Construction and Building Materials 169 (2018) 8–19

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Construction and Building Materials

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

Optimization of fibre orientation and distribution for a sustainable

Ultra-High Performance Fibre Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC):
Experiments and mechanism analysis
Qiulei Song a,b, Rui Yu a,⇑, Zhonghe Shui a, Xinpeng Wang a,b, Suduan Rao a,b, Zewen Lin a,b
a
State Key Laboratory of Silicate Materials for Architectures, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
b
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China

h i g h l i g h t s

An sustainable UHPFRC with high flowability is developed.

Effect of casting method on fibre orientation and distribution in UHPFRC are studied.

Mechanism of fibre dynamic movement during UHPFRC casting is analyzed.

A model for describing the fibre movement during UHPFRC casting is proposed.

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

Article history: This study addresses an optimization of fibre orientation and distribution for a sustainable Ultra-High
Received 17 November 2017 Performance Fibre Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC). The purpose of this research is to propose an efficient
Received in revised form 22 January 2018 method that can improve the fibre efficiency in the UHPFRC and understand the intrinsic mechanism. The
Accepted 20 February 2018
UHPFRC skeleton is designed by employing particle densely packing model (Andreasen & Andersen
model). Based on appropriate application of superplasticizers and fibres, a UHPFRC with high flowability
is firstly produced, and two cast methods are utilized in this study. Furthermore, to minimize the error,
Keywords:
two image analysis tools are parallelly employed to evaluate the fibres distribution and orientation in the
Ultra-High Performance Fibre Reinforced
Concrete (UHPFRC)
hardened UHPFRC. The obtained results show that the fibres orientation and distribution can be signifi-
Fibre orientation cantly influenced by the fresh UHPFRC flowing parameters, (e.g. flowing direction, flowing distance and
Fibre distribution wall effects), and the flowing process of fibres in the fresh UHPFRC can be generally divided into: disorder
Optimized casting method period, stable period and re-disorder period. Additionally, the added fibre dosage is also a key factor for
Dynamic process obtaining an optimized UHPFRC, since the interactions between single fibres have close relationship with
their dynamic movement during the UHPFRC flowing process.
Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Ultra-High Performance Fibre Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC) is
a new kind of cement based composite material, which exhibits
advanced mechanical properties, excellent durability, and high
toughness. The main differences between UHPFRC and normal con-
crete (NC) or high-performance concrete (HPC) are high content of
cementitious materials, low water to binder ratio (W/B), and high
content of superplasticizer [1–11]. Moreover, to improve its ductil-
ity, toughness, flexural and shear strengths, steel fibres are nor-
mally used in the production of UHPFRC, since the utilized fibres
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: r.yu@whut.edu.cn (R. Yu).
can bridge cracks and prevent the cracks extended in the concrete
[12–16]. Many studies have reported the positive influence of steel
fibre on the UHPFRC, including the fibre content, fibre shape and
fibre physical parameters (length, diameter etc.) [17–24]. How-
ever, in most cases, the fibres are added into the concrete directly
and randomly, and the fibre distribution and orientation in the
concrete are not clear, which is equal to a black box treatment.
Based on available literatures [25–27], it can be concluded that
the distribution and orientation of fibre are important factors for
improving concrete properties and fibre efficiency in fibre rein-
forced concrete. For example, the anisotropic properties of fibre
reinforced concrete are caused by the orientation distribution of
fibres [25,26] and Bensaid et al. investigated the flexural behavior
of steel fibre-reinforced concrete, it fund that the flexural behavior

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.02.130
0950-0618/Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Q. Song et al. / Construction and Building Materials 169 (2018) 8–19 9

List of symbols

q Proportion of fibre area (%) x Average fibre percentage (%)

nw White pixels numbers (–) S Variance of fibres percentage (–)
nb Black pixels numbers (–) A1 40 mm from the casting point (optimized casting) (–)
SN Area of the cross section (mm2) A2 80 mm from the casting point (optimized casting) (–)
nnumber Fibre numbers of cross section (–) A3 120 mm from the casting point (optimized casting) (–)
Saver Average area of fibres (mm2) B1 40 mm from the mould side wall in UHPFRC (non-
SF Area of fibre cross section (mm2) optimized casting) (–)
Coshaver Average angle of fibres (°) B2 80 mm from the mould side wall (non-optimized
ni,number Fibre numbers of piece (–) casting) (–)
n Piece number (–) B3 120 mm from the mould side wall (non-optimized
xi Fibres percentage (%) casting) (–)

