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Mechanical properties of steel fiber reinforced

high strength lightweight self-compacting
concrete (SHLSCC)

ARTICLE in CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING MATERIALS · NOVEMBER 2015

Impact Factor: 2.3 · DOI: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2015.08.112

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 Construction and Building Materials 98 (2015) 325–333

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Construction and Building Materials

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

Mechanical properties of steel fiber reinforced high strength lightweight

self-compacting concrete (SHLSCC)
Shahid Iqbal a,⇑, Ahsan Ali a, Klaus Holschemacher a, Thomas A. Bier b
a
Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Applied Sciences (HTWK), Leipzig, Germany
b
Institute of Ceramics, Glass and Construction Materials, Technical University Freiberg, Freiberg, Germany

h i g h l i g h t s

 Steel fiber reinforced high strength lightweight self-compacting concrete is developed.

 Effect of change in short straight steel fibers content on fresh and hardened concrete properties is studied.
 Workability, air content and compressive strength decrease with increase of fiber content.
 Tensile strength, flexural strength and toughness increase significantly with increase of fiber content.
 Concrete exhibits strain hardening behavior at fiber content of 0.75% and more.

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

Article history: With addition of steel fibers to concrete, its properties are altered from brittle to ductile. Using light-
Received 8 June 2015 weight concrete enables decrease in additional loads while self-compacted concrete avoids use of vibra-
Received in revised form 12 August 2015 tors for concrete compaction, in case of renovation or/strengthening of existing structures. This study is
Accepted 13 August 2015
aimed at investigating the effect of change in micro steel fiber content on the properties of steel fiber
reinforced high strength lightweight self-compacting concrete (SHLSCC). Slump flow test was conducted
to find the workability of fresh concrete mixture. Further compressive strength, splitting tensile strength,
Keywords:
modulus of elasticity and flexural strength of hardened concrete were tested. Five concrete mixes of
Self-compaction
Lightweight concrete
SHLSCC with different fiber contents (0%, 0.5%, 0.75%, 1% and 1.25%) were prepared to study the change
High strength in its fresh and hardened properties. Results show that there is strong influence on the workability of
Micro fibers SHLSCC with steel fiber content of 1% or more. There is around 12% reduction in compressive strength,
Superplasticizer 37% and 110% increase in splitting tensile strength and flexural strength respectively, with increase of
Flexural strength steel fiber content from 0% to 1.25%, while the modulus of elasticity remains unchanged.
Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Self-compacting concrete (SCC) is highly flowable, non-
segregating concrete that can spread into place, fill the formwork
and encapsulate the reinforcement without any mechanical con-
solidation. It doesn’t require any vibration for compaction and
can flow through narrow spaces without segregation and excessive
bleeding [1]. Similar to the normal vibrated concrete (NVC), SCC
mix consists of aggregate, cement, water, admixtures and some
mineral additions. Unlike NVC, SCC contains high quantity of fillers
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: shahid.iqbalmce@gmail.com (S. Iqbal), ahsanone@gmail.com
(A. Ali), klaus.holschemacher@htwk-leipzig.de (K. Holschemacher), thomas.bier@
ikgb.tu-freiberg.de (T.A. Bier).
(e.g. silica fume, fly ash, limestone powder, blast furnace slag etc.)
and superplasticizers added to improve its flow properties. As SCC
flows under its own weight without or very little use of vibration, it
results in saving of labor effort and brings economy to concreting.
As per ACI committee report [2], structural light weight
aggregate concrete is the concrete having minimum 28 days
compressive strength of 17 MPa and equilibrium density of
1120–1920 kg/m3, consisting entirely or partially of lightweight
aggregates, while the high strength lightweight concrete is the
structural lightweight concrete having 28 days compressive
strength of more than 40 MPa.
Shah and Ribakov reported that the mechanical properties of
high strength concrete are improved by fiber addition to it, which
makes it an attractive material for applications in construction. The
length of fibers is kept shorter to avoid workability issues and

