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Influence of concrete flow on spatial distribution and orientation of fibres in

steel fibre reinforced self-compacting concrete.

Conference Paper · May 2015

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INFLUENCE OF CONCRETE FLOW ON SPATIAL
DISTRIBUTION AND ORIENTATION OF FIBRES IN STEEL
FIBRE REINFORCED SELF-COMPACTING CONCRETE

Joren Andries*, Petra Van Itterbeeck†, Lucie Vandewalle* and Ann Van Gysel*

* Department of Civil Engineering, KU Leuven, Belgium

†
Belgian Building Research Institute, Belgium

Abstract
In this paper, the influence of the flow distance on fibre distribution and orientation is investigated
using two types of steel fibre reinforced self-compacting concrete (medium and high viscosity, but
with similar flowability or slumpflow value). Beam elements are cast from one side, allowing the
concrete to flow freely along the length of the 2 metre long mould. After curing, standardised
prisms of 150x150x600mm³ are cut from these beams. These prisms are tested under three-point
bending load, according to EN 14651, to determine the post-cracking behaviour in function of the
flow length. Additionally, the spatial distribution and orientation of the fibres are measured by
means of manual counting and image analysis. The results are also compared to a 3D
representation obtained from X-ray computed tomography. The results seem to indicate that,
independent from the viscosity of the mixture, preferential fibre orientation is induced by shear
flow of the concrete. As a consequence of this preferential orientation, fibre efficiency in bending
is improved resulting in deflection hardening behaviour with only 0.38 volume% of steel fibres.

Keywords: fibre distribution, fibre orientation, self-compacting concrete, steel fibres

1 Introduction
Steel fibre reinforced self-compacting concrete (SFRSCC) combines the benefits of self-
compacting concrete (SCC) in the fresh state with the enhanced performance of fibre reinforced
concrete (FRC) in the hardened state. The main reason for adding steel fibres to concrete is to
provide reliable post-cracking strength and to increase ductility/toughness of the hardened
composite material. Fibres also assure a more favourable crack distribution and reduce crack
widths. Discrete steel fibres can be used as partial or, in some applications, total substitution of bar
reinforcement. This replacement of conventional reinforcement optimises the construction process.

The synergy between SCC and FRC technologies is, thanks to the elimination of vibration and the
reduction or even the complete substitution of conventional reinforcement, likely to improve the
economic efficiency of the construction process (Ferrara et al., 2007). For the design of structural
elements, fibres are often assumed to have a homogeneous and isotropic reinforcement contribution
and therefore large safety factors need to be used (di Prisco et al., 2009). By better understanding
the mechanisms that influence the spatial distribution and orientation of the fibres it is possible to
increase the number of applications where SFRSCC is an economically competitive solution.

The distribution and orientation of the fibres is of great interest since the residual tensile strength
and the toughness of the composite material is proportional to the number and the orientation of
effective fibres bridging a crack.
In literature, two main reasons for anisotropic fibre alignment were already identified (Martinie and
Roussel, 2011). The first one finds its origin in simple geometrical considerations and is often
called the wall-effect. The orientation in every SFRC element is to some extent influenced by this
wall-effect. The importance of wall-effects clearly depends on the ratio between the dimensions of
the mould and the length of the fibres (Torrijos et al., 2010). The second reason for anisotropy can
be related to the torque exerted by the suspending fluid on the fibre while the concrete flows
through the mould. Especially in the case of SCC, this second parameter can have an important
influence.

Grünewald (2004) and Markovic (2006) concluded that shorter fibres possess lower orientation
coefficients in SFRSCC than longer fibres. Stähli (2008), on the other hand, concluded that the
geometry of the fibres has no significant influence on the alignment in the direction of the flow.
Short, middle and long fibres all appear to align equally in his study. According to Zerbino et al.
(2012), the distribution and orientation of fibres in SFRSCC are not completely independent of the
fibre type, but the main parameter influencing the distribution and orientation was found to be the
geometry of the element.

fib Model Code 2010 prescribes that the manufacturing method and the concrete consistency have
to be taken into account by the designer and that an orientation factor should be verified and
applied, but the way this should be done is still under discussion. This paper appraises the
importance of flow-induced fibre orientation and distribution and its influence on the residual
bending strength of a concrete element.

2 Mix proportions and concrete properties

2.1 Materials
Two steel fibre reinforced self-compacting concrete mixtures are investigated in this study. Both
self-compacting concrete compositions are designed so as to obtain SCC mixtures with a similar
flowability but a different viscosity (and compressive strength) in order to examine the impact of
this viscosity on the flow-induced fibre orientation and the spatial distribution of the fibres. The
mixture proportions used in this study are presented in Table 1. The fibre content is kept constant at
30 kg/m³ (≈ 0.38 vol%) of hooked-end steel fibres.