are significantly improved by the fibre orientation [27]. Hence, to outcomes shown above, it can be concluded that fresh concrete
effectively improve the fibre efficiency in UHPFRC, the fibre distri- flowing is a promising approach to adjust or optimize the fibre ori-
bution and orientation should be optimized. entation and distribution in fibre reinforced concrete. However,
In fact, the distribution and orientation of fibres have been stud- based on available literatures [36–44], this methodology has been
ied in normal concrete system and some achievements have limited used in the production of UHPFRC, and the intrinsic factors
already been obtained [28–35]. For instance, the distribution and for controlling the fibre orientation and distribution during the
orientation of steel fibres in the concrete can be adjusted by mag- dynamic flowing process still needs further clarification. This
netic field, since the steel fibres are ferromagnetic. For instance, should be attributed to the flowing reasons: 1) compared to the
Torrents et al. [28] and Al-Mattarneh [29] investigated the effect normal concrete, UHPFRC is a much more complex system, which
of magnetic field on steel fibres distribution and orientation. It has high content of cementitious materials, low water to binder
was found that the used magnetic field is beneficial for optimizing ratio (W/B), and high content of superplasticizer [3–6], resulting
the fibre orientation. Nevertheless, due to the fact that the used in a large viscosity of concrete; 2) the content of fibre in UHPFRC
steel fibres in concrete can also be magnetized and attracted to is much higher than normal reinforced concrete, reaching 2% to
each other in the magnetic field, the homogeneity of the fibre dis- 3%. Therefore, the known knowledge regarding to optimize the
tribution may be significantly disturbed, which cause that the fibre orientation and distribution in normal strength concrete is
mechanical properties of the fibre reinforced concrete are also not applicable to UHPFRC cementitious system. Hence, there still
decreased. Hence, it is logical to find other methods to control is an urgent need to optimize the fibre orientation and distribution
the fibre orientations and distributions. in UHPFRC-like material and clarify the intrinsic mechanism.
In recent decades, with the development of superplasticizers Based on the premise mentioned about, an optimization of fibre
and concrete design approaches, the workability of cement based orientation and distribution for a sustainable Ultra-High Perfor-
materials has been significantly improved. Meanwhile, some inves- mance Fibre Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC) is investigated. Firstly,
tigations found that the fibre orientation is sensitive to the flowa- based on the previous experiences and investigations [45,46], a
bility of concrete [30–32]. The obtained experimental results show UHPFRC with high flowability is produced, employing the modified
that the fibres orientation prefer to align in the flow direction of Andreasen & Andersen particle packing model. Secondly, the effect
the concrete [30–35]. For example, Alberti et al. [30] and Sarmiento of concrete flowing process on the fibres orientation and distribu-
et al. [31] studied the fibres distribution and orientation in con- tion in UHPFRC are studied by employing image analysis tools.
crete by change the casting method, while the detailed fibres dis- Lastly, based on the obtained experimental results, the meso-
tribution and orientation are characterized in each slice of the fibre dynamic moving process in the flowing UHPFRC is analyzed.
produced concrete. It was observed that the flow velocity and
mould length are the important factors that can affect the fibres 2. Materials and methods
distribution and orientation during the concrete flowing process.
2.1. Materials
Besides, Zerbino et al. [32].investigated the fibres distribution
and orientation in self-compacting fibre reinforced concrete with In this study, except PII 52.5 cement, fly ash and silica fume are also utilized as
different flow rate and mould length. Svec et al. [33] studied the cementitious materials, and their chemical compositions are shown in Table 1. Two
influence of formwork surface on fibre orientation. It was found types of fine aggregates (0–0.6 mm and 0.6–1.25 mm natural river sand) are used,
that the fibres have more superior orientation (consistent with and a type of polycarboxylic ether based superplasticizer is employed to meet the
flowability requirements for the designed UHPFRC. Additionally, steel fibres (length
concrete flow direction) in the smooth formwork surface than
rough formwork surface, since the fibres have a large flow velocity Table 1
in the smooth formwork surface. The chemical compositions of cementation materials.
Moreover, except the experimental investigation, the fibres dis- Compound (%) Cement Silica fume Fly ash
tribution and orientation in the concrete can be simulated by
Na2O 0.09 0.13 0.33
numerical models [34,35]. For instance, Deeb et al. [34] studied MgO 1.61 0.47 0.23
the orientation and distribution of steel fibres in the self- Al2O3 4.18 0.25 38.01
compacting concrete, and it was found that the fibres distribution SiO2 19.20 94.65 46.44
and orientation can be simulated by use the three-dimensional P2O5 0.09 0.17 0.06
SO3 3.35 0.69 0.69
Lagrangian smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH). Kolarik et al.
K2O 0.78 0.84 0.88
[35] investigated the fibres orientation by building the viscous CaO 64.93 0.36 7.50
fluid flow model, and found that the fibres orientation state can Fe2O3 3.32 0.15 3.12
be well predicted by the built numerical model. Based on the entire LOIa 2.49 2.29 2.79
10 Q. Song et al. / Construction and Building Materials 169 (2018) 8–19

