Construction and Building Materials 282 (2021) 122706

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Construction and Building Materials

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The influence of fiber type and length on the cracking resistance,

durability and pore structure of face slab concrete
Lei Wang a,b,c,⇑, Tingshu He a, Yongxiang Zhou c,⇑, Shengwen Tang d,⇑, Jianjun Tan e, Zhentao Liu a,
Jianwen Su a
a
College of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an, China
b
College of Urban Construction, Wuchang University of Technology, Wuhan, China
c
State Key Laboratory of Building Safety and Built Environment, China Academy of Building Research, Beijing, China
d
State Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Science, Wuhan, China
e
China Power Construction Group Guiyang Engineering Corporation Limited, Guiyang, China

h i g h l i g h t s

The drying and autogenous shrinkage reduction effect is greatest for PVA fiber.

The efficiency in improving the cracking resistance follows the order of PVA > PAN > PP.

PAN fibers produce a low porosity, a low hardened air content and a high impermeability.

Durability differences caused by fiber can be interpreted by the pore structure and air void.

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

Article history: The crack resistance and durability of face slab concrete are two important factors determining the nor-
Received 24 November 2020 mal operation and safety of concrete face rockfill dams (CFRDs). This paper investigates the influence of
Received in revised form 20 January 2021 polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fiber with two lengths (10 mm
Accepted 11 February 2021
and 20 mm) on workability, strength, shrinkage behavior, cracking resistance and durability performance
Available online 26 February 2021
of face slab concrete. Besides, the parameters of the pores at multi-scales were investigated by a linear
traverse method and the mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP), respectively. The results in this study
Keywords:
demonstrate that: (1) the efficiency in reducing the shrinkage and in enhancing the cracking resistance
Face slab concrete
Fibers
of face slab concrete follows the order of PVA > PAN > PP. In addition, both the impermeability and frost
Cracking resistance resistance of concrete can be improved by adding fibers, the efficiency is in the sequence: PAN > PVA > PP
Frost resistance and PVA > PAN > PP, respectively. (2) increasing fiber length from 10 mm to 20 mm reduces the shrinkage
Permeability by about 5.1%7.0%, enhances the tensile strength (r) by about 7.9%9.2% and declines the cracking tem-
Temperature stress testing machine (TSTM) perature (Tc) by about 5.6–6.5℃, all of which could significantly improve the cracking resistance.
Air void Moreover, the increase in fiber length improves the frost resistance, but increases the relative permeabil-
Pore structure ity coefficient (Kr) by about 28%47%. (3) The correlation analyses reveal that, the addition of PAN fibers
produces a lower porosity, a lower fraction of large capillary pores as well as a lower hardened air content
than the PVA and PP fibers at 28 days, thereby resulting in better impermeability of concrete. PVA fiber
enhanced concrete gives the smallest spacing factor and the largest total number of air voids among all
the fiber enhanced concretes, thus exhibiting the best frost resistance.
Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The concrete face rockfill dam (CFRD) is one kind of rockfill dam
with a rockfill body as the main supporting structure and concrete
⇑ Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: 535250684@qq.com (L. Wang), xiangzizhou2006@126.com
(Y. Zhou), tangsw@whu.edu.cn (S. Tang).
face slabs as the primary anti-seepage structure [1]. Due to its
excellent seismic resistance, high adaptability, short construction
period and low cost, CFRD has become one of the most widely used
dam types in the world [2,3]. Concrete face slab is a typical thin
structural member with highly exposed surfaces. As shown in
Table 1, the thickness of concrete face slab usually ranges from
about 0.3 m at the top of the dam to about 0.6–1.1 m at the bottom,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2021.122706
0950-0618/Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
L. Wang, T. He, Y. Zhou et al.
Table 1
Parameters of concrete face slabs of some typical CFRDs in China.
Project Dam height Parameters of concrete face slabs of CFRDs
(m)
Maximum length Slab width at side/middle
(m) parts (m)
Fengning 120.3 207.5 10/12
Aertash 164.8 >120 6/12
Jiyin 124.5 139.22 6/12
Pushihe 78.5 128.5 14
Shuibuya 233 162 8/16
Gongbaxia 132.2 218 6/12
whereas its width is between 6 and 14 m and its length normally
ranges from dozens to more than100 m. Due to the internal stress
caused by the drying conditions and external temperature fluctua-
tions, the thin and quasi-brittle concrete face slabs are easy to
crack, especially at early age when the tensile strength of face slab
concrete is relatively low [2,4]. In the case of Gongboxia CFCD
located in northwestern China, 594 temperature-induced cracks
formed in the face slabs before impoundment [1,2]. The cracks in
concrete face slabs can destroy the structural integrity of the con-
crete slabs, favor the ingress of moisture and cause severe leakage,
all of which are detrimental to the durability of face slab concrete
and the normal operation of CFRDs [5]. Therefore, how to improve
the cracking resistance and durability of face slab concrete are
important issues in CFRD design and construction.
An efficient method to improve the crack resistance of concrete
is by using fibers. The short and randomly distributed fibers with
high elastic modulus in concrete act as micro-steel bars to transfer
stresses and absorb energy under tensile stress, thus improving the
tensile strength and cracking resistance of concrete [6–8]. There
are many types of fiber, including mainly the steel fibers, natural
fibers such as flax fibers and polymeric fibers such as polypropy-
lene (PP), polyolefin, polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and polyvinyl alcohol
(PVA) fibers. These fibers vary in component, chemical property,
tensile strength, and elastic modulus, which may affect the crack-
ing resistance and other important properties of concrete [6,9–11].
Numerous studies have been carried out on the effects of fiber
type on concrete properties. Compared with the polymeric fibers,
steel fibers could reduce the shrinkage and improve the cracking
resistance of concrete more efficiently due to their much higher
strength and elastic modulus [6,11,12]. However, the high-rigid
steel fiber could increase the shear resistance of fresh concrete
and hence lead to a significant reduction in concrete workability
[12–14]. This drawback limits the application of steel fiber in face
slab concrete in China. The natural fiber has good tensile properties
due to its high cellulose content, whereas its high-water absorp-
tion ability could significantly weaken the workability of concrete
[15]. The polymeric fibers have some perfect characteristics such
as small density, small filament diameter, suitable price, acid and
alkali resistance, easy dispersion and so on [16]. Consequently,
the polymeric fibers have been increasingly used in engineering
applications. PP fiber is inert in high pH environment and easy to
disperse in concrete mixtures [8]. It has been reported that PP fiber
could reduce the final drying shrinkage of concrete remarkably [6]
but increase the ion permeability of concrete [17]. A comparative
study conducted by Chen et al. [16] revealed that the PAN fiber
enhanced concrete exhibited better resistance to ion permeability
than the PP enhanced one. They also suggested an optimal PAN
fiber volume fraction of 0.10%–0.14% for airport pavement con-
crete. PVA fiber contains hydroxyl group (OH) in its molecular
chains, which could form strong chemical bonding with cement
matrix. For this reason, the tensile strength and frost resistance
of concrete can be improved by adding PVA fibers [7,18]. Nam
et al. [19] verified that the PVA fiber enhanced mortar exhibited
Construction and Building Materials 282 (2021) 122706
Location in Construction
China completed
Thickness at the top/ Number of
bottom (m) slabs
0.3/0.6 54 North 2022
0.4/0.96 76 Northwest 2021
0.3/0.6 54 Northwest 2017
0.3/0.56 50 North 2012
0.3/1.1 58 Central 2008
0.3/0.7 38 Northwest 2007
a weaker workability compared with that PP fiber enhanced one,
but presented better frost resistance. In a study by Yousefieh
et al. [6], it was found that the polyolefin fibers at a content of
0.2% by volume of concrete could increase the adherence between
fibers and cement matrix as well as the tensile strength of normal
concrete to a greater extent than the PP fibers.
In addition to the fiber type, fiber length also plays an important
role in influencing the cracking resistance of concrete. Banthia et al.
[8] investigated the influence of PP fiber length on plastic shrink-
age cracking in high strength concrete (about 89 MPa) and con-
cluded that at three volume fractions of 0.1%, 0.2% and 0.3%,
longer PP fiber (12.5 mm) was more effective in reducing crack
areas and crack widths than the shorter PP one (6.35 mm). Similar
results were obtained by Nathalie et al. [15], who observed that at
different fiber dosages (0.3% and 0.6% by mass of binder), the effect
of longer flax fiber (50 mm) was more apparent in reducing the
stress concentration and the number of cracks in high-clay content
concrete than the shorter one (12 mm). Shen et al. [20] reported
that the cracking resistance of internally cured concrete added
with 8.0 kg/m3 Barchip fibers increased first and then decreased
as the fiber length increased from 42 mm to 60 mm. According
to Shen et al.’ another study [21], increasing fiber length of PP plas-
tic fibers from 42 mm to 60 mm reduced the cracking resistance of
high-strength concrete at a constant fiber content of 8.0 kg/m3. The
different influence of fiber length on concrete cracking resistance
may be due to the differences in fiber type and concrete properties
in different studies.
Overall, fiber reinforced concretes commonly have excellent
properties including the high ductility, high tensile strength,
load-bearing capacity, and cracking resistance, which have great
potential for various engineering applications, including the face
slab concrete in CFCDs. The face slab concrete is featured by a mod-
erate workability (commonly 50–70 mm in slump) and a relatively
low cement content in order to reduce the source of shrinkage and
hydration heat. To achieve satisfactory workability and cracking
resistance, PAN fiber at a dosage of 0.8 kg/m3 has been applied in
all face slabs in Shuibuya CFRD located in central China, which is
the highest CFCD in the world by far [2]. In Hongjiadu CFCD in
southern China, the combination of PP fibers with a content of
0.8 kg/m3 and MgO expansive agent at a dosage of 2.4% by mass
of binder was used to improve the cracking resistance of face slab
concrete [2,22]. According to Woo et al. [23], PVA fiber with a con-
tent of 0.1% by volume was suggested to produce face slab concrete
in South Korea to achieve desirable workability and durability.
From the detailed review of existing literatures above, some
investigations are found to be related with the effects of fibers
on the performance of face slab concrete, but there is still a lack
of systematical study on the effects of fibers with different types
and lengths on the cracking resistance and durability of face slab
concrete. Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate
the impact of fiber type and length on cracking resistance and
durability of face slab concrete. For this purpose, the influences
of PP, PVA and PAN fibers with different lengths (about 10 mm
2
L. Wang, T. He, Y. Zhou et al.
and 20 mm) on the cracking resistance and durability including the
permeability and frost resistance of face slab concrete were
accessed and compared. Then, the parameters of the pores with
sizes at micro-, sub micro- and nanoscales were investigated by a
linear traverse method and the mercury intrusion porosimetry
(MIP), respectively. After that the relationship between the con-
crete durability and the pore structure parameters were discussed
and revealed. Moreover, the workability, strength development,
shrinkage behavior of the fiber enhanced face slab concrete were
studied and compared. The findings in this study should help to
better understand the impact of fibers on the cracking resistance
and durability of face slab concrete and to select proper fibers in
designing face slabs in CFCDs.
2. Materials and analytical methods
2.1. Raw materials
In this study, PI Portland cement with a 28-day strength
48.6 MPa and ASTM Type F fly ash were used. Their chemical com-
positions and physical properties were shown in Table 2. Coarse
and fine aggregates were sourced from crushed limestone. The
density of coarse aggregate and fine aggregate is 2.68 g/cm3 and
2.67 g/cm3, respectively. The coarse aggregate is a blend of large
aggregate with a particle size of 20–40 mm and middle aggregate
with a size between 5 and 20 mm at a ratio of 4:6. The relatively
small proportion of large aggregate is usually adopted to prevent
segregation during the placement of face slab, during which the
chute method is normally adopted. According to this method, the
fresh concrete slides down through an adjustable steel chute from
the top of the dam to where the concrete was placed. All coarse and
fine aggregates at a saturated surface dry (SSD) condition were pre-
pared before mixing. Three types of fibers, namely, PVA, PP and
PAN, were used in this study. The geometry and properties of fibers
were shown in Table 3.
2.2. Mix proportion design
The face slab concrete is commonly characterized by an
extreme high surface, which is easy to crack and usually suffers
from huge water pressure. The face slab concrete with a C30
strength grade was prepared by using a 0.37 W/B ratio and a 20%
fly ash replacement ratio based on Chinese standard DL/T 5016
(Design code for concrete faced rockfill dams) [24] and some pre-
liminary trials. DL/T 5016 specified in detail about the ranges of
W/B ratio, fly ash dosage and air content used in face slab concrete
[25]. To achieve a target slump value of 50–70 mm, a polycarboxy-
late based superplasticizer at a dosage range of 0.6%–1.0% by
weight of binder was used. Notice this superplasticizer has no
Table 2
Physical properties, chemical compositions of PI cement and fly ash.
Parameters PI cement
Chemicals
CaO 61.3
SiO2 19.3
Fe2O3 4.3
MgO 3.7
SO3 2.6
Al2O3 4.7
Loss on ignition (wt%) 1.2
Physical properties
Blaine specific surface area (m2/kg) 326
Fineness (retain in 45 mm sieve) 8.4
Specific gravity 3.19
Construction and Building Materials 282 (2021) 122706
air-entraining composition. The air-entraining agent (AEA) was
used to keep the air content of the concrete at about 5%.
The fiber reinforced concrete should be carefully prepared since
it generally involves the balling of fibers and the difficulty of mix-
ing the mixture uniformly. The fiber addition in excess of 0.2% by
volume would make it difficult to mix [6]. In the practical applica-
tion of fibers in CFCDs [22,23], the fiber content below or equal to
1.2 kg/m3 by mass or 0.1% by volume was commonly recom-
mended to prevent the reduction in workability. The recom-
mended dosages above are not conflicting because the mass
content 1.2 kg/m3 can be converted into a volume faction about
0.1% based on the fiber density of 0.91–1.30 g/cm3, as shown in
Table 3. Therefore, the fiber content in this study was kept constant
at 1.2 kg/m3. The sand volume fraction of each concrete mixture
was 33%. The proportions of face slab concrete mixtures as deter-
mined by the volume method and their notations are shown in
Table 4. For instance, ‘‘C0” denotes a control concrete mixture
without fiber, ‘‘CPP10” corresponds to a concrete mixture contain-
ing PP fiber with a length about 10 mm. Sufficient mixing is needed
to achieve a homogeneous dispersion of fibers in concrete mixture.
The solid components, i.e., the cement, fibers, and aggregates, were
mixed in the rotary mixer for about 5 min firstly, then the pre-
mixed water and the superplasticizer were poured in and the con-
crete mixture was stirred for another 3 min. The mixing procedure
above is determined based on lots of preliminary trials, which can
ensure the uniform dispersion of fibers in concrete.
2.3. Experimental methods
2.3.1. Compressive strength and splitting tensile strength
The compressive and splitting tensile strength of concrete tests
were performed in accordance with DL/T 5150 (test code for
hydraulic concrete) [26]. The cubic specimens sized
150 mm  150 mm  150 mm were de-molded after 24 h and
cured in a curing room at 20 ± 2 ℃ and relative humidity
(RH) >95%. The compressive strength and splitting tensile were
measured at 7, 28 and 180 days after casting. Three cubic speci-
mens were tested to get an average strength result.
2.3.2. Volume deformation
The thin concrete face slabs with an extreme high surface are
generally susceptible to drying shrinkage, which is the main source
of cracking of them. The autogenous shrinkage is also one of the
primary forms of volume deformation which can cause cracking.
Drying shrinkage and autogenous shrinkage of concrete were
determined using test methods specified in DL/T 5150 [26]. Drying
shrinkage was performed on concrete specimens with a size of
515 mm  100 mm  100 mm. Three specimens were prepared
for each concrete mixture. The specimens were cured under labo-
ratory conditions for 24 h before demolding, after that they were
placed in a drying room (20 ± 2 °C and 50 ± 5% RH) until tested.
The initial length and length changes of the concrete specimens
under drying conditions at various ages up to 180 days were
recorded and calculated to determine the drying shrinkage value.
Fly ash The average value of measurements for three specimens was
reported.
2.9 During the autogenous shrinkage test, for each concrete mix-
54.5 ture, the fresh concrete was casted into three cylindrical steel bar-
10.2 rels with a size of U 200 mm  500 mm. Before casting, a strain
2.9
0.4
meter was placed in the center of the barrel. Then, the steel barrels
24.8 filled with fresh concrete were welded and sealed to stop any
2.2 moisture exchange between the concrete sample and external
environment. After that, the sealed specimens were stored in a
386 room and maintained at 20 ± 2 °C. The data measured by the strain
6.8 meter were recorded up to 180 days and used to calculate the
2.32
autogenous shrinkage of concrete. The calculation processes and
3
L. Wang, T. He, Y. Zhou et al. Construction and Building Materials 282 (2021) 122706

