Assessment of fibre orientation and distribution in steel fibre reinforced self-compacting concrete panels

Abstract

The benefits of adding fibres to concrete lie, mostly, in improving the post-cracking behaviour, since its ability to transfer stresses across cracked sections is substantially increased. The post-cracking strength is dependent not only on the fibre geometry, mechanical performance and fibre/matrix interface properties, but also on the fibre orientation and distribution. Previous works have shown that in self-compacting concrete matrices, there is a preferential fibre alignment according to the concrete’s flow in the fresh state. Having in mind that fibres are more efficient if they are oriented according the principal tensile stresses, a preferential fibre alignment on a certain direction could either enhance or diminish the material and the structural performance of this composite. In this paper, it is investigated the influence of the fibre orientation and distribution on the post-cracking behaviour of the steel fibre reinforced self-compacting concrete (SFRSCC). To perform this evaluation, SFRSCC panels were casted from their centre point. Two self-compacting mixtures were prepared using the same base mix proportions. For each SFRSCC panel cylindrical specimens were extracted and the post-cracking behaviour was assessed from a crack width controlled splitting tensile test.