equal to 13 mm and diameter equal to 0.2 mm are also included in the production
of sustainable UHPFRC. Some detailed information for the used steel fibres is pre-
sented in Table 2 and Fig. 1.

2.2. Experimental methodology

2.2.1. Mix design of concrete skeleton

According to the obtained experimental results from previous investigations
[3,8], the sustainable UHPFRC is designed based on the modified Andreasen and
Andersen (A&A) model, since a dense particle packing skeleton can be obtained
and a large amount of unhydrated cement particles have already been replaced
by fillers. Considering the fact that the distribution modulus (q) could significantly
influence the proportions between fine and coarse particles in the designed con-
crete mixture, the used q value is 0.23 based on the advice form available literature
[47–49]. The detailed design, calculation processes and related equations can be
found in [3], and the quality of the designed concrete particle packing skeleton
can be evaluated by the method presented in [45].
In this study, the developed UHPFRC recipes are shown in Table 3, and the
derived comparison between the target and optimized grading curves of the
UHPFRC matrix is illustrated in Fig. 2. As can be noticed, the straight steel fibres
are added into the developed UHPFRC matrix by 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%, 2.0% and 2.5%
(vol.), respectively. Due to the fact that the employed straight steel fibres have rel- Fig. 1. Utilized straight steel fibres in this study (length of 13 mm and diameter of
atively small size (length and diameter), its effect on the concrete particle packing 0.2 mm).
skeleton is ignored in this research.

2.2.2. Flowability test analysis of binary image. Based on the area proportion and number of the steel
After terminating the mixing process, the flowability of fresh UHPFRC with dif- fibres in the binary image, the average cross section area for the utilized steel fibre
ferent fibre contents is measured based on the GB/T 2419–2005. The produced mix- could be expressed as follows:
tures are filled in a conical cone (in the form of a frustum), then the mould is
vertically lifted, allowing a free flow for the UHPFRC mixture without any jolting. nw
q¼ ð1Þ
Eventually, two diameters (perpendicular to each other) are recorded, and their nw þ nb
mean value is calculated and treated as the flowability of the developed UHPFRC.
Some detailed information for the flowability test can be found in Fig. 3.
q  SN
Sav er ¼ ð2Þ
nnumber
2.2.3. Employed casting approach
As mentioned in the previous section, the fibres distribution and orientation in
d p4d
2
hardened concrete can be strongly influenced by the casting method for fresh con- SF
cos hav er ¼ ¼ pdl ¼ ð3Þ
crete. Thus, to intrinsically understand the effect of casting process on the steel l 4
Sav er
fibres orientation and distribution in the developed UHPFRC, the height of poured
fresh paste is 40 mm, the speed of poured fresh paste is 16 mm/s, and the diameter here nw and nb is represent the number of white pixels and black pixels on the cross
of poured fresh is 20 mm. Besides, two cast methods (as shown in Fig. 4) are used in section; q is the proportion of fibre area on the cross section; SN is the area of the
this study: 1) A: cast at one side of the mould with flowing process (optimized cast- cross section; nnumber is the number of steel fibres on the cross section; Sav er is the
ing); 2) B: cast randomly without flowing process (non-optimized casting). It can be average area of fibres on the cross section; SF is the area of fibre cross section;
noticed that the employed casting approach is similar as that shown in [39]. How- hav er is the average angle of fibres on the cross section.
ever, in this research, except for evaluating the effect of different casting methods When the fibres are aligned along the length of the mould, the average angle of
on the macro mechanical properties of concrete, this research more focuses on fibres on the cross section is the smallest. Therefore, the fibres orientation can be
the steel fibres dynamic moving process during the concrete casting process, which characterized by the average angle of fibres (as shown in Fig. 6). When hav er (average
is beneficial for clearly understand the key factors for producing a UHPFRC with fibre angle) is smallest, the fibres orientation is best.
optimized fibre orientation and distribution. Furthermore, in order to obtain the fibres distribution of the UHPFRC, the binary
image is divided equally into nine pieces (in Fig. 5) [52]. Then, the number of steel
2.2.4. Mechanical properties test fibres in the every piece can be obtained. According to the number of steel fibres in
The UHPFRC samples with the size of 40 mm  40 mm  160 mm are prepared the every piece, the percentage of fibres count in every piece and the variance of the
for the mechanical tests. The prisms are took out from the mould approximately 24 percentage can be obtained, as follows:
h after casting, and then they are cured in water at room temperature (about 20 °C).
Then, the compressive and flexural strengths of the developed UHPFRC are tested ni;number
xi ¼ ð4Þ
based on EN 196-1 (2005). nnumber

vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2.2.5. Fibre orientation and distribution analysis u
u 1 X n
In this research, to evaluate the fibre distribution and orientation in the devel- S¼t ðxi  xÞ2 ð5Þ
n  1 i¼1
oped UHPFRC, two image analysis tools are employed [50,51]. Since the basic the-
ories for the employed two image analysis tools are similar to each other, only one
example is explained in detail here. here ni;number is the number of fibres in the piece; nnumber is the number of fibres on the
Fig. 5 presents the image analysis procedure for detecting fibre orientation and cross section; xi is the percentage of fibres count in the piece from Eq.(5); n is the
distribution of the developed UHPFRC. Firstly, the hardened UHPFRC prism is cut number of the piece; x is the average percentage of fibre count; S is the variance
into four pieces on average. Then, the cross section, which is called RGB image, of the percentage.
can be converted into binary image by picture processing software [39]. There When the fibres distribution is homogenous, the number of steel fibres should
are only two pixels (white and black pixel) in the Binary image, and the white pixel be similar in each pieces, the percentage of the fibres count in each pieces should be
represents the cross section of utilized steel fibres, while the black pixel represents also similar. Then, the fibres distribution can be evaluated by the variance of the
the remaining concrete matrix. Therefore, the information of steel fibres on the fibres percentage in each piece. When the difference is the smallest, the fibres dis-
cross section, including its number and the proportion, can be obtained from the tribution is the best.

Table 2
Characteristics of the used steel fibres in this study.

Type Length Diameter Aspect ratio Density Tensile strength

(mm) (mm) (L/d) (g/cm3) (MPa)
Straight 13 0.2 65 7.8 2000
 Q. Song et al. / Construction and Building Materials 169 (2018) 8–19 11

Table 3
Recipe of the designed UHPFRC with different steel fibres dosage.

C FA SF Sand-1 Sand-2 Water Sp SSF

(kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (vol.%)
1 700 150 50 704 400 180 30 0
2 700 150 50 704 400 180 30 0.5
3 700 150 50 704 400 180 30 1.0
4 700 150 50 704 400 180 30 1.5
5 700 150 50 704 400 180 30 2.0
6 700 150 50 704 400 180 30 2.5

(C: Cement, FA: Fly Ash, SF: Silica Fume, Sand-1: sand 0–0.6 mm, Sand-2: sand 0.6–1.25 mm, Sp: superplasticizer, SSF: straight steel fibres).

Fig. 2. Particle size distributions (PSDs) of the involved ingredients, the target and optimized grading curves of the UHPFRC mixtures.

70 mm

60 mm
100 mm

d2
d1

(a) Hägermann cone (b) Testing result

Fig. 3. Employed Hägermann cone (a) for the flowability test and one of the example for the obtained testing results in this study.

3. Results and discussions
3.1. Flowability of the designed sustainable UHPFRC
Due to the fact that the idea of optimizing the fibre orientation
and distribution in UHPFRC is based on the flow of concrete, the
fresh behaviors of the developed UHPFRC with various steel fibre
dosage are firstly evaluated. As the results shown in Fig. 7, it is
clear that with an increase of steel fibre content, the flowability
of the sustainable UHPFRC lineally decreases firstly. For example,
the flowability of UHPFRC without fibre is around 330 mm, and
the one with 2% steel fibres has a flowability of around 310 mm.
However, when the steel fibre content reaches about 2.5%, the
flowability of the designed UHPFRC sharply decreases to around
283 mm.
The phenomenon observed above may be caused by the net-
work structure formed by the cross-over of steel fibre in slurry,
which increases the resistance of fresh UHPFRC flow and reduces
12 Q. Song et al. / Construction and Building Materials 169 (2018) 8–19

Fig. 4. Employed casting methods [39]: (a) cast at one side of the mould with flowing process (optimized casting); (b) cast randomly without flowing process (non-optimized
casting).