Table 3
Geometry and properties of PP, PVA and PAN fibers used in this study.

Fiber type Length (mm) Diameter (lm) Aspect ratio* Density (g/cm3) Tensile strength (MPa) Elastic modulus (GPa)
PP10 11.5 40 288 0.91 425 4.8
PP20 20 40 500 0.91 425 4.8
PVA10 12 30 400 1.30 1538 36
PVA20 20 30 667 1.30 1538 36
PAN10 11 24 458 1.18 570 16
PAN20 21 24 875 1.18 570 16

*Aspect ratio is the length to diameter ratio of fibers

Table 4
Mix proportions of face slab concrete.

Notation Mix proportions (kg/m3) Air content Slump

water cement fly ash sand coarseaggregate fiber plasticizer AEA
C0 120 259 65 635 1294 0 1.95 0.08 4.3 69
CPP10 120 259 65 635 1294 1.2 2.59 0.08 6.3 64
CPP20 120 259 65 635 1294 1.2 3.24 0.08 6.8 58
CPVA10 120 259 65 635 1294 1.2 2.59 0.08 5.6 57
CPVA20 120 259 65 635 1294 1.2 3.24 0.08 6.0 51
CPAN10 120 259 65 635 1294 1.2 2.59 0.08 5.1 52
CPAN20 120 259 65 635 1294 1.2 3.24 0.08 5.4 46

equations have been descripted in detail in our previous studies was also recorded. The average result of three specimens was
[27,28]. A mean value of three measurements was used as a result reported for each concrete mixture.
for each concrete.