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2015.08.112
0950-0618/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
326 S. Iqbal et al. / Construction and Building Materials 98 (2015) 325–333
inadequate fiber distribution [3]. Addition of high strength steel
fibers to concrete results in better ductility and higher load carry-
ing capacity, compared to concrete with normal strength steel
fibers in the absence of main reinforcement bars [4]. Use of optimal
steel fiber weight ratio in high strength concrete produces high
performance bending elements having elastic–plastic behavior
similar to that of normal strength concrete members [5].
Similar to normal weight concrete, addition of fibers to the
lightweight concrete increases the load carrying capacity and con-
trol cracks [6]. It also increases the concrete resistance to dynamic
and sudden loading, reduces crack width, increase tensile strength
of concrete and its resistance against deformation. However, there
is strong negative influence on the workability of concrete with
addition of fibers to it [7]. Akcay and Tasdemir used normal and
high strength steel fiber with 6 mm and 30 mm length to study
the behavior of steel fiber reinforced SCC. It was concluded that
steel fibers addition has slight negative impact on workability of
concrete but this impact is mainly dependent on the geometry of
long fibers rather than the strength of fibers [8]. It has been
reported that, addition of 20 mm long steel fibers to SCC reduces
its workability and the passing ability especially when 2% volume
fraction of steel fibers is used, thus making it difficult to pass
through rebars [9]. Concrete flow reduces with the addition of glass
fibers to ceramic concrete [10]. Liao et al. used 30 mm long hooked
end steel fibers to produce self-compacting high performance fiber
reinforced concrete with slump flow of 600 mm, compressive
strength ranging from 35–65 MPa and tensile strength ranging
from 3.5–6.5 MPa [11].
Conflicting results have been reported on the effect of fibers
addition on compressive strength of concrete. It is reported that
compressive strength increases with the increase of steel fibers
content up to 1.5% volume fraction and decreases slightly at 2%,
but still it is 12.9% higher than the compressive strength of con-
crete without fibers [12]. Ma et al. in 2013 reported 19–42%
improvement in compressive strengths of different concretes with
the addition 0–2% short steel fibers with 13 mm length and aspect
ratio of 65 [13]. However according to Atis and Karahan, there is no
significant impact on the compressive strength of concrete when
steel fibers are added to it [14]. Results of study using steel fibers
with lengths ranging from 22–44 mm indicates that, the compres-
sive strength is unaffected by steel fibers addition, however com-
pression failure mode changes from fragile to ductile with the
specimens maintaining its integrity till the end of the test [15].
Some recent studies also reported decrease in compressive
strength of concrete with addition of steel fibers to it. Khaloo
et al. in 2014 reported 18.6% and 7.5% decrease in compressive
strength of medium strength and high strength concretes with
addition of 2% volume fraction of steel fibers [9]. A research
conducted to study the properties of very high strength concrete
reinforced with alkali resistant propylene fibers and polyvinyl alco-
hol micro fibers indicate clear reduction in compressive strength
and modulus of elasticity of concrete [16].
Increase in the flexural and tensile strength of concrete by fiber
addition has been reported by numerous researchers in their stud-
ies. According to a research study conducted on fiber reinforced
SCC [17] using 12.5 mm straight and 30 mm hooked end steel
fibers, it was observed that SCC behaves in a similar way as that
of NVC and shows increase in flexural strength with increase in
fibers content. Olivito and Zuccarello in 2012 [15] concluded that
the addition of steel fibers to concrete increases its ductility, first
crack strength and flexural strength while the compressive
strength of concrete is less affected. Additionally it was concluded
that addition of shorter steel fibers produces softening behavior
while with longer fibers, concrete exhibits hardening behavior.
There is an increase in flexural strength of concrete with increase
in steel fiber content with the maximum value of flexural strength
at steel fiber content of 3.5%. Further increase in fiber content
decreases the flexural strength [18]. Tensile strength of concrete
improved in the range of 19% and 98.3%, while flexural strength
improved by 28.1–126.6% with addition of steel fibers from 0.5%
to 2% [12]. An increase of up to 71% in splitting tensile strength
and 30–60% in flexural strength was reported with addition of
1.5% steel fibers to concrete [14]. Khaloo et al. demonstrated
28.5% and 17.1% increase in splitting tensile strength of medium
strength and high strength concretes respectively with addition
of 2% volume fraction of steel fibers to them [9]. Wille et al. inves-
tigated the properties of strain hardening ultra high performance
fiber reinforced concrete with addition of short fibers, 13–30 mm