Table 1 - Mixture proportions

Component Type SFRSCC1 [kg/m³] SFRSCC2 [kg/m³]
River gravel 4/14 735 695
River sand 0/4 895 847
Mineral addition Limestone powder 165 335
Cement CEM I 42.5 R HES 335 335
Water Tap water 184.3 150.8
Superplasticiser PCE 3.350 8.375
Steel fibres Hooked-end 30.0 30.0

The constituent materials are first mixed in a counter-current batch mixer with only 80% of the
polycarboxylate ether (PCE) superplasticiser. Collated hooked-end steel fibres are then gradually
added to avoid fibre balling and finally the remaining 20% of superplasticiser is added.
2.2 Concrete properties
The filling ability of the concrete has to be sufficient to fill a formwork of 2 metre length solely
under the influence of its own weight. As it is also intended to obtain a self-levelling concrete, the
slump flow value (SF) is kept constant between 750 and 800 mm. For every fibre type three
batches of concrete are produced. The concrete properties are presented in Table 2 as the average
value of three measurements. For each batch of concrete the compressive strength is determined on
six 150 mm cubes according to EN 12390-3.

Table 2 - Concrete properties

(The coefficient of variation [%] is given in parentheses.)
SFRSCC1 SFRSCC2
Fibre type RC65/60BN RC80/60BN RC80/30BP RC80/60BP
Fibre length [mm] 60 60 30 60
Fibre aspect ratio [-] 65 80 80 80
Tensile strength [MPa] 1160 1225 2600 3070
SP dosage [%]
0.90 (0%) 1.00 (10%) 2.50 (0%) 2.50 (0%)
(% by weight of cement)
SF [mm]
753 (0%) 797 (8%) 787 (3%) 772 (1%)
(EN 12350-8)
t500 [s]
2.6 (11%) 2.3 (60%) 11.3 (10%) 11.3 (16%)
(EN 12350-8)
tV [s]
7.3 (9%) 7.7 (33%) 47.8 (43%) 50.1 (20%)
(EN 12350-9)
air content [%]
2.2 (19%) 1.6 (52%) 1.5 (4%) 1.5 (4%)
(EN 12350-7)
density [kg/m³]
2340 (0%) 2340 (0%) 2400 (1%) 2400 (0%)
(EN 12350-6)
age [days] 29 (2%) 29 (5%) 28 (4%) 32 (10%)
fcm,cub [MPa]
52.1 (3%) 51.9 (2%) 73.0 (1%) 74.9 (7%)
(EN 12390-3)

The superplasticiser dosage for SFRSCC1 was chosen a little smaller when RC65/60BN fibres are
used compared with the composition with RC80/60BN fibres because of the difference in fibre
aspect ratio. The smaller aspect ratio results in a slightly more fluid concrete and the risk of
segregation would otherwise increase. One mixture with RC80/60BN fibres and with 1.10% of
superplasticiser, was a little too fluid and showed some signs of segregation.

2.3 Flexural tensile strength and post-cracking behaviour

For each fibre type, six beams of length 2.05 m and a cross-section of 150 mm by 150 mm are cast
from one side of a long, narrow formwork using a chute. After curing and demoulding, these beams
are cut in three different prisms and the specimens are numbered as illustrated in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1 - Casting setup (all dimensions in mm, width = 150 mm)

The post-cracking behaviour is determined from the load-crack mouth opening displacement curve
obtained by three-point bending tests on notched prisms according to EN 14651. The test is
performed under crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD) control.

Fig. 2 shows the post-cracking behaviour of the fibre reinforced concrete SFRSCC2 with high
carbon steel fibres. The tensile stress at which the first crack appears is more or less the same for
each test specimen and equal to 5.6 N/mm². For comparative reasons, some standard prisms are
also manufactured pouring the concrete conventionally in a prism formwork. The post-cracking
strength of these standard prims, is considerably smaller than the post-cracking strength of the
prisms which are cut from the beams. Moreover, prisms which are cut from a beam show deflection
hardening behaviour with only 30 kg of steel fibres / m³ of concrete whereas this is less the case for
the standard prisms.

Steel fibres with a high carbon content (P) in combination with SCC2 are almost exclusively
pulled-out with plastic deformation of the hook which results in ductile failure behaviour.