2.3.3. Crack resistance
The concrete face slabs are generally restrained by the rockfill,
foundations, or other structural members during operation. In
addition, the concrete face slabs in northern and northwestern
China frequently suffer from severe moisture loss and large tem-
perature fluctuations during the day and night. The synergetic
effects of restraint action, temperature drop and moisture loss will
evidently induce large tensile stresses or even cause cracking of
concrete. Therefore, the cracking risk of face slab concrete is very
high especially at early age when the tensile strength of concrete
is relatively low. The assessment of the cracking resistance of face
slab concrete at early age is essential in CFCDs design and con-
struction. In this study, the resistance of face slab concrete to
restrained shrinkage-induced and the temperature stress-induced
cracking is evaluated based on the restrained shrinkage ring test
and the temperature stress testing machine (TSTM) test,
respectively.
2.3.3.1. The restrained shrinkage ring test. The restrained shrinkage
ring test based on ASTM C 1581 is an effective means to evaluate
the risk of shrinkage-induced cracking of concrete at early age
[29,30]. According to ASTM C 1581 [31], the thickness, outer diam-
eter and inner diameter of the concrete rings are 152 mm, 406 mm
and 330 mm, respectively. Three ring specimens were prepared for
each concrete mix. During the test, the fresh concrete with large
aggregate (greater than 20 mm in size) sieved out were cast into
the molds, then the outer steel ring of the mold was removed after
24 h of standard curing. Thereafter, the top surfaces of the speci-
mens were sealed with a layer of sealant, in order to make sure
the drying of specimens occurs solely from the outer circumferen-
tial surface. Subsequently, the specimens were moved in a drying
room (20 ± 2 °C and RH 50 ± 5%), the inner steel rings were bonded
with strain gauges to measure the strains under drying, as shown
in Fig. 1. The strains of each specimen were recorded continuously
until a sudden change in strain curve occurred, which corre-
sponded to the cracking of a ring specimen. The cracking time
4
2.3.3.2. The temperature stress testing machine (TSTM) test. The tem-
perature stress testing machine (TSTM, produced by ‘‘Walter + Bai”
company, Switzerland), was another means in this work to study
the early-age cracking resistance of concrete, as shown in Fig. 2.
The TSTM provides different restraint degrees and an adiabatic
condition to concrete specimens for better simulating the actual
working conditions of the mass concrete, which can be used to test
the resistance of concrete to the temperature stress-induced crack-
ing [20,32–34]. The cracking time and rate of stress development of
samples in the TSTM test depend on a variety of factors, including
the thermal expansion coefficient of both the concrete and the
restraining instrument, mechanical property of concrete, and cool-
ing rate, etc. The cooling rate of 1–5 °C/hour was recommended by
RILEM TC 119 [35] and was widely adopted in many relative stud-
ies [20,32–34]. If the cooling rate is higher than 8 °C/hour, temper-
ature difference may develop between the center and surface of
the specimen, which could lead to a thermal stress gradient
through the concrete cross section [36]. The main procedure of
TSTM test conforming to RILEM TC 119 [35] and Refs. [32–34]
was as follows. Firstly, the fresh concrete was cast into the machine
chamber to form a specimen sized 15 cm  15 cm  150 cm. Before
casting, a plastic film was paved in the chamber to eliminate the
frictional restraint of the chamber wall on the specimen and to pre-
vent water exchange, as shown in Fig. 2(b). Then the temperature
and restraint stress developments of the specimen in a completely
constrained and semi-adiabatic conditions were recorded. In order
to provide a completely constrained condition, the ends of the
specimens were clamped to prevent any length change during
the test. The semi-adiabatic condition can be achieved by adjusting
the temperature of the circulating medium through pipes within
the chamber side wall to an equivalent temperature with that
inside the concrete specimen. When the peak temperature of the
concrete specimen occurred and subsequently maintained for
3 days, the specimen was cooled down at a rate of 5 °C/hour by cir-
culating the cool medium in the pipes until the cracking occurred.
Since the cooling period is usually within dozens of hours to sev-
eral days depending on the cooling rate adopted, the concrete
shrinkage caused by the cement hydration (i.e., autogenous shrink-
L. Wang, T. He, Y. Zhou et al.
Fig. 1. The diagram of the restrained shrinkage ring test (a) the tested concrete rings and (b) cracking of the rings.
Fig. 2. The diagra of the temperature stress testing machine (TSTM) test (a) the
apparatus and (b) specimen casting.
age) during the cooling period can be neglected. Besides, no mois-
ture exchange occurs during the TSTM test, therefore the cracking
was primarily due to the temperature-induced stresses rather than
the drying or autogenous shrinkage. The cracking temperature and
cracking time of the specimens were recorded. The cracking ten-
dency of concretes can be estimated in terms of several key param-
eters obtained from the TSTM test, which are shown in Table 5.
2.3.4. Durability performance
2.3.4.1. Water permeability. Generally, concrete impermeability is
considered as an important property determining the durability
of concrete, particularly for concrete subjected to a high-water
pressure [16,37]. The water permeability test of concrete was car-
ried out according to DL/T 5150, using a Hp-4.0 model concrete
permeability instrument. Six specimens with a height, top diame-
5
Construction and Building Materials 282 (2021) 122706
Table 5
Key parameters obtained from the TSTM test [35].
Parameters Definitions
1st Zero stress Under restrained condition, the temperature at
temperature TZ,1 which compressive stresses during the generation
of hydration heat first occur, which describes the
change of concrete from plastic to visco-elastic
behavior.
Maximum Maximum compressive stress under restrained
compressive stress conditions during the temperature rise.
rc,max
Maximum Maximum temperature of the concrete specimen
temperature Tmax during hardening under semi-adiabatic conditions.
2nd Zero stress During the cooling phase, temperature at which the
temperature TZ,2 compressive stresses decrease completely to zero
and tensile stresses start to generate.
Tensile strength r Tensile stress at time of cracking, which
corresponds to the peak point in the stress-time
curves during the cooling phase.
Cracking temperature Temperature at which the restrained specimen
Tc cracks, i.e., the tensile stresses exceed the tensile
strength, which characterizes the cracking tendency
of the concrete tested. The higher Tc, the higher
tendency to thermal cracking at early ages.
ter and bottom diameter of 150 mm, 175 mm and 185 mm, respec-
tively, were cured for 28 days in a standard curing room and tested
simultaneously for each concrete mix. During this test, the circular
surfaces of the cylindrical specimens were coated with a layer of
paraffin, then the specimens were placed in the instrument. Once
the test began, the water pressure was increased directly to
1.2 MPa and maintained for 24 h. After that the water pressure
was unloaded and the specimens were split into two parts longitu-
dinally. Finally, the average water seepage height (Dm) of each
group of concrete specimens was calculated based on the measure-
ments of ten points along the fracture surface for each specimen.
The relative permeability coefficient (Kr) of concrete can be
determined by Eq. 1 [26], which is shown below.
Kr ¼ aD2m =2TH ð2Þ
where, Kr is the relative permeability coefficient, cm/h; T is the
duration of the penetration test, which is 24 h in this study; H is
the water head (cm) corresponding to a constant water pressure
of 1.2 MPa, herein it is 12 244 cm; a is the absorption ratio of con-
crete, which is a constant value of 0.03.
2.3.4.2. Frost resistance. The rapid freezing and thawing method
specified in DL/T 5150 was used to estimate the frost resistance
of concrete. The test procedure of this method is almost the same
with Method A described in ASTM C666 [38]. For each concrete
mixture, three concrete prisms cured for 28 days with a size of
L. Wang, T. He, Y. Zhou et al.
100 mm  100 mm  400 mm were used to get the average test
results. During the frost resistance test, the specimens subjected
to 400 freezing-thawing cycles and each cycle lasted for 4 h,
including a quick temperature decline down to 17 °C that lasted
for 2.5 h, followed by a temperature rise from 17 °C to 8 °C with a
duration of 1.5 h. During the freezing-thawing actions, concrete
would suffer from both superficial and internal damage. Superficial
damage leads to gradual surface scaling and therefore the mass
loss of specimens, whereas internal damage reduces the relative
dynamic modulus of elasticity [39]. Hence, mass loss and the rela-
tive elastic modulus are two typical parameters to evaluate the
frost resistance of concrete. Air content is the main factor influenc-
ing the frost resistance of concrete [40]. To improve the frost resis-
tance of concrete, AEA is generally added during concrete mixing.
Besides, the air void structure of concrete, such as the air void spac-
ing, air void number and size are believed to affect the frost resis-
tance significantly [40–44]. The changes in weight loss and the
relative elastic modulus of the specimens were recorded per 50
freezing-thawing cycles.
2.3.5. Pore structure and air void parameters
The porosity and pore size distribution of concrete were ana-
lyzed by using a mercury porosimeter (Micrometrics AutoPore IV
9510, U.S.A.) with a maximum intrusion pressure of 414 MPa.
The cubic samples sized about 5 mm  5 mm  5 mm were sawed
from the center of the concrete specimens at 3, 28 and 180 days.
The limestone coarse aggregates, which are light-grey in color
and can be easily identified, should be stripped out. Three cubic
samples were placed in a sealed glass sample container with a vol-
ume about 5 mL for each MIP test. Three MIP measurements were
performed on each concrete mixture and the average result was
reported. These measures could effectively minimize the MIP test
errors caused by the variations in sample preparation and dimen-
sion, or in instrument operations.
The air void parameters including total number of air voids,
hardened air content, average air void diameter and spacing factor
of concrete cured for 28 days were determined by the linear tra-
verse method according to ASTM C 457 [45]. This method can be
used to estimate the likelihood of damage due to freezing and
thawing cycles or to explain why it has occurred [45]. The air void
analyses were carried out on a Rapid air 457 automatic air void
analyzer, which could characterize the pores with the diameter
ranging from about 10 lm to 2000 lm. The diagram of the air void
analyzer and the testing procedure of this method are described in
detail in our previous study [25]. The concrete hydrated at 28 days
was sawed up into slices sized 15 cm  15 cm  1 cm for air void
parameter tests. The surfaces of the slices were ground and pol-
ished sufficiently to produce a smooth surface for the tests. Then
the surfaces of samples were painted with a layer of fluorescer
carefully, so that the air voids on the surfaces can be identified
and tested by the air void analyzer under the ultraviolet irradia-
tion. For each concrete mix, the average air void parameter values
were obtained from three specimens, two slices were prepared for
each specimen and 7 linear traverses were evenly arranged on the
surface of each slice, therefore the total length of linear traverses
was 6 300 mm.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Properties of fresh face slab concrete
The slump and air content of fresh concretes containing PP, PVA
and PAN fibers with different lengths as well as their losses with
time are shown in Figs. 3 and 4, respectively. In order to avoid acci-
6
Construction and Building Materials 282 (2021) 122706
dental errors, all the results in Figs. 3 and 4 are the average values
of measurements conducted on five individually mixed samples for
each concrete proportion. It should be noted that the standard
error in all cases are less than 5% compared with the corresponding
average value.
*The notation ‘‘C” in the figures refers to the concrete samples,
the numbers ‘‘10” and ‘‘20” denote the fiber length
As shown in Table 4, to obtain the target slumps of 50–70 mm,
various superplasticizer dosages have been used. In general, the
superplasticizer dosage increases from 0.6 wt% of binder for a con-
trol mix C0 to 0.8 wt% and 1.0 wt% for concrete mixes containing
fibers with lengths of 10 mm and 20 mm, respectively. It is widely
reported that the inclusion of fiber in concrete could reduce the
workability and slump of concrete, because the evenly distributed
fibers with high specific surface and small diameter may create a
close network between fiber and cement matrix due to the fiber
bridging effect, which inevitably inhibits the flowability of fresh
concrete mixture [12].
Comparison of the results in Fig. 3 indicates that the fiber aspect
ratio and length affect the workability of concrete. For instance,
PAN20 fiber with the largest fiber aspect ratio (8 7 5) in this study
gives the smallest concrete slump of 46 mm. By contrast, CPP10
fiber, which has the smallest aspect ratio of 288, produces the lar-
gest slump of 64 mm. As shown in Table 3, the diameter of PAN is
only 60% and 80% of that of PVA and PP fiber, respectively. At a
given fiber content and length, a finer fiber provides a higher num-
ber of fibers in per unit volume of concrete, resulting in a stronger
fiber bridging effect and hence a smaller slump, and vice versa.
Besides, the fiber bridging effect becomes more significant with
the increase in fiber length, which would produce an increase in
viscosity of fresh concrete and hence a further decrease in slump
value, as shown in Fig. 3. The same trend has been reported by
others who investigated the effects of flax fiber on workability of
high-clay content concrete [15] and PVA fiber on the flowability
of cement mortars [19].
Fig. 4 reveals that the air content of concrete increases with the
addition of fibers. Noted that the AEA dosage in all the concrete
mixtures are the same, the increase in air content was due to the
air-entraining effect of fibers. The fibers added in concrete could
increase the viscosity of the fresh matrix, which tends to prevent
some air bubbles from escaping during vibration and mixing and
hence increases the amount of the entrapped air voids inside the
concrete [16,18].
A comparison between Fig. 4(a) and Fig. 4(b) shows that this
fiber air-entraining effect enhances with the fiber length. This cor-
responds well with the findings reported by Nathalie et al.[15] who
conducted experiments on flax fibers. Additionally, Fig. 4 indicates
the PP fibers produce the highest air content in this study, followed
by the PVA fiber and PAN fiber. As Söylev and Özturan [46]
reported, the entrapped air content varied with the fiber type. In
the previous study performed by Nam et al. [19], the addition of
PP fibers generated a higher flowability and air content than the
PVA fiber under the same experimental conditions including the
fiber length. The differences in air content caused by the fiber type
may be associated with the physical and chemical property differ-
ences of fibers, which will be investigated in the future work.
Fig. 3(c) and Fig. 4(c) indicate that there are significant losses in
both slump and air content with time for all concrete mixtures. At
first 0.5 h, all the concretes exhibit air content and slump losses
about 19%–24%, while at 1 h, these values increase to about 40%–
46%. Nevertheless, only slight differences in slump and air content
losses can be observed among different concretes, indicating the
effects of fiber type and geometry on slump and air content losses
appear to be insignificant. These losses are probably attributed to
the continuous loss in superplasticizer efficiency with time.
L. Wang, T. He, Y. Zhou et al.
Fig. 3. Slump of concretes containing fibers with a length about (a) 10 mm and (b) 20 mm and the slump loss with time.
Fig. 4. Air content of concretes containing fibers with a length about (a) 10 mm and (b) 20 mm and the air content loss with time.
3.2. Compressive and splitting tensile strength of face slab concrete
The compressive and splitting tensile strengths of control con-
crete and concretes containing PP, PVA and PAN fibers with differ-
ent lengths are measured and plotted in Fig. 5. The error bars in
Fig. 5 correspond to the standard deviation of three concrete sam-
ples tested for each concrete proportion at each hydration time. It
is clearly seen from Fig. 5 that the compressive and splitting tensile
strengths of all concretes increase with the curing time.
From Fig. 5(a) and (b), it can be found the incorporation of fibers
raises the compressive strength slightly, and the increments are
within 3.1%–7.3% at various hydration time. These slight incre-
ments are reported to result from the absorption of energy by
fibers, which could transfer the stresses through them to prevent
the concrete from rupture [6]. Prior studies demonstrated that
the addition of fibers in a proper range (usually below a volume
fraction of 0.25%) was beneficial to improve the compressive
strength of concrete, whereas fibers exceed this dosage range could
decline the compressive strength obviously [7,19,47]. It is notice-
able that the fiber content in this study is within this optimal
range. In addition, it is hard to clearly distinguish the effects of
fiber type and length on the compressive strength because the
strength differences are within the error range of 5%. For example,
Fig. 5 shows that at various hydration ages, the compressive
strength of concrete added with PVA, PAV and PP fiber is reduced
by 1.1%2.4%, 1.6%–0.9% and 1.5–2.2%, respectively, as the fiber
length increases from 10 mm to 20 mm. These results are consis-
tent with those reported by Nathalie et al. [15], who summarized
the length of fibers did not show a significant effect on the com-
pressive strength.
Fig. 5(c) and (d) indicate that the addition of fibers enhances the
splitting tensile strength by about 5.5%–15.6% at 3 days, 5.4%–
16.8% at 28 days and 5.8%–17.2% at 180 days, which are noticeably
7
Construction and Building Materials 282 (2021) 122706
higher than the compressive strength enhancements due to fiber
addition. Similar results of tensile strength and compressive
strength enhancements by fibers have been reported elsewhere
[6,7]. The enhancement of fibers on splitting tensile strength is
because the evenly distributed fibers in the matrix can act as
stitches between two cracked sections to transfer the tensile stres-
ses and improve the tensile capacity [6,48].
Fig. 5(c) and (d) also show that varying fiber type and length
could significantly affect the splitting tensile strength. Generally,
the concrete added with PVA fiber exhibits larger splitting tensile
strengths than the concrete with PP fiber and PAN fiber. For
instance, the inclusion of PVA with a length about 10 mm increases
the splitting tensile strength of C0 concrete by about 11.5%–12.5%
at different ages, whereas the increments are 5.4%–5.8% and 8.8%–
9.5% for PP fiber and PAN fiber, respectively. The same phe-
nomenon can be also found for the fibers with a length about
20 mm. This is partly because the PVA fiber is higher in elastic
modulus value than the PP and PAN fibers, as shown in Table 3.
It is widely reported that fibers with a higher elastic modulus could
inhibit the generation and development of micro-cracks and conse-
quently improve the tensile strength of concrete [6]. Another pos-
sible reason is that PVA fiber tends to generate a strong chemical
bonding with cement matrix due to the presence of the hydroxyl
group in its molecular chains [18]. The smallest splitting tensile
strength of PP fiber enhanced concrete among all the fiber
enhanced ones could be also explained in part by the low elastic
modulus of PP fibers. Besides, it has been proved that PP fiber
had a smooth surface and was inert in high pH environment, thus
it was hard to form strong bonding strength with cement matrix
[8].
Moreover, an increase in fiber length from about 10 mm to
20 mm may further increase the splitting tensile strength of con-
crete, regardless of the fiber type. This can be attributed to the
L. Wang, T. He, Y. Zhou et al. Construction and Building Materials 282 (2021) 122706