in length with different geometries (smooth, twisted and hooked
end). They demonstrated strong influence of fibers volume on con-
crete properties, however no significant influence of geometry on
tensile strength, strain at peak loading and energy absorption
was reported. It was concluded that the high bond strength of
smooth fibers mitigates the necessity for additional mechanical
anchorage present in hooked end and twisted fibers [19].
According to a study conducted by Yap et al. in 2013 by adding
polypropylene and nylon fiber to oil palm shell concrete, an
increase of 19–86% was observed in splitting tensile strength of
concrete [20]. Contrary to most of the previous studies results,
decrease of 2% in splitting tensile strength was reported by Ali
et al. by addition of 5% coconut fibers to concrete [21].
In another study, 8.7–10.7% improvement in flexural strength
was reported with addition of 0.3% polypropylene fibers to con-
crete [22]. As reported by Pajak and Ponikiewski in 2013, the
SCC exhibits similar behavior as that of NVC with increase of flex-
ural strength when the fibers content in concrete is increased
[17]. When high strength long steel fibers are added to concrete,
it exhibits more toughness and ductility, compared to concretes
with normal strength steel fiber [8]. Mortinalo et al. used high
performance fiber reinforced concrete using straight micro steel
fibers with 12.5 mm in length and 0.18 mm in diameter exhibit-
ing compressive strength of 177 MPa to strengthen RC beams in
flexure. They demonstrated an increase in ultimate load of up
to 2.15 time compared to the reference beam [23]. With increase
of steel fiber content in SCC, there is an increase in toughness of
concrete. Fiber addition to concrete increases the ultimate load
which leads to the improvement in the flexural strength of con-
crete. Tests results show significant improvement in toughness
of lightweight concrete, as fibers play significant role in resistance
against formation and propagation of cracks [24]. There is an
increase of 45–86% in flexural strength of concrete with addition
of different amount of polypropylene and nylon fibers in oil palm
shell concrete [20]. Chidambaram and Agarwal [25] while study-
ing the effect of geo grid confinement and steel fiber reinforce-
ment in concrete on flexural and shear behavior of RC beam
concluded that, addition of steel fibers to concrete improves the
post yielding behavior and energy dissipating capacity of the
beams. It was observed that, with confinement provided by geo
grids and steel fiber reinforced concrete, the flexural and shear
capacity of beams increased. Holschemacher and Klug [26]
noticed that the bond of fibers in SCC is better as compared to
NVC. So it may be conclude that, maximum benefits of fiber addi-
tion in SCC may be obtained compared to NVC. Better ductility
and higher loads in post cracking range were noticed with the
use of high strength steel fibers compared to normal strength
fibers [27]. This indicates that, if high strength steel fibers are
used in SCC, it will combine the effect of both to produce concrete
with very good ductility and using lightweight concrete will
reduce its self-weight making it an ideal material for repair/
strengthening of existing structures.
 S. Iqbal et al. / Construction and Building Materials 98 (2015) 325–333
2. Research aims, scope and novelty
Most of the researches [9,26,28] carried out on addition of steel
fibers to concrete involves relatively longer fibers (>25 mm), focus-
ing mostly on hooked end fibers while limited studies have been
conducted on straight micro fibers which might have lower nega-
tive impact on workability of concrete especially in case of SCC.
Fiber reinforced concrete with good tensile and flexural proper-
ties may be utilized to enhance the load carrying capacity of exist-
ing bending members. However, there are some limitations in such
applications which must be considered. Most important consider-
ation is the additional loads imposed due to the strengthening
material on the existing foundations, which need to be minimized.
Use of vibrators for concrete compaction may also not be recom-
mended, to avoid vibrations in old structures and reducing noise,
as such buildings are mostly situated in built-up areas where sur-
rounding inhabitants may be disturbed by the used of vibrators.
Additionally, use of vibrators may be impractical and ineffective
for thin strengthening layers. To enhance the bonding of steel
fibers in concrete, use of high strength and SCC is recommended.
Straight micro steel fibers are expected to have lower negative
impact on workability of concrete due to their small size and no
interlocking, compared to the longer hooked end and other irregu-
lar shaped steel fibers. Therefore, the current research is aimed at
developing a high strength light weight concrete with good flexu-
ral properties and exhibiting self-compaction to be used for
strength purposes.
Fresh state properties studied in this research are workability,
density and air content, while hardened properties include com-
pressive strength, splitting tensile strength, modulus of elasticity