Fig. 5. Image analysis process for the steel fibre orientation and distribution of the UHPFRC slides cut at different location of the prism.

the flowability of fresh UHPHRC. When the fibre content is rela-
tively low, the reasons can be summarized as: 1) the network
structure of the steel fibre has little effect on the flowability of
the fresh UHPFRC; 2) a part of air could be included into the
UHPFRC during the mixing and casting process, which is beneficial
for enhancing the flowability of UHPFRC. Nevertheless, when the
steel fibre content is relatively high, the steel fibre ‘‘skeleton” plays
a dominate role in the fresh UHPFRC, which can significantly
reduce the flowability of UHPFRC. Similar results can also be found
in available literature [53,54].
Based on the obtained results in this research, it has been
demonstrated that the designed UHPFRC have relatively high
flowability, which is a precondition for investigating the fibre
dynamic movement during the fresh UHPFRC casting process.
3.2. Mechanical properties of the designed UHPFRC
The compressive and flexural strengths for the developed sus-
tainable UHPFRC are presented in Figs. 8 and 9. It can be noticed
that with an increase of steel fibre content, the compressive
strength of the designed UHPFRC gradually increases, which is sim-
ilar as that presented in available literature [15–21]. Although the
utilized cement amount is relatively low, after curing for 28 days,
the compressive strength of the mixture with 2.5% (vol.) fibres
can reach to about 160 MPa, which should be attributed to the effi-
cient application of optimized particle packing model and high
active powders (as shown in [55]). Hence, the developed UHPFRC
can be treated as a sustainable UHPFRC. Some relevant investiga-
tion results have already been presented in [8]. Moreover, it is
important to notice that the employed two different casting meth-
ods have limited effect on the UHPFRC compressive strength devel-
opment. For instance, the maximum compressive strength for the
UHPFRC produced based on optimized casting method is about
162 MPa, while the value for the one developed based on non-
optimized casting method is around 155 MPa.
Fig. 9 illustrates the flexural strength variation of the UHPFRC
with different steel fibre content. The two curves represent the
28d flexural strength of UHPFRC based on optimized casting
method (with flowing process) and non-optimized casting method
(without flowing process). It is fund that with an increase of the
steel fibre content, the flexural strengths simultaneously increase:
e.g. the UHPFRC based on optimized casting (with flowing process)
increase from 9.36 MPa to 30.24 MPa, while the mixture based on
non-optimized casting (without flowing process) increase from
9.36 MPa to 24.36 MPa. Moreover, it is important to notice that
the UHPFRC produced based on optimized casting method always
has higher flexural strength than that of the one produced based on
non-optimized casting method. This phenomenon observed above
 Q. Song et al. / Construction and Building Materials 169 (2018) 8–19 13

Compressive strength (MPa)

1d 7d 28d

Steel fibre content (vol.%)

(a) UHPFRC based on optimized casting method

Compressive strength (MPa)

1d 7d 28d

Steel fibre content (vol.%)

(b) UHPFRC based on non-optimized casting method
Fig. 8. Compressive strength development of the UHPFRC produced based on
different casting methods.

Non-opmized casng
Fig. 6. Theoretical mechanism for calculating the steel fibre orientation in the cut
Opmized casng
Flexural strength(MPa)

UHPFRC slides.

340

330
y=-10x+329.6
R2=0.99
Flowability (mm)

320

310

300
290 y=-54x+418
280
0 0.5 1 1.5
Steel fibre content (vol.%)
Fig. 7. Flowability variation of the designed UHPFRC with different steel fibre
content (by volume %).
is similar to the results published by Yoo D.Y. et al. [39], which
proves that the UHPFRC cast at one side of the mould has higher
flexural strength than randomly casting samples. Additionally,
when the steel fibre content increases form 0.5% to 1.0% (vol.),
the flexural strength improvement (calculated based on [3]) for
the UHPFRC produced based on optimized casting method is the
highest, which then gradually decreases with an further increase
of steel fibre dosage (as shown in Fig. 10).
Steel fibre content (vol.%)
Fig. 9. Flexural strength variation of the UHPFRC produced based on different
casting methods.
2 2.5 3
These difference flexural strength results obtained from two
casting methods can be attributed to the influence of fibre orienta-
tion in UHPFRC. As commonly known, the fibre orientation has
close relationship with the flexural strength of concrete. When a
large amount of steel fibres are perpendicular to the flexural force
direction, the steel fibres can significantly resistant the cracks gen-
eration and growth, which is helpful for improving the concrete
flexural strength. Hence, in this study, it can be predicted that in
the UHPFRC produced based on the optimized casting method
has more fibres perpendicular to the flexural force direction. How-
ever, to further demonstrate this assumption and understand the
intrinsic reason for the fibre orientation, more testing and analysis
are need, which are shown in the following sections.
14 Q. Song et al. / Construction and Building Materials 169 (2018) 8–19