Fig. 5. Compressive strength and splitting tensile strength of concretes containing PP, PVA and PAN fibers with lengths about (a) and (c) 10 mm; (b) and (d) 20 mm.

enhanced adherence between the fibers and matrix when longer
fibers are used [21,49]. The trend is consistent with previous inves-
tigations on glass fibers by wang et al. [49] and PP plastic fibers by
Shen et al. [21]. For instance, at a fiber content of 8 kg/m3, the
increase in PP plastic fiber length from 16 mm to 60 mm could
increase the splitting tensile strength of high strength concrete
from 5.02 MPa to 8.15 MPa [21]. The slightly lower splitting tensile
strengths of fiber-enhanced concrete in this study than those in
Ref. [21] are mainly due to the differences in W/C ratios of concrete
and fiber type.
3.3. Volume deformation of face slab concrete
3.3.1. Drying shrinkage
The drying shrinkage of control concrete and concretes contain-
ing PP, PVA and PAN fibers with different lengths is shown in Fig. 6.
Fig. 6 indicates that more than 60% of the drying shrinkage of all
the concretes is generated during the first 14 days of drying, there-
after the shrinkage develops slowly up to 180 days. The results in
Fig. 6 show that the utilization of fibers tends to reduce the 180-
day drying shrinkage of concretes by about 5.5%-18.5%, depending
on the fiber type and length. It is widely reported that the bridging

Fig. 6. Drying shrinkage of concretes containing PP, PVA and PAN fibers with a length about (a) 10 mm (b) 20 mm.