and flexural strength of concrete.
The objectives of this study are as under:
1. Development of SHLSCC with slump flow of more than 600 mm
and 28 days compressive strength of more than 50 MPa.
2. Study the effect of change in straight micro steel fibers content
on the fresh state properties i.e. workability, air content and
fresh state density.
3. Study the effect of change in straight micro steel fibers content
on the hardened properties i.e. compressive strength, splitting
tensile strength, modulus of elasticity and flexural strength of
SHLSCC.
In this study, powder type SCC is used which has already been
developed in the early phase of this research study denoted as
Mix-0. The fiber contents used are 0.5%, 0.75%. 1% and 1.25% vol-
ume fraction (corresponding to 40 kg, 60 kg, 80 kg and 100 kg/m3
of concrete) denoted as Mix-0.5, Mix-0.75, Mix-1 and Mix-1.25.
3. Methodology
This experimental research was conducted to study the change
in properties of SHLSCC with addition of micro steel fibers. Five
concrete mixes were considered for this study. One concrete mix
with 0% steel fibers considered as the base mix, while the other
four mixes with 0.5%, 0.75%, 1% and 1.25% volume fraction of steel
fibers corresponding to 40 kg, 60 kg, 80 kg and 100 kg of steel
fibers per cubic meter of concrete. Fresh as well as hardened con-
crete properties were tested. Fresh concrete properties included
workability, air content and fresh concrete density while hardened
concrete properties included compressive strength, splitting
tensile strength, modulus of elasticity and flexural strength of con-
crete. Slump flow test for the workability was conducted as per
EFNARC [29]. ASTM procedures were followed for testing of all
the other properties under consideration. In its fresh state, for
327
workability of concrete, slump flow test was conducted. The con-
crete density was found by filling a cylinder of known volume
and weighing it while air content was also calculated as per ASTM
C138/C138M [30]. For hardened concrete properties tests as per
ASTM standard testing procedures, three cylinder specimens with
diameter of 100 mm and height of 200 mm were each casted to
test the compressive strength (ASTM C39/C39M) [31], splitting
tensile strength (ASTM C496/C496M) [32] and modulus of elastic-
ity (ASTM C469/C469M) [33] at concrete age of 28 days. After 24 h
of casting, the cylinder specimens were removed from the molds
and kept in water tank for moist curing as per ASTM C192/
C192M [34] till the testing day. For flexural strength tests, three
small prisms dimensioning 80  80  400 mm3 with clear span
of 300 mm, were casted for each concrete type. They were also
moist cured and tested at concrete age of 28 days using third point
loading test as per ASTM C1609/C1609M [35].
4. Concrete mix design
Powder type SCC was developed by the authors in the earlier
phase of research using lightweight aggregates and no addition
of natural sand or normal weight aggregates. Expanded clay light-
weight round course aggregate (LIAPOR 8) 4–8 mm in size was
used as the only coarse aggregates while crushed fine aggregate
(LIAPOR sand) 0–4 mm in size was used. The properties of light-
weight aggregates are presented in Table 1.
The straight high strength micro steel fibers were used with
length of 13 mm, diameter of 0.2 mm and tensile strength of
2500 MPa. Fig. 1 shows the aggregates and steel fibers used in this
research.
Ordinary Portland cement CEM-I 42.5R was used and fly ash
was the only filler added. Polycarboxylate ether based superplasti-
cizer (Glenium ACE 391 (FM)) was used as high range water reduc-
ing agent. The material compositions of all the five concrete
mixtures are given in Table 2.
5. Experimental program
Fresh state properties tested in this study are workability, fresh
state density and air content while the hardened properties
included compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, modulus
of elasticity and flexural strength respectively.
To test the workability of concrete, slump flow test was con-
ducted. The target set for the slump flow was 600 mm and the test
was conducted as per EFNARC [29]. Slump flow test conducted for
SHLSCC is shown in Fig. 2. The fresh state density and air content
were calculated as per ASTM procedure [30] considering the actual
and theoretical densities.
To test the hardened concrete properties, ASTM procedures
were followed [31–33]. In total 12 cylinders were casted for each
concrete type all dimensioning 100 mm in diameter and 200 mm
in height. De-molding was performed after 24 h of casting and
the cylinder specimens were transferred to water tank for moist
curing till the testing date as per ASTM standard procedures [34].
For compressive strength of each concrete type, three cylinders
were tested at the concrete age of seven days to have an idea about
the early strength development, while the other three were tested
Table 1
Properties of lightweight aggregates.
Material Size (mm) Loose bulk Specific Water
density (kg/m3) gravity absorption (%)
Coarse aggregate 4–8 810 1.45 8.2
Fine aggregate 0–4 740 1.55 18.5
328 S. Iqbal et al. / Construction and Building Materials 98 (2015) 325–333