80 3.3. Evaluation and analysis of the fibres orientation in the developed

Flexural strength improvement (%)

67.33 UHPFRC

60 In this paper, in order to investigate the fibre orientation in the

UHPFRC, the UHPFRC sample (40 mm  40 mm  160 mm) is cut
into four pieces (40 mm  40 mm  40 mm) on average, and image
40
analysis tools are employed to analysis the sample cross section.
29.49
Then, the information of steel fibres on the cross section, including
21.89
20
the number of steel fibres and the area of the steel fibres, can be
13.59
obtained from the binary image (as shown in Figs. 11 and 12). When
7.69
the fibres are aligned along the length of the mould (the ideal orien-
0 tation for a better mechanical property of UHPFRC), the average
fibre cross section area should be the smallest.
Steel fibre content (vol.%) Here, the calculated average fibres cross section area (Saver) for
the UHPFRC produced based on optimized and non-optimized
Fig. 10. Effect of steel fibre dosage on the flexural strength improvement of the casting methods are presented in Fig. 13 (A1, A2, A3, B1, B2 and
UHPFRC produced based on optimized casting method.

(a) The cross section of A1

(b) The cross section of A2

(c) The cross section of A3

Fig. 11. The cross section of optimized cast UHPFRC sample at different locations (fibre content: 2% vol.).
 Q. Song et al. / Construction and Building Materials 169 (2018) 8–19 15

(a) The cross section of B1

(b) The cross section of B2

(c) The cross section of B3

Fig. 12. The cross section of non-optimized cast UHPFRC sample at different locations (fibre content: 2% vol.).

B3 represent the different cutting cross sections as that shown in
Figs. 11 and 12). In Fig. 13(a) (UHPFRC produced based on opti-
mized casting method), it is important to notice that the average
fibre area at A2 cross section is always the smallest compared to
that at A1 or A3 cross sections, which means the calculated Saver
has a tendency to decrease firstly and then rise during the UHPFRC
flowing process. Moreover, it could be found that the sample with
1.0% steel fibre (vol.) at A2 cross section has smaller value for Saver
than that of the mixtures with different steel fibre dosage. This
means when the designed UHPFRC has about 1.0% steel fibre
(vol.), the added steel fibres more prefer to align along the UHPFRC
flowing direction than the other mixtures with different steel fibre
dosages at A2 cross section. This result is also in a line with that
shown in Fig. 10, in which the designed UHPFRC mixture with
1.0% steel fibre (vol.) has largest flexural strength improvement,
since the UHPFRC flexural strength has close relationship with
the steel fibre orientation at the middle point (almost at A2) of
the tested sample. However, in Fig. 13(b) (UHPFRC produced based
on non-optimized casting method), all the observed phenomena in
Fig. 13(a) are difficult to be noticed, and the variation of average
fibre area at different cross sections (B1, B2 and B3) is irregular.
Additionally, it also could be found that the calculated average
fibre area at A1, A2 and A3 are much smaller than that of B1, B2
and B3 (the ratio of A/B is about 0.3, as shown in Fig. 14). Therefore,
it can be summarized that the fibre orientation in the UHPFRC pro-
duced based on non-optimized casting method is much more dis-
ordered than that in the one produced based on optimized casting
method. This further proves that the flowing of fresh UHPFRC is
16 Average fibre cross secon area (mm2) Q. Song et al. / Construction and Building Materials 169 (2018) 8–19

0.15
Fibre content: 0.5% vol. Fibre content: 1.0% vol. 6.5 mm
Fibre content: 1.5% vol. Fibre content: 2.0% vol.
Fibre content:2.5% vol. Zone affected by wall-effect
0.1 40 mm
Limited
constraint zone
27 mm
0.05
Zone affected by wall-effect