8
L. Wang, T. He, Y. Zhou et al.
forces between fibers and matrix could restrain the shrinkage
development of concrete, since the randomly well-distributed
fibers could provide a three-dimensional reinforcement for the
structure to resist the inner tensile force [6,15,47].
For the 10 mm-level fibers, the data in Fig. 6(a) reveals that the
drying shrinkage reduction effect was greatest for PVA fiber among
all the fibers used in this study, followed by the PAN fiber and PP
fiber. Specifically, PVA fiber reduces the drying shrinkage of C0
concrete by about 13.0% at 14 days and 12.4% at 180 days, followed
by the PAN fiber and PP fiber, which lower the drying shrinkage of
C0 concrete by about 9.5% and 5.8% at 14 days, 8.6% and 5.5% at
180 days, respectively. The same trend could be also found for
the 20 mm-level fibers in Fig. 6(b). The better performance of the
PVA fiber than other types of fiber in reducing the shrinkage is
probably due to its higher tensile strength and higher adherence
with cement matrix. Although the number of PAN fibers per unit
concrete volume is larger due to its smaller diameter than PVA
fiber, the tensile strength of PAN fiber is only about 37% of that
of PVA, hence the PAN fiber may not provide bridging force as
strong as the PVA fiber. The PP fiber exhibits the weakest tensile
strength, which may explain its weakest ability to resist the drying
shrinkage development among the three fiber types used in this
study.
As for the fiber length effect, it can be observed that the 20 mm-
level fibers are more effective than the 10 mm-level ones in reduc-
ing the shrinkage strains. For instance, the drying shrinkage of con-
crete with 20 mm-level PVA fiber is reduced by 5.7%6.6% at
14 days and 5.3%7.0% at 180 days, compared with the concrete
added with 10 mm-level PVA fibers. This is due to the fact that
increasing fiber length generally enhances the adherence between
fibers and matrix and provides a sufficient stress transfer, which
could reduce the concrete shrinkage efficiently [6,15,21].
3.3.2. Autogenous shrinkage
The autogenous shrinkage of control concrete and concretes
containing PP, PVA and PAN fibers with different lengths is shown
in Fig. 7.
Alike the effects of fibers on drying shrinkage, Fig. 7 displays the
addition of fibers inhabits the autogenous shrinkage development.
The phenomenon could be explained by the following two reasons.
Firstly, the fiber addition may generate a complex three-
dimensional fiber–matrix system, a water film may also form on
the surface of fibers, both of which slow down the water flow
and water loss, thus reducing the self-desiccation and autogenous
shrinkage. Secondly, the autogenous shrinkage development could
be effectively restrained by the bridging forces between fibers and
cement matrix [50,51].
Fig. 7. Autogenous shrinkage of concretes containing PP, PVA and PAN fibers with a length about (a) 10 mm (b) 20 mm.
9
Construction and Building Materials 282 (2021) 122706
Fig. 7(a) also indicates that the inclusion of PP, PVA and PAN
fiber with a length about 10 mm reduces the autogenous shrinkage
of C0 concrete by about 5.6%, 13.5% and 9.0% at 14 days and 5.3%,
11.4% and 8.3% at 180 days, respectively. The better performance of
PVA fibers than PP and PAN fibers in reducing the autogenous
shrinkage can be also observed for the concrete added with
20 mm-level fibers.
Additionally, the results in Fig. 7 show that the fibers with a
length about 20 mm is more efficient in reducing the autogenous
shrinkage than the 10 mm-level fibers. For instance, the 20 mm-
level PVA fiber reduces the autogenous shrinkage strains by about
5.5%6.6% % at 14 days and 5.1%6.2% at 180 days, compared with
the concrete added with 10 mm-level PVA fibers. These results are
in good agreement with those reported by others. For example,
Shen et al. [21] found increasing Barchip fiber length from
42 mm to 60 mm reduced the autogenous shrinkage of concrete
by about 15%28%. The obviously higher efficiency of fibers in
reducing the autogenous shrinkage in Ref. [21] could be attributed
to the much higher fiber content (i.e., 8.0 kg/m3) than in this study
(i.e., 1.2 kg/m3). Similarly, Nathalie et al. [15] observed that the
shrinkage decreased with the increase in flax fiber length from
12 mm to 50 mm at various fiber contents. As mentioned above,
longer fibers could produce a better adherence with cement matrix
than the shorter ones. However, the optimum fiber length selected
in practical use should be comprehensively evaluated combing the
workability, strength, and durability factors. One basic principle is
that the longer fibers should be used without compromising other
important concrete properties.
3.4. Crack resistance of face slab concrete
3.4.1. Concrete ring test results
In the concrete ring test, the shrinkage of concrete caused by
the drying and cement hydration is restrained by the steel rings,
which inevitably generates tensile stress in the specimens [6,52].
The cracking will occur when the tensile stress exceeds the tensile
strength of concrete. The restrained shrinkage strain and initial
cracking time of concretes containing PP, PVA and PAN fibers with
different lengths are presented in Fig. 8. The maximal restrained
shrinkage strain, which is also called cracking strain, corresponds
to the shrinkage strain when cracking occurs. The initial cracking
time is the time when cracking occurs. These two parameters are
closely related with the cracking resistance of concrete and there-
fore can be adopted to estimate the cracking potential of concrete
[53]. Generally, the high cracking strain and the long initial crack-
ing time of the concrete rings imply a high stress bearing capacity
and a high ductility of concrete. Fig. 8(a) indicates that the
L. Wang, T. He, Y. Zhou et al.
Fig. 8. The concrete ring test results of concretes containing PP, PVA and PAN fibers (a) restrained shrinkage strain with time and (b) initial cracking time.
restrained shrinkage of all concretes increases with time until a
sudden drop occurs, which corresponds to the cracking of concrete,
and thereafter it declines to about zero due to the release of tensile
stress in concrete. This trend is in good agreement with previous
ring test findings [6,30,52,53].
It is clear from Fig. 8 that the fibers can improve the resistance
of concrete to drying shrinkage-induced cracking by increasing the
cracking strain and prolonging the initial cracking time, irrespec-
tive of the fiber type. Similar ring test results were obtained by
Yousefieh et al. [6], they found that the fibers such as steel fiber,
PP and polyolefin fiber could act as micro steel bars to increase
the cracking strain and provide more time for stress bearing before
cracking. Also, Fig. 8 illustrates that the cracking resistance is
affected notably by the fiber type and length.
Concerning the fiber type, Fig. 8 clearly shows that the PVA
fiber-enhanced concrete exhibits the best cracking resistance to
restrained shrinkage, followed by the PAN one and PP one. For
instance, the cracking strain of concrete with 10 mm-level PVA
fibers is equal to 58.6  106, which is about 20.3% and 9.2% larger
than that of concrete containing PP and PAN with the same length.
Correspondingly, the initial cracking time of CPVA10 is about 15 h
and 9 h longer than that of the CPP10 and CPAN10, respectively.
The similar observation can be also found for the 20 mm-level
fibers. The best cracking resistance of PVA fiber-enhanced concrete
in this study can be partly explained by the highest elastic modulus
and tensile strength of PVA fiber among all the fibers used in this
study. It was suggested that the addition of fibers with higher elas-
tic modulus and tensile strength could more effectively reduce the
concrete shrinkage and improve the cracking resistance of concrete
[6]. Therefore, the PVA fibers enhanced concrete could resist higher
cracking tendency and bear larger tensile stresses than concrete
added with other fibers. The second possible reason could be the
high hydrophilic property of the PVA fiber, which could result in
better adherence between fibers and cement matrix, and finally
prevent crack development far better [7,19].
Regarding the fiber length, Fig. 8 shows that increasing fiber
length further increases the cracking strain and initial cracking
time. To be specific, a prolongation in initial cracking time about
11.0–15.0 h and an increase in cracking strain about 15.5%–20.7%
can be observed for concretes with 20 mm-level fibers compared
with those of concretes with 10 mm-level ones. As discussed
above, the longer fibers tend to provide higher degrees of stress
transfer and stronger bridging forces to prevent the crack develop-
ment and propagation, resulting in a stronger stress bearing capac-
ity and finally a better cracking resistance [6,15]. Additionally,
increasing fiber length could enhance the bonding network
between the matrix and fibers, leading to enhanced bonding
strength and cracking resistance of concrete [20].
10
Construction and Building Materials 282 (2021) 122706
3.4.2. TSTM test results
In addition to the stresses caused by the drying shrinkage and
autogenous shrinkage, the face slab concrete frequently suffers
from the temperature-induced stress, which is also the main cause
of cracking. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the effects of
fibers on the resistance of face slab concrete to the thermal stres-
ses. The key temperature stress parameters obtained from the
TSTM test conducted on control concrete and concretes containing
PP, PVA and PAN fibers with different lengths are given in Table 6.
Fig. 9 is a typical example of TSTM curves of control concrete (C0),
concretes containing 10 mm-level PVA (CPVA10) and 20 mm level-
PVA (CPVA20). From Fig. 9, all the concrete samples exhibit similar
temperature stress development, i.e., the compressive stresses of
concrete increase with the internal temperature rising until the
peak temperature is reached. Subsequently the compressive stress
is somewhat reduced even though the peak temperature of con-
crete is kept constant. The same phenomenon of decreasing stress
in concrete subjected to a constant deformation during the TSTM
test has been reported by others, who referred to this phenomenon
as stress relaxation [33]. As the temperature is cooled down, the
tensile stress gradually develops until the cracking occurs, which
corresponds to the peak point in Fig. 9(b).
It can be figured out from Table 6 and Fig. 9 that, the tempera-
ture stress parameters such as the TZ,1, TZ,2, rc,max and Tmax are
almost the same for all the concretes in this study. It was suggested
that TZ,1, TZ,2, rc,max and Tmax depend mainly on the binder amount
used in concrete [54]. Herein, the binder amount is almost the
same for all the concrete samples, as shown in Table 4. Conse-
quently, the fibers would not affect the TZ,1, TZ,2, rc,max and Tmax val-
ues in this study, leading to the highly overlapping of the
temperature stress curves of various concretes before the cooling
period in Fig. 9.
It is interesting to note that the fiber type and length have an
obvious impact on tensile strength r and cracking temperature
Tc of concrete. According to RILEM TC119 [35], Tc and r are critical
parameters characterizing the anti-cracking performance of con-
crete. The higher Tc and r values provide a higher capacity of con-
crete to surfer from the tensile stress development caused by the
temperature decline.
The results in Table 6 indicate that, PVA fiber exhibits the best
efficiency in improving the resistance of concrete to temperature
stress-induced cracking, followed by the PAN fiber and PP fiber.
To be specific, the 10-mm PVA fibers increase the r value of C0
concrete by about 18% at the time of cracking, while the incre-
ments of r due to the addition of PP fiber and PAN fiber with the
same length are about 7% and 13%, respectively. The best perfor-
mance of PVA fibers among all the fibers in raising r can be also
found for the 20 mm-level ones, followed by the PAN fiber and
L. Wang, T. He, Y. Zhou et al. Construction and Building Materials 282 (2021) 122706