Fig. 2 - Post-cracking behaviour of SFRSCC2

For the majority of the beams, the central prisms (prism 2) show the best post-cracking behaviour.
Fibres align with the longitudinal axis of the beam while the concrete fills the formwork. The
reason why the post-cracking strength of the last prism (prism 3) decreases again is because at the
end of the beam, streamlines are affected by the fact that the concrete approaches the end of the
beam. The difference is, however, found to be small.
3 Fibre orientation and distribution
3.1 Manual counting and image analysis
For half of the SFRSCC beams (3 out of 6 beams for each fibre type), the number of fibres in every
cracking plane after a three-point bending test is manually counted. In order to get information on
how the fibres are distributed over the cross-section, each cross-section is divided into 36 equal
parts of about 25 mm by 25 mm as illustrated in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3 - Template for fibre counting Fig. 4 - Example of a cracking-plane

In addition, a photograph (Fig. 5) of every sawn section (dashed lines in Fig. 1) of these beams is
made on which the number of fibres is automatically counted using image analysis. The same
template (Fig. 3) as for the manual counting is used.

Fig. 5 - Example of a sawn surface with 30 kg/m³ RC80/60BP fibres with a preferential fibre orientation
(left: original photograph of the sawn surface, right: binary image for the use of image analysis)

Fig. 6 shows the average distribution of the fibres over a cross-section (average results for the
different fibre types). Steel fibres are found to be evenly distributed over the cross-section and the
wall-effect is not very clear. In the top 25 mm of the cross-section, the number of fibres is the
smallest (13.5%) which may indicate very limited static segregation. Only for one mixture
SFRSCC1 with RC80/60BN and 1.10% superplasticiser segregation was more pronounced and the
results of these specimens are therefore excluded in all averaged results. For this mixture only 15%
of the steel fibres were located in the top third of the section.
 34% 36% 30%
100%
16% 18% 17% 18% 17% 14%

14% 2% 3% 3% 3% 2% 2%

top surface during casting

32%
18% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 2%

18% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3%
35%
17% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 2%

18% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 2%
32%
15% 2% 3% 2% 3% 3% 2%

bottom during bending tests

Fig. 6 - Average fibre distribution over a cross-section

It is noteworthy that the number of fibres in the upper third of the beam is mostly smaller in a
cross-section near the casting point. This is the case for all types of fibres used in this study, but is
more pronounced for the fibres with a length of 60 mm than for the shorter fibres. Fig. 7 illustrates
how the fibre distribution varies over the length of the beams and shows that no important dynamic
segregation has occurred since the measured values fluctuate around 33%.

Percentage top Percentage middle Percentage bottom

Fig. 7 - Fibre distribution over the cross-section as a function of the flow distance

The fact that the number of steel fibres counted in the upper third is smaller in a cross-section near
the chute, is a result of two phenomena. On the one hand, the orientation of the fibres is affected by
the direction of the streamlines when the concrete is being poured. Because of the change in flow-
direction the concrete underwent near the first cross-section, the streamlines in the upper part of the
cross-section make a larger angle with the longitudinal direction of the beam. Because of this larger
angle, a smaller amount of fibres is cut by the cross-section under consideration. On the other hand,
there is a small influence of static segregation.
The number of cut fibres in the notch is added to the sum of the number of pulled-out fibres in both
faces after a bending test. The average orientation coefficient is calculated by use of a formula
proposed by Krenchel (1975):
Af
OC= N ⋅
V f ⋅ Ac
in which: OC : average orientation coefficient (-)
N : total number of fibres in the cross-section (-)
Af : cross section of the fibre (mm²)
Vf : fibre volume fraction (-)
Ac : cross-section of the concrete beam (mm²)

The formula of Krenchel is also used to calculate the orientation coefficient after the image
processing on cut-surfaces in which N is the average of the total number of fibres counted on each
side of the saw-cut surface. An average orientation factor equal to 1 means that all fibres are
aligned along the considered direction. A random fibre orientation in bulk (without the wall-effect)
results in a coefficient equal to 0.50.
In reality, however, the influence of geometrical boundaries on the orientation coefficient should be
taken into account. This theoretical orientation coefficient can be found by using the averaging
calculation procedure for rectangular sections proposed by Dupont and Vandewalle (2005).
For a square cross-section with sides 150 mm, this results in a value of 0.58 for the fibres with
length 60 mm and a value of 0.55 for the fibres with length 30 mm. These theoretical values are in
good agreement with the average orientation coefficient 0.57 which was found from fibre counts on
reference prisms which where poured directly into a standard mould of length 600 mm.
The value of the theoretical orientation coefficient which only takes into account the geometrical
wall-effect is shown in Fig. 8 by a line. As a result of the casting process and the flow of the
concrete in the long, narrow formwork, almost all the measured values are greater than this
theoretical value. This means that there is a preferential orientation in the longitudinal direction of
the beam. At the end of the beam (2000 mm from the casting point and 50 mm from the end), the
value decreases again.