0
A1 A2 A3
Cross secon of the opmized UHPFRC
(a) UHPFRC with insufficient steel fibres
(a) Optimized cast UHPFRC
Average fibre cross secon area (mm2)

0.4 6.5 mm
Fibre content: 0.5% vol. Fibre content: 1.0% vol.
Fibre content: 1.5% vol. Fibre content: 2.0% vol.
Zone affected by wall-effect
Fibre content: 2.5% vol.
0.3
40 mm
Appropriate
constraint zone
0.2
27 mm

0.1 Zone affected by wall-effect

0
B1 B2 B3
(b) UHPFRC with appropriate steel fibres
Cross secon of the non-opmized UHPFRC

(b) Non-optimized cast UHPFRC

Fig. 13. Fibre orientation evaluation of the developed UHPFRC based on optimized
Zone affected by wall-effect
and non-optimized casting methods.
40 mm
Excess
0.25 constraint zone
Non-opmized average fibre cross

27 mm

0.2
secon area (mm2)

Zone affected by wall-effect

x/y=0.3 y=x
0.15

0.1
(c) UHPFRC with excess steel fibres
0.05
Fig. 16. Fibre dynamic process analysis of the UHPFRC based on optimized casting
method (towards to the effect of steel fibre dosage).
0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25
Opmized average fibre cross secon area (mm2)
These phenomena observed above can be attributed to the
Fig. 14. Comparison of the fibre orientation in the hardened optimized and non- flowing parameters, such as flowing direction, flowing distance,
optimized UHPFRC.
fibres content and wall effects. As mentioned in the previous sec-
tion, the designed UHPFRC has relatively good flowability. Hence,
similar as that shown in [54], when the fresh UHPFRC have enough
time and space to flow, all the steel fibres inside will move and
rotate. In this study, based on the obtained experimental results,
when the cast method is cast at one side of the mould, the flowing
process of fresh UHPFRC can be divided into three different peri-
ods: disorder period, stable period and re-disorder period (as
shown in Fig. 15). Firstly, when the fresh UHPFRC is cast into one
side of the mould, all the steel fibres are disordered. Then, the fibre
orientation will be affected and adjusted by the flowing UHPFRC
matrix during the fresh UHPFRC moving process, until most fibre
Fig. 15. Mechanism analysis of the fibre orientation in the UHPFRC based on
optimized casting method.
orientation is almost in a line of the concrete flowing direction.
This can be treated as a stable period. Lastly, when the flowing dis-
tance continue to extend, the fresh UHPFRC flowing will be hin-
beneficial for optimizing the steel fibre orientation, which could dered by the mould wall, which cause that the fibre orientation
simultaneously improve the flexural strength of the designed will be disturbed, and generate a re-disorder area. Additionally,
UHPFRC. the fibre rotation and movement is also affected by the included
 Q. Song et al. / Construction and Building Materials 169 (2018) 8–19
Fibre distribuon discrete value (%)
A1 A2
Steel fibre content (vol.%)
(a) UHPFRC based on optimized casting process
Fibre distribuondiscrete value (%)
B1 B2 B3
Steel fibre content (vol.%)
(b) UHPFRC based on non-optimized casting process
Fig. 17. Comparison of the fibre distribution discrete degree in the optimized and
non-optimized UHPFRC.
Fig. 18. Mechanism analysis of the fibre distribution in the UHPFRC based on
optimized casting method.
steel fibre dosage in the UHPFRC. For instance, when the added
steel fibre content is small (e.g. 0.5% vol.), all the fibre has relatively
large degree of freedom, which means the fibre final orientation is
limited affected by the flowing of UHPFRC. On the contrary, when
the added steel fibre content is large (e.g. 2.5% vol.), there are also
some restrictions between fibres for rotating and moving, which
cause that the fibre orientation neither can not be optimized by
the flowing of UHPFRC. Hence, there is a balance point for the
added fibre dosage, and based on the optimized steel fibre content
the fibre orientation could be effectively optimized by the flowing
of UHPFRC. Some detailed explanations and mechanisms are illus-
trated in Fig. 16.
3.4. Evaluation and analysis of the fibres distribution in the developed
UHPFRC
As mentioned in previous section, to analysis the fibre distribu-
tion in the developed UHPFRC, the binary images of the cutting
cross sections are utilized again. Here, each image is divided
equally into nine pieces, and then the number of steel fibres in each
17
grid is counted and compared. Theoretically, the number of steel
A3 fibres should be same in each grid should be the same, when the
fibres distribution is homogenous. However, practically, variances
of the fibre number in each grid can still be noticed, as shown in
Fig. 17. For the UHPFRC produced based on optimized casting pro-
cess, it is clear that with an increase of the steel fibre dosage the
fibre distribution discrete value gradually decreases, which implies