Table 6
The key temperature stress parameters of concretes containing PP, PVA and PAN fibers.

Notation 1st Zero stress Maximum compressive stress Maximum 2nd Zero stress Tensile strength Cracking
temperature TZ,1 (°C) rc,max (MPa) temperature Tmax(°C) temperature TZ,2 (°C) r (MPa) temperature Tc (°C)
C0 25.6 0.23 59.6 51.4 0.83 12.68
CPP10 25.4 0.23 59.4 51.9 0.89 9.8
CPP20 25.1 0.24 59.3 52.1 0.96 4.2
CPVA10 25.3 0.23 59.7 52.5 0.98 3.8
CPVA20 25.9 0.24 59.4 52.3 1.07 2.7
CPAN10 25.3 0.22 59.5 52.1 0.94 7.1
CPAN20 24.9 0.23 59.2 51.8 1.02 1.5

the PVA fibers with a length about 20 mm present the best perfor-
mance to reduce the thermal cracking risk of concrete in this study,
which is consistent with the concrete ring test results above and
the findings reported by others. Based on a series of TSTM tests,
Shen et al. [20] proposed that increasing Barchip fiber length from
42 mm to 54 mm improved the concrete resistance to the temper-
ature decline. It is also interesting to note that increasing fiber
length may appreciably weaken the workability of concrete, as evi-
dent in Section 3.1. It was reported that when the Barchip fiber
length exceeded 54 mm, the poor dispersion of fibers may lead
to the decrease in early age behavior and cracking resistance
[20]. Additionally, a weakening trend of cracking resistance of
high-strength concrete due to the increase in fiber length has been
reported for PP plastic fibers [21]. These seemingly conflicting
effects of fiber length on concrete cracking resistance above may
be caused by the significant difference in fiber type and concrete
properties. Therefore, the proper fiber type and length should be
examined before engineering applications.
It should be noted that only one cooling rate was selected in this
study. Further study will be conducted to understand the cooling
rates on the stress development during the TSTM test, which is
beyond the scope of the present paper.

3.5. Durability of face slab concrete

3.5.1. Permeability
The permeability of concrete is generally characterized by two
indexes, i.e., water seepage height (Dm) and relative permeability
coefficient (Kr). The permeability results of concrete containing
PP, PVA and PAN fibers with different lengths are shown in Table 7.
The results in Table 7 are the average values of six specimens mea-
Fig. 9. An example of the TSTM curves of C0, CPVA10 and CPVA20 concretes.
sured for each concrete mix hydrated at 28 days.
As presented in Table 7, the inclusion of fibers with a content of
PP fiber. Moreover, Table 6 shows that the PVA fibers lower the Tc
1.2 kg/m3 could increase the Dm and Kr values of concrete, irre-
value of C0 concrete by about 8.9 ℃, whereas the PP and PAN fibers spective of the fiber type. For instance, the average Dm and Kr val-
reduce the Tc by only 2.9 ℃ and 5.6 ℃ on average, respectively,
ues of CPAN10 concrete are about 22% and 48% larger compared
demonstrating that PVA fibers have the greatest impact on improv- with those of C0 one, respectively. Similar results of the adverse
ing the cracking resistance to thermal stresses.
effect of fibers on concrete impermeability have been reported
In addition, Table 6 shows that the increase in fiber length is by Toutanji [17] and Cao et al. [13], who ascribed the increased
also beneficial for the improvement of the cracking resistance.
chloride ion permeability to the increase in air content due to PP
For example, increasing the fiber length from 10 mm to 20 mm
increases the r values by about 7.9%  9.2%. This observed trend
is in agreement with the splitting tensile results in Section 3.2 Table 7
and the ring test results in Section 3.4.1 as well as the findings The 28-day permeability results of concretes containing PP, PVA and PAN fibers with
different lengths.
by Ref. [21]. Table 6 also displays the beneficial effect on Tc
becomes more obvious as the fiber length increases, irrespective Notation Water seepage height Relative permeability coefficient Kr
of the fiber type. For example, the 20 mm-level PP, PVA and PAN Dm(cm) (107 cm/h)
fibers could reduce the Tc by about 5.6 ℃, 6.5 ℃ and 5.6 ℃, respec- C0 2.3 ± 0.11 2.70 ± 0.25
tively, compared with the concretes with the 10 mm-level fibers. CPP10 3.8 ± 0.12 7.37 ± 0.46
CPP20 4.3 ± 0.15 9.44 ± 0.61
As discussed above, the longer fibers could transfer the tensile
CPVA10 3.3 ± 0.13 5.56 ± 0.43
stress better and provide stronger bridging forces, which endows CPVA20 3.9 ± 0.12 7.76 ± 0.39
the concrete better stress bearing capacity and resistance to tem- CPAN10 2.8 ± 0.13 4.00 ± 0.40
perature decline. Based on Tc and r values, it can be concluded that CPAN20 3.4 ± 0.14 5.90 ± 0.45

