Study on mechanical properties and strength relation between cube and cylinder specimens of steel fiber reinforced concrete

Abstract

An experimental study was performed on the splitting tensile strength of steel fiber reinforced concrete using cube and cylinder specimens. Effects of volume fraction, aspect ratio, geometry, and tensile strength of steel fiber on the splitting tensile strength of steel fiber reinforced concrete with different water-to-binder ratio were investigated systematically. The test results showed that the splitting tensile strength of steel fiber reinforced concrete increases with volume fraction and aspect ratio of steel fiber. And it can be improved more obviously by hooked-end steel fiber compared with wave-shaped and corrugated steel fibers. Steel fibers with higher tensile strength (>600 MPa) are recommended for steel fiber reinforced concrete with compressive strength larger than 70 MPa. A factor used to convert cubic strength to cylindrical strength for steel fiber reinforced concrete was obtained, which is 0.738 for compressive strength and 0.96 for splitting tensile strength. In addition, a calculation method for predicting the splitting tensile strength of hooked-end steel fiber reinforced concrete including impact coefficient of steel fiber was developed based on the test results, which shows reasonable predictions for all test data.