1/7/2011 Fibre Reinforced Concrete

Fibre Reinforced Concrete

Heat Introduction
Evolution

Compatibility Plain Portland cement concrete is a brittle material. The strength of concrete in tension is
Issues much lower than in compression. A growing tensile crack in plain concrete can very soon
lead to failure. In the presence of reinforcement, the tensile load is transferred to the
Rheology steel. An alternative to increasing the load carrying capacity of concrete in tension is the
Pumping of addition of fibres. Well-dispersed fibres in the concrete act to bridge the cracks that
Concrete develop in concrete. The incorporation of fibres in a cement matrix leads to an increase in
the toughness and tensile strength, and an improvement in the cracking and deformation
Multiaxial characteristics of the resultant concrete.
Loading
A significant amount of research has been conducted on fibre-reinforced concrete over the
Constitutive past thirty to forty years. However, the number of structural applications worldwide, and
Relationships more so in India, have been limited. In order for fibre-reinforced concrete (FRC) to be a
viable material, it must be able to compete economically with existing reinforcing systems.
Corrosion
Monitoring Continued studies on this subject are necessary in order to increase the usage of FRC.

Performance Properties of concrete affected by fibre reinforcement

Specs

Special Hardened concrete

Concretes
Fibres are generally distributed throughout a given cross section of the concrete, unlike
Quality
Control reinforcing bars, which are provided at specific locations only. Fibres are also relatively
Issues short and closely spaced compared to reinforcing bars. The overall amount of fibres in
concrete is small (0.1 – 0.5% by volume) compared to reinforcing steel. In any case,
NDE of substantial enhancement of concrete properties can be achieved by the use of fibres,
Concrete
provided these are randomly and uniformly distributed over the entire volume of concrete.
The parameters controlling the overall performance of fibres are:

Type of fibre, i.e., the material, and the texture

Volume concentration of the fibre
Aspect ratio of the fibre
Orientation of the fibre in the matrix.

The type of fibre influences the strength of the bond between the fibre and the cement
paste matrix. The aspect ratio of the fibre is the ratio of the length of the fibre to its
diameter.

Fibres in concrete primarily act to bridge the growing cracks, thus restricting their further
growth and propagation. For maximum effectiveness, the pull out strength of the fibre in
the concrete matrix should be higher than the tensile fracture strength of the fibre. In
simple terms, the fibre should break before pulling out of the cement matrix. In addition,
for maximum effectiveness, the optimum orientation of the fibre should be at 90o to the
crack. At higher volume concentrations, it is possible to find a higher percentage of fibres
in the right orientation. The effect of slowing down of the crack propagation leads to an
enhanced ductility of the concrete. In other words, fibre-reinforced concrete can undergo
much larger deformations before failure as compared to plain concrete. The toughness
(defined as the total area under the stress-strain diagram) of concrete is enhanced by the
use of fibres. Figure 1 depicts the action of fibres in concrete.
Conventional fibres, that are typically as long as the size of coarse aggregate particles in
concrete, do not affect the compressive strength of concrete significantly. On the other
hand, ultimate tensile strengths of concrete can be greatly enhanced by the use of fibres.
Recent research has shown that compressive strength and modulus of rupture of concrete
can also be enhanced by the use of a high volume of fine micro-fibers. These have the
ability to provide reinforcing mechanisms at the micro level such that cracks in cement
matrix are arrested and stabilized before they become unstable. Such micro-fibres are
more commonly available in materials such as polymers and carbon.

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Figure 1. While relative strengths are similar for plain and fibre-reinforced concrete, the
toughness for FRC is much greater

Fresh concrete

The inclusion of fibres in concrete generally causes a decrease in the workability of

concrete. Regardless of the fibre type, the loss of workability is proportional to the volume
concentration of the fibres in concrete. Since fibres impart considerable stability to a fresh
concrete mass, the slump test is not a good measure of the workability. Some highly
placeable concretes might show low slumps. The Vebe test is considered more appropriate
for FRC. ASTM has also developed a specialized test method – ASTM C995 - using an
inverted slump cone that gives a good indication of the workability of FRC.

Fibre properties

Dimension of fibres

The fibre should be embedded in the matrix for a minimum length for effective
strengthening and stiffening of the composite material.

Figure 2. Length of embedment of a fibre

From the above schematic, the critical fibre length can be calculated as:

lc =σfd/(4τc), where

σf = ultimate tensile strength of the fibre,

d = diameter of fibre,
and τc = shear yield strength of matrix (or the fibre-matrix bond strength).
The fibres for which length is greater than lc are called continuous (l > 15 lc).
Discontinuous fibres have shorter lengths than 15 lc. If the length of the fibre is less than
lc, the matrix deforms around the fibre such that there is no stress transference and little
reinforcement by the fibre.

