimate loads. The maximum percentage of increasing
the ultimate loads was 13% where steel fibers were used in
the test beams with lower reinforcement ratios and web
reinforcement.
4. In test beams without web reinforcement, the influence of
reinforcement fibers on the ultimate load and consequently,
the shear strength was more significant. The increase in the
ultimate loads was as high as 48 and 15 percent where steel
and polypropylene fibers were used, respectively in test
beams with the lower reinforcement ratio. When the rein-
forcement ratio increased the percentage increase was only
22 percent for both steel and polypropylene fibers.
5. The reported equations are proposed for estimating the
ultimate loads and shear strength for ordinary and steel
fiber reinforced concrete providing adequate estimations
of both ultimate loads and shear strength.
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