Fig. 8 - Orientation coefficient as a function of the distance from the casting point
3.2 Computed tomography
In order to measure the fibre dosage, spatial distribution and the fibre orientation in three
dimensions, X-ray computed tomography is used on core samples with a diameter of 100 mm. The
longitudinal axis of the core corresponds to the longitudinal axis of the beams and hence with the
flow direction of the concrete.

Fig. 9 - CT-scan of a core sample Fig. 10 - Cross-section after 3D reconstrucion

For each drilled core, more than 3000 X-ray photographs are taken (one projection every
2 milliradians). Subsequently, a three dimensional reconstruction is made with all these projections
(Fig. 10). Thanks to the difference in density between steel and the concrete matrix, the exact
position of the fibres can be deduced from this volume data. The outer surface of the fibres (in
three dimensions), is stored as an STL file which is used to calculate the volume percentage of
fibres in the sample and their orientation coefficient.
Fig. 11 shows the fibre orientation in a concrete beam reinforced with fibres with length 60 mm
and a diameter of 0.71 mm. In this 2D representation it is already clear that the steel fibres have a
pronounced preferential orientation in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the beam.

Fig. 11 - Front view and top view of three core samples (results of one SFRSCC2 – RC80/60BP beam)
3.3 Comparison of the results
The results of fibre counts and X-ray computed tomography are compared for a beam with
RC80/60BP fibres. Although 30 kg of steel fibres per m³ of concrete was carefully weighed for
each mixture and every batch was thoroughly mixed, the volume percentage of fibres can show
local variations. On average, the percentage by volume is always 0.38%. For this beam however,
the volume percentage varies between 25 kg/m³ and 31 kg/m³.
The orientation coefficients at each cracking-plane and sawn surface in the beam are corrected in
Fig. 12 with the measured volume percentage of fibres. By doing so, the orientation coefficients
determined with different measurement methods are also better in agreement with each other.

1 2 3

Fig. 12 - Orientation coefficient after correction as a function of the distance from the casting point
(based on the results of one SFRSCC2 – RC80/60BP beam)

A possible explanation for the smaller volume percentage of fibres near the casting point is that the
gate of the chute is only opened after the chute is filled with concrete. During the filling process,
limited static segregation in the chute may occur. Concrete that is originally located at the top of
the chute is, after pouring the beam, part of the first specimen and may therefore have a smaller
fibre amount. The corrected values for the orientation coefficient show that fibres already have a
preferential orientation near the casting point as a result of flow-induced orientation in the chute,
which then increases only a little more in the beam itself.

4 Conclusions
The following conclusions can be drawn from this experimental study:
• Fibre length has little impact on the flowability and filling ability of the concrete.
• Prisms that have been sawn from the longer beams show a better post-cracking behaviour
than the concrete prisms directly poured into a standard mould or a similar traditional
compacted steel fibre reinforced concrete.
Even with a dosage of only 30 kg of steel fibres / m³ of concrete deflection hardening is
obtained, and moreover, the variation in the results for the sawn prisms is smaller.
• Steel fibres are evenly distributed in most cross-sections of the beam. Any deviations
occur mainly close to the pouring point and at the end of the formwork and are linked to
the streamlines in the concrete during the casting process.
• Because the steel fibres already obtain a certain preferential orientation in the chute, the
 orientation coefficient only slightly increases in the beam itself. The post-cracking
behaviour of the prisms with a large flow distance is therefore only slightly better than
that of the first prism near the chute.
• All types of fibres used in this study orient longitudinally in the beam. However, this is
more clear for the fibres with 60 mm length than for the shorter fibres with 30 mm length.
• The distance at which the fibres reach a preferential orientation in the viscous concrete is
of the same order of magnitude as for the less viscous concrete.
• In addition to the fibre dosage, also spatial distribution and orientation of the steel fibres
have an important influence on the mechanical performance of an element. Depending on
the geometry of the formwork and the way the concrete is poured, fibre orientation can
vary greatly.

Acknowledgements
The financial support of the Belgian Federal Public Service Economy (Project CC CCN/PB/NBN-
513) is gratefully acknowledged.
The authors also thankfully acknowledge NV Bekaert SA for providing the steel fibres.

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