For good effectiveness, the fibre should have sufficient length to ensure that failure occurs
by complete pull-out of the fibre from the matrix before the rupture of the fibre due to
tensile forces.

Type of fibre

A number of types of fibres have been used to reinforce cement concrete. Table 1 shows
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A number of types of fibres have been used to reinforce cement concrete. Table 1 shows
the properties of some selected fibres. The data in the table indicate that various types of
fibres show a wide range in their properties. Carbon fibres possess the highest strength
and stiffness amongst all fibres. However, the strain at failure for carbon fibres is very
small. In other words, carbon fibres are extremely brittle. On the other hand, polymeric
fibres (especially polyester and polyethylene), which possess low stiffness and moderate
strength, can deform as much as 50 – 80 % at failure, and exhibit a ductile behaviour. The
other important factor related to the type of fibre is the strength of the bond between the
fibre and the cementitious matrix. As stated in the previous section, the embedment length
of the fibres required would depend on the fibre properties as well as the bond strength.
Figure 3 shows a snapshot of the different fibre materials.
The texture of fibre is important as far as the use of steel fibres is concerned. Steel fibres
can be used in various forms, varying from smooth wires to bundled fibres. Crimping
(deforming) causes a better interlock to develop between the fibre and the matrix, and
improves the performance of the composite.

Table 1. Selected fibres and their properties

Diameter Specific Young’s Tensile Strain at

Fibre type
(mm) gravity modulus (GPa) strength (MPa) failure (%)
Steel
0.10 – 1.0
High tensile 7.80 200 345 – 1700 3.5
0.01 –
Stainless 7.80 160 2070 3.0
0.30
Glass
E 0.01 2.50 72 3450 4.8
Alkali resistant 0.01 2.70 80 2480 3.6

Polymeric
0.10 –
Monofilament
0.20 0.90 5 450 18
polypropylene
0.03 – 1.0 0.96 5 – 170 200 – 3000 3 – 80
Polyethylene
0.01 – 0.96 10 – 17 550 – 1170 10 – 50
Polyester
0.10 1.44 60 3600 3.6
Kevlar 29
0.01
Asbestos
Chrysotile 0.03 2.60 165 3450 2–3
Carbon
I High modulus 0.008 1.90 380 1790 0.5 – 0.7
II High strength 0.009 1.90 230 2620 1.0 – 1.5

0.02 –
Natural 1.50
0.11
Wood cellulose 1.12 – 10 – 40 300 – 900 -
0.10 –
Coir 1.15 19 – 26 117 – 200 10 – 25
0.40
Jute 1.02 – 26 – 32 250 – 350 1.5 – 1.9
0.10 –
1.04
0.20

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Figure 3. Various types of fibres

Summary

Fibres, added in dosages of 0.1 – 0.5 % by volume of concrete, enhance primarily the
ductility of concrete, enabling it to undergo large deformations at failure. The compressive
strength and first cracking tensile strength of concrete are not affected by the presence of
fibres. However, the load carrying capacity in flexure is increased.
The performance of fibre-reinforced concrete depends on the properties of the fibre, which
include the dimension of the fibre, and the type of the fibre. Polymeric fibres, despite their
low strengths and moduli, are useful owing to their high ductility.

List of References
1. ACI Committee 544, Fiber Reinforced Concrete, Publication SP-44, American
Concrete Institute, Detroit, 1974.
2. V. S. Ramachandran, R. F. Feldman, and J.J. Beaudoin, “Chapter 6: Fiber
Reinforced Cement Systems,” Concrete Science, Heyden and Sons Ltd., London,
1981, pp. 169 – 223.
3. Mehta, P. K., and Monteiro, P. J. M., ‘Concrete: Structure, Properties, and
Materials,’ Second Edition, Prentice Hall, Inc., NJ, 1993.
4. N. Banthia and J. Sheng, “Fracture Toughness of Micro-Fiber Reinforced Cement
Composites,” Cement and Concrete Composites Vol. 18, 1996, pp. 251 – 269.
5. ASTM C995-94, “Standard Test Method for Time of Flow of Fiber-Reinforced
Concrete Through Inverted Slump Cone,” American Society for Testing and
Materials, Philadelphia, PA, 2002.
6. Portland Cement Association, “Fibre-Reinforced Concrete,” USA, 1991.

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