Effects of reinforcing fiber strength on mechanical properties of high-strength concrete

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of the tensile strength of steel fiber on the mechanical properties of steel fiber-reinforced high-strength concrete. Two levels of steel fiber tensile strength (1100 MPa and 1600 MPa) and two steel fiber contents (0.38% and 0.75%) were used to test the compression, flexure, and direct shear performance of steel fiber-reinforced high-strength concrete specimens. The aspect ratio for the steel fiber was fixed at 80 and the design compressive strength of neat concrete was set at 70 MPa to match that of high-strength concrete. The performance of the steel fiber-reinforced concrete that contained high-strength steel fiber was superior to that which contained normal-strength steel fiber. In terms of flexural performance in particular, the tensile strength of steel fiber can better indicate performance than the steel fiber mixing ratio. In addition, a compression prediction model is proposed to evaluate compression toughness, and the model results are compared. The predictive model can anticipate the behavior after the maximum load.