Fig. 1. Lightweight course and fine aggregate and micro steel fibers.

Table 2
Concrete mix composition.

Concrete type Quantities (kg/m3)

Cement Fly ash Super pl. VMA Steel fibers Coarse agg. Fine agg. Water
Mix-0 465 125 12 0 0 305 525 272
Mix-0.5 465 125 14 0 40 305 525 272
Mix-0.75 465 125 14 0 60 305 525 272
Mix-1 465 125 14 0 80 305 525 272
Mix-1.25 485 130 15 3 100 305 525 296

at the age of 28 days. The loading rate for compressive strength

tests was kept constant at 0.25 MPa/s for all tested specimens.
Three cylinders each were tested at the age of 28 days for splitting
tensile strength at a constant loading rate of 0.02 MPa/s, while
modulus of elasticity test was performed at constant loading rate
of 0.25 MPa/s for each concrete mix. Fig. 3 shows the actual
arrangement for compressive strength, splitting tensile strength
and modulus of elasticity tests.
For testing of flexural strength, three prisms dimensioning
80  80  400 mm3 were casted for each concrete type. Similar
to cylinder specimens, de-molding was performed after 24 h of
concrete casting and transferred to water tank for moist curing.
The prisms were tested in third point bending test as per the ASTM
procedure [35] with clear span of 300 mm at constant loading rate
of 0.05 mm/min for all the tested specimens. Two LVDTs on both
sides were places to note down the mid-span deflection. The
Fig. 2. Slump flow test. arrangement for testing of flexural strength of fiber reinforced
concrete is shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 3. Hardened concrete tests.

 S. Iqbal et al. / Construction and Building Materials 98 (2015) 325–333 329

Fig. 4. Flexural strength test arrangement.