11
L. Wang, T. He, Y. Zhou et al.
fiber addition. As Zhang et al. [40] revealed, the chloride ion per-
meability of concrete increased with increasing air content when
the air contents varied within the range of 2%-6 %. In this study,
the lowered resistance to water permeability may be also attribu-
ted to the relatively high air content entrained by the fibers, which
will be further evidenced in terms of air void parameter in
Section 3.7.
Moreover, the increase in fiber length may further worsen the
impermeability of concrete, as shown in Table 7. For example,
the average Dm and Kr values of CPAN 20 are 3.4 cm and
5.90  107 cm/h, which are about 21% and 47% larger than those
of CPAN10, respectively. The same trend can be observed for PP
and PVA fibers. This phenomenon can be also partly explained by
the increase in air content due to the fiber length increase.
In addition to the fiber length, Table 7 shows that the fiber type
has an obvious impact on impermeability of concretes, and the effi-
ciency in improving the impermeability is in the sequence of
PAN > PVA > PP. Specifically, from Table 7, among all the fibers
enhanced concretes, the PAN fiber enhanced concrete exhibits
the lowest Dm and Kr values, that is, the best impermeability, fol-
lowed by the PVA fiber enhanced one and PP fiber enhanced one.
The impermeability differences among concretes added with dif-
ferent fibers could be partly interpreted in terms of their air con-
tent differences. Apart from the air content, many studies [55,56]
demonstrated that the volume fraction and micro-geometry of
the entire pore structure within the cement matrix have a signifi-
cant impact on the concrete permeability. Many pore-structural
studies found that the PVA and PP fiber addition would affect the
pore structure of engineered cementitious composites (ECC) [18],
cement mortar [19] and geopolymer concrete [57] remarkably.
Therefore, the impermeability differences of face slab concrete
caused by the fiber type and length in this study, which will be dis-
cussed from the viewpoint of pore structure in Section 3.6.
Although the fibers could raise the concrete permeability, there
is another important role played by fibers with respect to perme-
ability that must be highlighted is their ability to resist the crack-
ing of concrete. In the practical projects, the permeability of
concrete is significantly exacerbated by the cracks in concrete. It
was reported that the permeability of high strength concrete with
micro cracks is up to ten times higher in intensity than that of the
concretes without micro cracks [6]. As discussed above, the fibers
are effective in reducing the shrinkage and the cracking risk of con-
crete. In this regard, fibers could inhabit the formation of cracks
and afford superior resistance to the water permeability, as
reported by Refs. [16,23].
3.5.2. Frost resistance
The freezing-thawing cycles may lead to a gradual decrease in
dynamic modulus of elasticity and an increase in surface scaling
of concrete. Thus, the weight loss and the relative dynamic modu-
lus of elasticity are two important parameters to evaluate the frost
resistance of concrete [42]. The mass loss and relative dynamic
modulus of elasticity results of concretes containing PP, PVA and
PAN fibers with different lengths are shown in Fig. 10. The error
bars in Fig. 10 exhibit the standard deviations among the three
concrete samples tested for each concrete proportion. The errors
shown in Fig. 10 are minor, indicating that the experimental data
are reliable. It can be found from Fig. 10 that all the concrete spec-
imens exhibit mass losses smaller than 5% and relative dynamic
modulus of elasticity larger than 60%, demonstrating that all the
concretes have a frost resistance level as high as F400 according
to DL/T 5150 [26].
Fig. 10 indicates the fiber addition is conductive to improve the
frost resistance of concrete. Similar results of frost resistance
improvement by fibers have been reported elsewhere
[13,16,58,59]. Nevertheless, there exists a reasonable dosage of
12
Construction and Building Materials 282 (2021) 122706
fibers in terms of the frost resistance. Some researchers [16] have
studied the effects of various fibers fractions (0.10%, 0.12%, 0.15%
and 0.20% by volume) and found that the fiber fraction greater than
0.12% could adversely affect the frost resistance of concrete since
the fibers beyond this fraction tend to agglomerate together. In this
study, the fiber fraction about 0.1% by volume is close to the sug-
gested reasonable dosages above. There are two reasons responsi-
ble for this beneficial effect of fibers on frost resistance. On the one
hand, this is in part due to the air-entraining properties of the
fibers [59]. It is known that air content is considered as the main
factor affecting the frost resistance of concrete [18,58]. The
entrained air voids could provide empty spaces for accommodating
the ice expansion, thus relieving the hydrostatic pressure and
osmotic pressure during the low temperature cycle [16,58]. On
the other hand, the ice expansion could cause severe heaving
cracking stress inside the concrete. The fibers could effectively
improve the stress bearing capacity and restrain the heaving crack-
ing of concrete, as evidenced above, which consequently slow
down the surface scaling rate and decrease the mass loss caused
by the freeze–thaw action [13,16,59].
In addition, the fiber type has significant effects on the frost
resistance of concrete. As evident from Fig. 10, the frost resistance
improvement effect is greatest for PVA fiber, followed by the PAN
fiber and PP fiber. For instance, the mass loss of CPVA10 concrete
is about 33% smaller than that of the C0 one, while the reductions
in mass loss are about 25% and 17% for CPAN10 and CPP10, respec-
tively. The same trend can be found when comparing the relative
dynamic elastic modulus values. These results can be explained
by two possible reasons. Differences in air void parameters such
as the air content may be the first reason for this trend. In addition
to the air content, it is well demonstrated that other air void
parameter such as the air void spacing factor (the average distance
between air void centers) and the number of air voids could affect
the frost resistance of concrete [18,40,44]. Further air void analyses
will be conducted to elucidate the effect the fiber type on frost
resistance of concrete in Subsections 3.7. The second possible rea-
son could be the differences in the stress bearing capacity and
cracking resistance of concretes containing different fibers. As
revealed by the splitting tensile test, ring test and TSTM test in pre-
vious Sections, the PVA fiber is more notably in improving the ten-
sile strength, cracking resistance, as well as the tensile stress-
bearing capacity than other types of fiber in this study, which
eventually enhances the resistance to the heaving cracking as well
as the surface scaling of concrete in the freezing and thawing
cycles. The similar findings involving the influences of fiber type
(PVA and PP) have been reported by Nam et al. [19], who summa-
rized that the physical properties of the fibers have significantly
influence on the frost resistance of cement mortar based on scan-
ning electron microscope (SEM) observations.
Additionally, Fig. 10 shows that the improvement effect of
fibers on frost resistance becomes more notably as the fiber length
increase, which may be attributed to the better resistance to ten-
sile stress and cracking tendency when longer fibers are incorpo-
rated, as demonstrated above. This fiber length effect will be also
revealed from the viewpoints of air void parameters in the next
Section.
3.6. Pore structures and their correlations with durability
The pore structure parameters including the porosity, the criti-
cal pore diameter and the pore size distribution of concretes con-
taining PP, PVA and PAN fibers with different lengths hydrated at
3, 28 and 180 days obtained from the MIP tests are given in Table 8.
Notice each result in Table 8 is an average of three MIP measure-
ments with a variation coefficient less than 5%, the results can
therefore relatively reliably present the general trend of pore struc-
L. Wang, T. He, Y. Zhou et al. Construction and Building Materials 282 (2021) 122706

Fig. 10. The 28-day frost resistance results of concrete containing PP, PVA and PAN fibers: mass loss of concrete with (a) 10 mm fiber and (b) 20 mm fiber; relative dynamic
elastic modulus of concrete with (c) 10 mm fiber and (d) 20 mm fiber.

Table 8
Pore structure parameters of concretes obtained by MIP.

Notation Curing time(days) Critical porediameter (nm) Porosity(%) Pore size distribution
<10 nm (%) 10–50 nm (%) 50 nm–10 lm (%)
C0 3 128 26.5 7.2 29.6 61.3
28 73 21.8 13.6 46.7 38.4
180 38 17.3 16.1 53.8 28.5
CPP10 3 238 33.6 4.3 19.2 72.7
28 155 27.2 10.4 35.3 50.6
180 76 22.4 13.6 42.8 40.2
CPP20 3 267 36.8 3.5 14.5 77.9
28 171 29.8 7.6 31.7 56.2
180 91 23.6 11.9 38.9 46.1
CPVA10 3 203 31.4 6.5 22.2 68.1
28 132 25.1 12.3 38.5 46.3
180 64 20.3 14.4 46.3 35.6
CPVA20 3 231 34.5 5.2 18.5 72.8
28 156 28.1 9.8 35.1 50.6
180 77 22.2 13.2 42.9 41.4
CPAN10 3 144 29.8 7.7 25.8 63.2
28 109 23.3 14.7 41.1 41.8
180 52 18.1 15.3 50.2 31.1
CPAN20 3 176 32.3 6.4 21.5 68.7
28 133 26.4 11.3 39.5 46.3
180 65 20.6 14.2 46.5 36.9

ture development. An example of MIP curves is given in Fig. 11,
which clearly shows the cumulative pore volume and the critical
pore diameter of 3-day concretes containing various fibers are dif-
ferent. The critical pore diameter is the size of pores corresponding
to the peak point of the differential pore size distribution curve
13
shown in Fig. 11(b). In this study, the classification method pro-
posed by Mindess et al. [60] has been adopted. According to this
method, pores with diameter ranging from 2.5 nm to 10 nm,
10 nm to 50 nm, 50 nm to 10 lm and over 10 lm, are classified
L. Wang, T. He, Y. Zhou et al.
Fig. 11. An example of MIP curve of concrete containing 10-mm level fiber hydrated at 3 days: (a) the cumulative pore volume curve and (b) differential pore size distribution
curve.
as small capillary (gel) pores, medium capillary pores, large capil-
lary pores, and air voids, respectively.
It can be seen from Table 8 that the fibers increase the critical
pore diameter and porosity of concrete. In the case of CPP10
hydrated at 28 days, the critical pore diameter and porosity are
155 nm and 27.2%, which are 82 nm and 5.4% higher than those
of C0 concrete, respectively. In addition, Table 8 shows the fibers
raise the fraction of large capillary pores and reduce the fractions
of the medium capillary pores as well as the gel pores to some
extent, regardless of the fiber type. These results indicate that
the fiber addition could produce slightly coarser pore structures
in concrete at various hydration ages, which are consistent with
those found in previous studies [18,19]. Sßahmaran et al. [18]
reported the volumes of pores with sizes between 0.30 and 2 lm
and the total intruded porosity in ECC increased considerably with
the PVA fiber addition. Nam et al. [19] revealed the addition of PVA
or PP fibers increased the pores in the range of 0.1–10 lm in
cement mortars. The coarse pore structure in fiber enhanced con-
crete in this study seems to be also related with the air entrapment
of fibers. Nevertheless, further study will be conducted to under-
stand the mechanism of the increase in porosity due to the fiber
addition, which is beyond the scope of the present paper.
Furthermore, Fig. 11 and Table 8 clearly show that the pore
structure of concrete varies with the fiber type. The PP fiber
enhanced concrete seems to present the coarsest pore structure
among all the fiber-enhanced concrete, followed by the PVA fiber
enhanced one and the PAN fiber enhanced one. For instance, Table 8
presents that the porosity, the critical pore diameter, as well as the
fractions of large capillary pores of concrete containing fibers fol-
low the order of CPP10 > CPVA10 > CPAN10 > C0 for 10-mm level
fibers, and CPP20 > CPVA20 > CPAN20 > C0 for 20-mm level fibers,
which are in consistence with the orders of the air contents in
Fig. 4 and the impermeability in Table 7.
The correlations between relative permeability coefficient Kr
and pore structure parameters including the porosity and fraction
of pores sized between 50 nm and 10 lm are shown in Fig. 12.
Fig. 12 clearly indicates that Kr is lineally corelated with porosity
as well as the fraction of large capillary pores. As Metha and Mon-
terio [56] clarified, the pores with a diameter of about 0.05–0.1 lm
have a significant influence on the permeability of concrete. Some
researchers [37,55] have pointed out that a high porosity and a
large amount of large capillary pores facilitated the formation of
channels for water penetration and ingress ions diffusion. Accord-
ingly, the impermeability differences caused by the fiber type can
be revealed in terms of the pore structure. The PP fibers produce a
relatively coarse pore structure in concrete, leading to high Dm and
14
Construction and Building Materials 282 (2021) 122706
Kr values. By contrast, the PAN fibers could make a finer pore struc-
ture and a denser cement matrix compared with PVA and PP fibers,
resulting in a lower degree of permeability of concrete.
However, a careful analysis of the data in Fig. 10 and Table 8
found there is no definite relationship between the frost resistance
and pore structure of concrete. The PP fiber enhanced concrete
with the highest porosity does not exhibit the best frost resistance.
Similarly, the frost resistance of PAN fiber enhanced concrete is not
the best even through it has the lowest porosity and fraction of
large capillary pores. The mechanism beneath is that the porosity
is not a good indicator of frost durability, the fine pores and poros-
ity obtained by MIP technique would not contribute to the increase
in frost resistance [18]. As stated by many previous studies, the
frost resistance of concrete was greatly affected by pores with a
diameter above 50 lm [41] or around 300 lm [42], all of which
are within the pore size range of air voids. The analysis of the cor-
relation between frost resistance and air void will be conducted in
Section 3.7.
From the comparison of data in Table 8, it can be found that
increasing the fiber length could further coarsen the pore structure
of concrete. As for the PP fiber, an increase in fiber length from
10 mm to 20 mm may enlarge the critical pore diameter, porosity,
and the fraction of large capillary pores concrete (CPP20) at 28 days
to about 171 nm, 29.8% and 56.2%, which are about 16 nm, 2.6%
and 5.6% higher than those of CPP10 concrete, respectively. The
same coarsening trend of pores with increasing fiber length could
be observed for the concretes added with PVA or PP fibers. As
shown in Fig. 12, the high porosity and high volume of large capil-
lary pores favor the water permeation in concrete. Consequently,
concrete with longer fibers exhibits a weaker impermeability than
the one with shorter ones.
3.7. Air void parameters and their correlations with durability
The air-void parameters of concretes containing PP, PVA and
PAN fibers with different lengths hydrated at 28 days are given
in Table 9. Notice that the hardened air content A values in Table 9
are nearly equivalent to the air contents in fresh concrete shown in
Fig. 4. The same trend has been described by ASTM C 457 [45].
Apart from the air content A, Table 9 provides other air voids
parameters, including the total number of air voids N, the average
air void diameter D and the spacing factor L̄, which are believed to
affect the frost resistance of concrete [40,43,44].
Table 9 indicates that all the fibers (PP, PVA and PAN) increase
the values of N and A values and reduce the L̄ values, indicating the
L. Wang, T. He, Y. Zhou et al. Construction and Building Materials 282 (2021) 122706

