BOARD OF ADVANCED STUDIES AND RESEARCHCECOS

UNIVERSITY OF IT & EMERGING SCIENCES

SUMMARY OF RESEARCH PROPOSAL FOR MSC DEGREE PROGRAMME

Contect number: 0300-5923122 CGPA: 3.33/4.00
Email id: engqayas@gmail.com
(NOTE: CGPA must be 2.5 or greater, otherwise not eligible for thesis and award of MS
DEGREE. Student is responsible for conforming his CGPA from controller section if not
known to him. In case of quoting wrong CGPA, thesis fee will not be not refunded, nor
will MS degree be awarded).
Sign of student: ____________

1.Name and ID of Student: Muhammad Qayas Gul, CU-757-2015

2. Department: Civil Engineering Department
3. Date of registration in the MSc Degree Program: Fall 2015
4. Major Area of study: Structural Engineering.
5. Courses Studied
1. Advanced Steel Structure Analysis.
2. Cementitious Materials.
3. Design of Tall Buildings.
4. Advanced Mechanics of solids.
5. Reinforced Concrete Design.
6. Advanced Structural Analysis.
7. Special Topics for Civil Engineering.
8. Advance Pre-stressed Concrete Design.

6. Summary of Research Proposal

(i) Research Topic: INVESTIGATION OF BOND STRENGTH OF FIBER
REINFORCED CONCRETE USING CLOSED END STEEL FIBERS

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(ii) Introduction:
Concrete is the most copiously used material of construction to date. Concrete is
generally composed of aggregates, binder material and water. The aggregates used
consist of coarse aggregate such as gravel or crushed rocks and fine aggregate such as
sand. Cement is used as binder material. Concrete can be casted into desired
structuralshape from cylindrical to rectangular. However, concrete is good in
compression, but weak in tension. To overcome this issue, reinforcement bar are added to
the concrete (Faxing and zhiwu, 2006).

Generally, adding reinforcement bar to concrete can typically increase it tensile strength.
The role of using reinforcement bar in the structural elements is good, but mostly
increases the tensile strength (Yu et al; 2015). When reinforcement bar are added to the
concrete, proper bond strength is needed between concrete and reinforcement. Bond is
made up of three components: chemical adhesion, friction and mechanical interaction,
but for deformed bars, the bond depends upon mechanical interaction (Lin, 2016).

Numerous studies have been performed to investigate the bond strength. Some
researchers have proposed exponential functions for the degradation of bond strength
(Bhargava, 2008) while other have used linear relationships to describe the degradation
of bond strength (Cabrera, 1996). The use of steel fibers in concrete effects the
compressive strength of concrete. It is reported that compressive strength increases with
the increase of steel fibers content up to 1.5% volume friction and decrease slightly at 2
% but still it is 12.9% higher than the compressive strength of concrete without fibers
(Song and Hwang, 2004). It is reported that the bond strength of smallest bar (10 mm bar)
is found to be 21% higher than largest bar size (20 mm) when used in normal weight
reinforced concrete (Ali et al; 2016).

The bond strength is found to increase by 7-16% when different amount of steel fibers
are added to concrete, compared to concrete without steel fibers (Yazici and Arel, 2013).
It was observed that numerous works have been performed on addition of steel fibers to
concrete in the form of straight and hooked end fibers, while to the auther's knowledge

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closed end steel fibers have not yet been used. It is expected that closed end steel fibers
will provide better confinement to concrete which may improve bond behavior of
reinforcements in concrete. Therefore it is desirable to investigate bond behavior of
reinforcements in concrete when closed end steel fibers are added to it.

(iii) Problem Statement:

In tension, steel fiber reinforced concrete failure is initiated by pulling out of fibers due to
which full capacity of fibers is not utilized. It is expected that closed end fibers would be
difficult to pull-out and failure may occurs by yielding of fibers, utilizing their fall
capacity and providing better confinement. This enhanced confinement may improve
bond behavior of reinforcements in concrete. Therefore this research work is aimed at
investigating bond behavior of reinforcements in concrete when closed end steel fibers
are added to it.

(iv) Objectives:
Following are the main objectives of the research:

(a). To study fresh properties of fiber reinforced concrete i.e workability, air content and
density, when closed end steel fibers are added to it.