Table 3 Previous test results on steel fiber reinforced self-compacting

Fresh state properties. concrete (SFRSCC) [24] show very slight change in the slump flow
of concrete with addition of fibers with no major impact on work-
Concrete Slump flow T500 Density Air content
type (mm) (s) (kg/m3) (%) ability of concrete, while this study results indicate significant neg-
ative impact on slump flow especially with fiber content of more
Mix-0 790 5 1741 2.23
Mix-0.5 725 7 1744 3.63 than 0.75%. A study conducted on normal weight high-strength
Mix-0.75 715 8 1749 4.17 SFRSCC [9] indicates no significant reduction in slump flow of con-
Mix-1 620 9 1744 5.25 crete (800–740 mm) with addition of fibers to it. However, another
Mix-1.25 630 9 1746 5.32 research indicates a huge reduction in slump flow of lightweight
SCC from 720 mm to 430 mm with addition of 0.3% of polypropy-
6. Results and discussion lene fibers to it [22].
Test results [28] show that the slump flow reduced by 50 mm
6.1. Fresh mix properties with addition of 0.25% hooked end steel fibers to SCC but slump
flow reduction is considerably higher (220 mm) with fiber content
Table 3 presents the fresh state properties of concrete mixes of 0.5%. Similar behavior is observed in this study, where workabil-
studied. As the fiber content increases, the slump flow decreases ity is more sensitive to same amount of steel fibers addition at
especially above 0.75% steel fiber content. For the concrete mix higher content of fibers than at the lower contents.
with fiber content of 1.25%, the slump flow dropped below
600 mm which was the minimum requirement. So to increase
6.2. Hardened concrete properties
the workability, powder content and water–cement ratio were
slightly increased. Additionally it can be observed from the table
The results of hardened concrete properties at 28 days are sum-
that despite the addition of steel fibers which are quite heavier,
marized in Table 4.
the fresh concrete density remained almost constant due to the
increase in air content.
The change in workability and air content of all the five mixes 6.2.1. Compressive strength
are graphically represented in Fig. 5. It is clear from this figure that, Results of concrete compressive strength tests in Table 4 indi-
with the increase in steel fiber content, the workability reduces cates that, with the increase of steel fibers content, there is slight
while the air content increases especially with steel fiber content decrease in the compressive strength (CS) of concrete. This rela-
above 0.75%. The R2 value of above 0.9 indicates good relation tionship is evident in the compressive strength at the concrete
between the fiber content in concrete and it workability and air age of both 7 days and 28 days. This behavior of tested samples
content. is graphically presented in Fig. 6. R2 value of 0.94 indicates good

800 Slump flow (mm) 10

y = -140.27x + 794.19
R² = 0.9023 Air content (%)
700
Slump flow (mm)

600
6
500
y = 2.6189x + 2.2868
R² = 0.9713
4
400

300 2
0 0.4 0.8 1.2
Fiber content (% VF)

Fig. 5. Slump flow and air content variation.

330 S. Iqbal et al. / Construction and Building Materials 98 (2015) 325–333

70 7 day CS

Compressive strength (MPa)

y = -6.5692x + 67.302 28 days CS
65 R² = 0.9394

60

55
y = -5.5362x + 54.611
R² = 0.9823
50

45
0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 1.25

Fiber content (% VF)

Fig. 6. Variation in compressive strength of concrete.