Fig. 12. The correlations of relative permeability coefficient Kr with (a) fraction of pores sized between 50 nm and 10 lm (large capillary pores) and (b) porosity.

Table 9
Air void parameters of 28-day concretes determined by the linear traverse method.

Air void parameters C0 CPP10 CPP20 CPVA10 CPVA20 CPAN10 CPAN20

Total number of air voids N 1250 1589 1775 1952 2246 1723 1920
Traverse length through air Ta (mm) 264.6 396.9 422.1 346.5 378.0 321.3 333.9
Hardened air content A (%) 4.2 6.3 6.7 5.5 6.0 5.1 5.3
Average chord length l (lm) 212 250 238 178 168 186 174
Average air void diameter D (lm)D (lm) 318 375 357 266 252 280 261
Specific surface a (mm1) 18.9 16.0 16.8 22.5 23.8 21.5 23.0
Spacing factor¯L (lm) 252 227 200 182 161 206 185

fibers could entrap more air voids in concrete while at the same
time shorten the average distance among the air void centers.
The correlation of relative permeability coefficient Kr with A is
presented in Fig. 13. Fig. 13 clearly indicates that a linear e rela-
with the trend reported by others [40], the higher N and the smal-

ler L, the better the frost resistance, and vice versa. In addition, it
can be seen from Table 9 that most of the fiber enhanced concretes


tionship exists between Kr and A, with a relatively high coefficient
R2 value of 0.925. The high R2 demonstrates that, in addition to the
pore structure parameters, the concrete permeability is signifi-
cantly determined by the hardened air content.
Moreover, the correlations between frost resistance parameters
(i.e., mass loss and relative dynamic modulus of elasticity) and air
 Obviously, the increased N and the decreased L down to around
void parameters of concrete (i.e., N, A, D and L) are shown in Figs. 14
and 15. From Figs. 14 and 15, the frost resistance of concrete is clo-

sely related with the N and L with high coefficient R2 values above
0.97, whereas the correlations of frost resistance with A and D are

relatively weak, illustrating that N and L play more important roles
than A and D in influencing the frost resistance. This is consistent
Fig. 13. The correlation of relative permeability coefficient Kr with hardened air
content A.
exhibit L values below 250 lm or even below 200 lm. Based on the

hypothesis of hydrostatic pressure reported by Powers [61], the L
value was supposed to be less than 250 lm to obtain a good frost

resistance of concrete. Other study considered the L below 200 lm
to be critical for the durability of concrete in cold climates [18].

200 lm caused by the fiber addition are beneficial to improve
the frost resistance of concrete.
By comparing the data in Table 9, it can be found that under the
same fiber length, the fiber type affects the air void parameters
obviously. PAN fiber generates the lowest hardened air content
(A) value while the PP fiber produces the largest. Based on the rela-
tionship between Kr and A revealed in Fig. 13, the low A can partly
explain the high impermeability of PAN fiber enhanced concrete.
Basd on the correlation between concrete frost resistance and
air void parameters, it can be conclued that PVA fiber enhanced

concrete gives the lowest spacing factor (L) value and largest total
number of air voids (N) value among all the fiber enhanced con-
cretes, thus exhibiting the best frost resistance. Similarly, the PP
fiber enhanced concrete has a higher A value than other types of
fiber enhanced ones, which may be beneficial for the concrete frost

resistance, but it has much higher L and lower N values, thus pre-
senting weaker frost resistance, as revealed in Figs. 14 and 15.
As for the fiber length, Table 9 shows that increasing fiber
length from 10 mm to about 20 mm could further decrease theL̄
values and increase the N values, thereby improving the frost resis-
tance of concrete. For instance, CPP20, CPVA20 and CPAN20 show
approximately 12%, 15% and 11% increases in N values, and about

12%, 11% and 10% reductions in L values compared with those of
CPP10, CPVA10 and CPAN10, respectively. As revealed in Figs. 14

15
L. Wang, T. He, Y. Zhou et al. Construction and Building Materials 282 (2021) 122706


Fig. 14. The correlations of mass loss with (a) total number of air voids N, (b) air content A, (c) the average air void diameter D and (d) the spacing factor L.

Fig. 15. The correlations of relative dynamic modulus of elasticity with (a) total number of air voids N, (b) air content A, (c) the average air void diameter D and (d) the spacing
factor L.

16
L. Wang, T. He, Y. Zhou et al.

and 15, the reduction in L values and increase in N values due to
the inclusion of longer fibers contributes much to the improve-
ment in frost resistance of concrete, while the increased A values
at the same time could compromise the impermeability of concrete
to some degrees, as evident in Fig. 13.
4. Conclusion
The following conclusions can be drawn in this work:
(1) The fiber aspect ratio and length affect the workability of
concrete. PP fibers produce the highest air content in this study.
(2) The drying and autogenous shrinkage reduction effect is
greatest for PVA fiber, followed by the PAN fiber and PP fiber.
The 20 mm-level fibers are more effective than the 10 mm-level
ones to decline the shrinkage of face slab concrete by about
5.1%7.0%.
(3) The efficiency of fibers in improving the tensile strength, the
maximal restrained shrinkage strain, and the resistance of face slab
concrete to restrained shrinkage-induced and temperature stress-
induced cracking follows the order of PVA > PAN > PP. Increasing
fiber length from 10 mm to about 20 mm prolongs the initial crack-
ing time about 11.0–15.0 h, increases the maximal restrained
shrinkage strain by 15.5%–20.7%, enhances the tensile strength
(r) by about 7.9%9.2% and declines the cracking temperature
(Tc) by about 5.6–6.5 ℃.
(4) The impermeability differences caused by fiber type and
length can be revealed in terms of the pore structure. The addition
of PAN fiber results in a better impermeability than the PVA and PP
fibers, since the PAN fiber produces a finer pore structure in con-
crete. The increase in the fiber length leads to a high porosity
and a high volume of large capillary pores, which could weaken
the impermeability of concrete.
(5) The frost resistance improvement effect on face slab con-
crete is greatest for PVA fiber, followed by the PAN fiber and PP
fiber. PVA fiber enhanced concrete presents the smallest spacing
 [12] H. Zhong, M.Z. Zhang, Experimental study on engineering properties of
factor (L) and largest total number of air voids (N) among all the
fiber enhanced concretes, thus exhibiting the best frost resistance.
 [13] Q. Cao, Q.Q. Gao, R.X. Gao, J.Q. Jia, Chloride penetration resistance and frost
Increasing fiber length could further reduce the L values and
increase the N values, thereby improving the frost resistance of
concrete.
Overall, the research results above could be applied to the con-
cretes with proportions similar to the face slab concrete in this
study. Further research is needed to cover a wider range of the
W/B ratios and more types of fibers with different geometries
(length and aspect ratio, etc.).
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Lei Wang: Conceptualization, Writing - original draft, Supervi-
sion, Project administration, Funding acquisition. Tingshu He:
Investigation. Yongxiang Zhou: Investigation, Funding acquisition.
Shengwen Tang: Investigation. Jianjun Tan: Investigation. Zhen-
tao Liu: Investigation. Jianwen Su: Investigation.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgement
This work is financially supported by the Opening Funds of
State Key Laboratory of Building Safety and Built Environment
17
Construction and Building Materials 282 (2021) 122706
and National Engineering Research Center of Building Technology
(BSBE2020-2), The Belt and Road Special Foundation of the State
Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engi-
neering (2020492311), Opening Project of State Key Laboratory of
Green Building Materials (2020GBM07), Open funding of National
Dam Safety Research Center (CX2019B12), Natural Science
Research Project of Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education
(20JK0722) and NSFC of China (51409016).
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