that the increase of fibre content is beneficial for improving the
fibre distribution in UHPFRC. Furthermore, it is important to find
that the fibre distribution discrete value at A2 cross section is
always the smallest compared to that at A1 or A3 cross sections,
no matter how many steel fibres are added into the UHPFRC. This
may also be attributed to the effect of UHPFRC movement during
the optimized casting process. When the fresh UHPFRC is firstly
injected into the mould, it has a vertically downward moving ten-
dency, which cast that the carried steel fibres have an inertia to
move towards to the bottom of the used mould (as shown in
Fig. 18). Then, due to the wall-effect, the cast fresh UHPFRC will
parallelly move to another side of the mould. Hence, in the middle
of the mould, it can be treated as the stable area, since the carried
steel fibres have no tendency to move downward or upward.
When, the fresh UHPFRC move to another side of the mould, it will
be disturbed again by the wall-effect, and simultaneously the fibre
distribution discrete value will enhance. Hence, in the stable area
(including the A2 cross section), the fibres are less influenced by
the initial inertia and wall-effect, which is beneficial for obtaining
a homogeneous fibre distribution in UHPFRC. Nevertheless, on the
contrary, all the phenomena observed in Fig. 17(a) are difficult to
be noticed in Fig. 17(b), which means the fibre distribution in the
UHPFRC produced based on non-optimized casting method is rela-
tively irregular.
In general, it can be summarized that the employed optimized
casting method in this research can not only optimize the fibre ori-
entation, but also improve the fibre distribution in the middle area
of the cast prism, which are the intrinsic reasons for enhancing the
UHPFRC flexural strength.
4. Conclusions
This study presents an optimization of fibre orientation and dis-
tribution for a sustainable Ultra-High Performance Fibre Rein-
forced Concrete (UHPFRC), including experiments investigations
and mechanism analysis. Based on the obtained results, the follow-
ing conclusions can be drawn:
1) With an increase of the added steel fibre dosage, the com-
pressive and flexural strengths of the developed UHPFRC
gradually increase. In addition, the employed two casting
method has limited effect on the compressive strength
development of UHPFRC, while the optimized casting
method could more obviously improve the UHPFRC flexural
strength than that produced based on non-optimized casting
method. The employed optimized casting method could also
be treated as an effective approach to improve the fibre effi-
ciency in UHPFRC.
2) When the developed UHPFRC with high flowability cast at
one side of the mould (optimized casting method), the fibres
orientation and distribution can be significantly influenced
by the fresh UHPFRC flowing parameters, such as flowing
direction, flowing distance, fibres content and wall effects.
In general, the flowing process of fresh UHPFRC can be
divided into three different periods: disorder period, stable
period and re-disorder period. During the stable period, all
the added fibres have a largest tendency to align along the
UHPFRC flowing direction, and simultaneously improve the
18 Q. Song et al. / Construction and Building Materials 169 (2018) 8–19
UHPFRC flexural strength and fibre efficiency. Besides,
UHPFRC without obvious tendency to move downward or
upward, which cause that the fibre distribution in the stable
area is much more homogeneous.
3) During the optimized casting process, the fibre rotation and
movement is also affected by the included steel fibre dosage
in the UHPFRC. When the added steel fibre content is small,
all the fibre has relatively large degree of freedom, which
means the fibre final orientation is limited affected by the
flowing of UHPFRC. On the contrary, when the added steel
fibre content is large, there are also some restrictions
between fibres for rotating and moving, which causes that
the fibre orientation neither can not be optimized by the
flowing of UHPFRC. Hence, there is a balance point for the
added fibre dosage, and based on the optimized steel fibre
content the fibre orientation could be effectively optimized
by the flowing of UHPFRC.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the financial supports of National
Nature Science Foundation Project of China (No. 51608409),
National Science and Technology Support Program of China
(2014BAC01B02), the National Key Research and Development
Program of China in 13th Five-Year (2016YFC0305101), Yang Fan
plan of Guangdong Province (201312C12), Major science and tech-
nology project in Zhongshan city, Guangdong province
(2017A1021).
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