noted down once crack was visible in the samples, although there
Table 4
Hardened properties at concrete age of 28 days. was further increase in load due to the bridging effect of fibers in
the concrete. As indicated on the graph, R2 value of 0.99 indicates
Concrete Compressive Splitting Modulus Flexural Hardened
extremely good relationship between the fiber content and split-
type strength tensile of strength concrete
(MPa) strength elasticity (MPa) density ting tensile strength of concrete.
(MPa) (MPa) (kg/m3) Results show that there is around 37% increase in splitting ten-
Mix-0 67.8 4.1 16,581 3.7 1692 sile strength of the tested specimens with increase in steel fiber
Mix-0.5 64.03 4.76 15,782 4.43 1695 content from 0% to 1.25%. Earlier study reported gradual increase
Mix-0.75 61.01 5.02 15,595 6.13 1705 in tensile and flexural strength of SCC with the increase in steel
Mix-1 60.94 5.42 15,672 6.36 1708 fiber content [24]. Previous test results show an increase of 17.1%
Mix-1.25 59.74 5.64 15,349 7.62 1720
in splitting tensile strength of normal weight high-strength SFRSCC
with addition of 2% steel fiber content to concrete [9].
Mazaheripour et al. [22] came up with the conclusion that, there
relationship between the fiber content and 28 days compressive is 14% increase in tensile strength of lightweight SCC with addition
strength of concrete. of 0.3% of polypropylene fibers to it.
The compressive strength of concrete without fiber addition is Graph was also plotted between 28 day compressive strength
67.8 MPa, while with 1.25% steel fiber content it is 59.74 MPa. So and splitting tensile strength of concrete to see if there is any rela-
there is almost 12% reduction in compressive strength of concrete. tionship between them. Fig. 8 shows this relationship. As indicated
The reason may be due to the increase of air content in concrete by the high R2 value, both have good relationship.
with increase of steel fiber content, reducing compressive strength
slightly. Abu-Lebdeh et al. [16] observed slight increase in com-
pressive strength with addition of steel fibers while Khaloo et al. 6.2.3. Modulus of elasticity
[9] reported around 7.5% reduction in compressive strength of The results for modulus of elasticity (E) of all the five concrete
high-strength SCC, with addition of steel fibers, which is similar mixes are summarized in Table 4. Results show that there is very
to the results in this study. slight variation in the modulus of elasticity of concrete with
increase in steel fiber content, but variation is not clear and the val-
6.2.2. Splitting tensile strength ues remain almost at the same level. So it may be inferred from the
Results for splitting tensile strength of concrete mixes are sum- results that, the modulus of elasticity remains unaffected by the
marized in Table 4. These results are also graphically presented in addition of steel fibers. Previous studies [22,24] also indicate no
Fig. 7. With the increase of steel fiber content, there is an increase major impact on modulus of elasticity of concrete with addition
in splitting tensile strength of the concrete. The load values were of fibers to it.

6
Splitting tensile strength (MPa)

5.5

y = 1.2508x + 4.1124
R² = 0.9958
5

4.5

4
0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 1.25
Fiber content (% VF)

Fig. 7. Variation in splitting tensile strength of concrete.

 S. Iqbal et al. / Construction and Building Materials 98 (2015) 325–333 331

6.2.4. Flexural strength strength of concrete as shown in Fig. 10. R2 value of close to 0.9
The flexural strength (FS) tests results are summarized in indicates good relationship among the two variables.
Table 4. Results show an increase in flexural strength of concrete The second significant finding of the flexural strength tests was
with the increase in steel fiber content. The results for flexural that the concrete mix with 0.5% steel fiber content exhibits strain
strength at first crack and ultimate load are graphically repre- softening behavior with first crack load and peak load being equal
sented in Fig. 9. The first crack load increases by around 32% while to each other. But once the fiber content is increased further, con-
there is an increase of around 110% in peak load, once the fiber crete shows strain hardening behavior. There is further increase in
content is increased from 0% to 1.25%. The fibers start bridging peak load after the development of first crack. This behavior is
the cracks increasing the ultimate load. This behavior can be graphically represented in load–deflection curves in Fig. 11.
noticed in Fig. 7. R2 of 0.9355 shows a good relationship between The load–deflection curves of all the fiber reinforced concrete
the fiber content and flexural strength of concrete. samples tested are presented in Fig. 12. Pajak and Ponikiewski
Graph was plotted between 28 day compressive strength of [17] while investigating the flexural properties of SFRSCC observed
concrete and its flexural strength to see if there is any relationship that flexural strength increases with increase of steel fiber content,
between them which may be useful in prediction the flexural which is in agreement with test results of the present study but the

6
Splitting tensile strength (MPa)

5.5

y = -0.1783x + 16.168
5 R² = 0.9295

4.5

4
59 61 63 65 67
28 days compressive strength (MPa)

Fig. 8. Relationship between compressive and splitting tensile strength.

8 FS first crack

FS peak
Flexural strength (MPa)

6.5
y = 3.1692x + 3.4276
R² = 0.9355

5 y = 0.8562x + 3.7986
R² = 0.8882

3.5
0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 1.25
Fiber content (% VF)

Fig. 9. Variation in flexural strength of concrete.