(b). To study the compressive strength of fiber reinforced concrete when closed end steel
fibers are added to it.

(c). To study the bond behavior of reinforcement in fiber reinforcement concrete when
closed end steel fibers are added to it.

(v) Methodology:
To achieve the objective of this study, five concrete mixes will be considered. One
concrete mix without steel fibers as control mix while others containing 0.25%, 0.50%,

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0.75% and 1% amount of steel fibers. Fresh concrete properties, compressive strength
and bond strength will be studies for each mix. Fresh concrete properties include
workability, air content and fresh concrete density which will be tested as per ASTM
C143, ASTM C138 respectively. Concrete mix design ratio of 1:1.5:3 will be adopted for
all concrete mixes. In total three cylinders will be casted as per ASTM C192 to test 28
days compressive strength of each concrete mix as ASTM C39. Bond behavior will be
tested as per RILEM specifications. Three cube samples 150mmx 150mm x 150mm with
#5 bar inserted to each sample will be casted and tested for bond behavior of
reinforcements in concrete for each mix as per RILEM standard at concrete age of 28
days. Data for each test will be collected and presented accordingly.

7. References:
Ali, A. Iqbal,S. Holschemacher, K. Bier, T. A.2016. Effect of Fibers on Bond
Performance of Lightweight Reinforced concrete. Periodica Polytechnica Civil
Engineering. 60(1), pp. 97-102.

ASTM C143/C143 M, Standard Test Method for slump of hydraulic-cement concrete,

ASTM International.

ASTM C138/C138 M, Standard test method for density (unit weight), yield and air
content (gravimetric) of concrete, ASTM International.

ASTM C192/C192 M, Standard practice for making and curing concrete test specimens
in the laboratory, ASTM International.

ASTM C39/C39 M, Standard test method for compressive strength of cylindrical

specimens, ASTM International.

Bhargava, K. 2008. Suggested empirical models for corrosion-induced bond degradation

in reinforced concrete, Journal of Structural Engineering 134:221-230.

Cabrera, J.G. 1996. Deterioration of concrete due to reinforcement steel corrosion.

Cement and Concrete Research 18:47-59.

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Faxing, D. Zhiwu, Y. 2006. Strength criterion for plain concrete under multi-axail stress
based on damage poisson's ratio. Acta mechanica solida sinica. 19:307-315.

Hadi, M. N. 2008. Bond of high strength concrete with high strength reinforcing steel.

Lin,H. 2016. Effects of confinements on the bond strength between concrete and
corroded steel bars. Construction and Building Materials 188:127-138.

Song, P.S, Hwang, S. 2004. Mechanical properties of high strength steel fiber reinforced
concrete, Constr. Build. Mater. 18:669–673.

RILEM standardspecifications. 1983. Bond test for reinforcement steel, 2, pull out test,
RELIM TC.

Warner, RF, Rangan, BV, Hall, AS & Faulkes, KA 1998, 'Structures'. Longman
Australia.

Yazici, S.Arel. H.S. 2013.The effect of steel fiber on the bond between concrete and
deformed steel bar in SFRCs, Constr. Build. Mater. 40:299-305.

Tan, Y. Y. (2015). The performance of closed loop steel fiber concrete.

8. Research Significance:
For the better stability of reinforced concrete material, proper bond is essential between
reinforcement and concrete. It is necessary to create suitable bond between steel bars and
surrounding concrete. Bond ensures that there is little or no slip of the steel bars relative
to theconcrete and the means by which stress is transferred across the steel-concrete
(Hadi 2008, Warner et al; 1998). It is expected that the use of closed end fibers in
concrete will provide better confinement may improve bond behavior of reinforcement in
concrete.

9. Work schedule/plan
Literature review Two weeks
Material selection Two weeks

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Laboratory Testing Six weeks
Compilation of data Four week
Conclusion and Results Two weeks
Thesis writing Four weeks

Proposed starting Date: June, 2017

Expected Date of Completion: October, 2017

Are Major facilities being available for the work: Yes

Are additional facilities required giving detail: Nil

Signature of candidate: ___________________

Date: ____/_____/2017

Supervisor

Name: Dr. Shahid Iqbal

Signature: _____________________________

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