8
Flexural strength (MPa)

6 y = -0.4582x + 34.38
R² = 0.8986
5

3
59 61 63 65 67
28 days compressive strength (MPa)

Fig. 10. Relationship between compressive and flexural strength.

332 S. Iqbal et al. / Construction and Building Materials 98 (2015) 325–333

15 0% fiber content
0.5% fibers content
0.75% fiber content
1% fiber content
1.25% fiber content
10

Load (KN)
5

0
0 1 2
Mid span deflection (mm)

Fig. 11. Load deflection curves of all the concrete mixes.

Mix-0.5 Mix-0.75
15 15

Load (KN)
Load (KN)

10 10

5 5

0 0
0 1 2 0 1 2
Mid span deflection (mm) Midspan deflection (mm)

15 Mix-1.0 15
Mix-1.25
Load (KN)

10 10
Load (KN)

5 5

0 0
0 1 2 0 1 2
Midspan deflection (mm) Midspan deflection (mm)

Fig. 12. Load deflection curves of each concrete mix.

Table 5
Flexural toughness.
Concrete Starting point deflection End point deflection
type (mm) (mm)
Mix-0 0 0.3
Mix-0.5 0 2
Mix-0.75 0 2
Mix-1 0 2
Mix-1.25 0 2
concrete with straight steel fibers produced strain softening behav-
ior even with 1.5% steel fiber content whereas strain hardening
behavior have been noted in this study with straight steel fibers
and half of the fiber content (0.75%). Test results conducted by
Mazaheripour et al. [22] to investigate the effect of polypropylene
fibers addition on the properties of lightweight SCC indicates
increase in flexural strength of up to 10.7% with addition of 0.3%
polypropylene fibers. Study on normal weight high strength
SFRSCC [9] reported around 30% increase in flexural strength of
concrete when hooked end steel fibers content is increased from
0.5% to 2%, while another research on normal weight SCC [36] indi-
cated up to 80% increase in flexural strength with addition of
120 kg/m3 (1.5%) of steel fibers to concrete which are quite similar
to the results of this study with the use of lightweight SCC.
Flexural toughness of all the concrete types was calculated. The
Toughness toughness of concrete was calculated as per ASTM C1609/C1609M
(J)
by calculating area under the curve from mid-span deflection of
1 0–1/150 of the clear span. Table 5 represents the flexural tough-
10
ness values calculated from Fig. 9.
16
17 It can be observed from Table 5 that the toughness values of
23 concrete increase when steel fiber content is increased. There is
an increase in flexural toughness of SHLSCC from 1 to 23 J, with
the increase of steel fiber content from 0% to 1.25%. After formation
of first crack, the randomly distributed steel fibers come into action
and bridge/arrest the cracks which increase the load further with
increase of mid-span deflection, making the concrete ductile.
7. Conclusions
It is possible to produce high strength concrete which is consid-
erably lightweight (1700 kg/m3) reinforced with high content of
steel fibers (up to 125 kg/m3) yet exhibiting self-compacting prop-
erties, with slump flow of more than 600 mm. So it may be bene-
ficial to use short steel fibers similar to the fibers used in this
study, when good workability/self-compaction is desired along
with good tensile/flexural strength of concrete. Workability of
 S. Iqbal et al. / Construction and Building Materials 98 (2015) 325–333
SHLSCC is less sensitive to same amount of micro steel fibers addi-
tion to concrete in the lower range (up to 0.75%) compared to the
higher range (above 1%).
Addition of short steel fibers to concrete significantly improves
the tensile and flexural strength of concrete and produces strain
hardening material. This also encourages further need of research
on the use of micro steel fibers with different lengths and aspect
ratio to further improve these properties. This material may be
applied for strengthening of RC members and tested, to see if there
is any improvement in strength of such members.
There is no significant impact of micro steel fibers addition on
modulus of elasticity and compressive strength of SHLSCC, thus it
may be inferred that benefits of better flexural strength and tough-
ness by steel fibers addition to concrete may be utilized without
compromising on its compressive strength or modulus of elasticity.
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