THE INFLUENCE OF FIBERS AND HOT WEATHER UPON CRACK

BEHAVIOR
IN REINFORCED CONCRETE

Mufid Samarai
samarai@sharjah.ac.ae

The mechanical behavior of composite materials consisting of fibers embedded in a
matrix will depend, fundamentally, on the relative strain capacities of the component
materials and, in general, composites may be divided in to two categories namely: Those
with a matrix having a greater strain capacity than the fiber and those using fibers with a
greater strain capacity than the matrix. Cement-bound composites fall squarely in to the
second category and a simplified description of the mechanics of this type of composite is
given in this paper .In general, commercial application of fiber reinforced concrete has
tended to go ahead of research and we are now able to examine the experience gained by
such application alongside with experimental investigation of the properties of this
material.
The necessity to limit the width of cracks which develop in reinforced concrete
results in a restriction on the use of high-grade reinforcing steels, because the strain in the
steel is the primary parameter influencing the width of cracks. This necessity is due to the
requirement that cracking should not adversely affect the appearance or durability of the
structure. The use of steels with characteristic strengths approaching the upper limit of
the allowable stress range has, for a number of reasons, proved to be more economic than
the use of mild steel. It is likely that, if steels of even higher quality could be used, further
economy might result. But this would be feasible only if the width of surface cracks
corresponding to a given steel strain could be substantially reduced.
In this investigation, aimed at studying the effect of fibers as crack inhibitors,
attention has been paid almost entirely to the use of steel fibers, although, a few tests
were also made on polypropylene fibers for comparative purposes .The steel fibers used
were of two types, round fibers and Duoform fibers which were round fibers with
flattened indentation at regular intervals . These were obtained in various combinations of
length and diameter . The chopped fibrillated polypropylene fibers were in two length ,
25 mm and 76mm .The shorter fires were obtained in both 520 and 6000 denier while the
longer fibers were of 6000denier only . Ordinary Portland cement was used throughout
the programme. Sand and gravel (maximum size 10 mm ) were from a single source
and complying with B.S.812.
In conventionally reinforced concrete the reinforcing bars are oriented in the
direction desired while with fiber reinforcement they are randomly oriented. Reports
indicated that the effectiveness of fiber orthogonally arranged could by only 40 50 % of
those unidirectional fibres. when fibers are randomly oriented in three dimensions the
effectiveness could be as low as 50 %. Therefore, it seems evident that unless the fibers
are oriented properly their advantages could not be fully utilized. The effect of aspect
ratio (length /diameter) on the strength of a composite material could be chiefly attributed
to its effect on the efficiency of load transfer. In practice bond stress distribution is not
uniform but is greatest at the center of fibers. Unless the length of the fibers is equal or
greater than the critical length they will not reach their fracture stress.
The author carried an investigation were two types of test were carried out; the
specimens tested containing reinforcing steel in both cases. In one type of test an uneasily
load was applied to the single reinforcing bar which protruded form both ends of a
symmetrically reinforced specimen. In the other type of test, beams and slabs reinforced
with tensile steel only were subject to flexural loading. In all these tests the widths of the
cracks at the surface were measured as increments of load were applied with the aid of a
portable microscope. The results are expressed here as relationships between the crack
width and the stress in the reinforcement, the latter being calculated by assuming that,
after cracking, the fibers were not able to contribute significantly to tensile resistance .
Results showed that all specimens containing fibers reached much higher stresses
than the others. The crack width reached 0.10 mm in specimens not containing any fibers
( but reinforced with Bar Type I ) mild steel, when the stresses in the bar were only 120
N /mm
2
with the addition of fibers stresses in the bar were as high as 266 N/mm
2
before
cracks widened to 0.10 mm . In general, the stresses in the deformed bars (Type and
type ) were higher that in the plain bars at any particular crack width which shows the
importance of bond between reinforcement and the concrete. . At 0.10 mm crack widths
the gain in stress in the fibrous specimens reinforced with deformed bars over specimens
without fibers averaged 82 % . For 0.20 mm crack widths this was 73 % higher . The age
at which the tests are carried out appeared to have little effect on the stresses in the bars .
The effect of different volume fractions of fibers can be seen from Figure 1 . The
increase of fiber content from 0.80 to 3.0 percent almost doubled the gain in stress over
the control specimens at lower crack widths . The difference was still substantial even
with cracks wider than 0.20 mm .




The polypropylene fibers improved the stresses in the reinforcing bar of slabs
only slightly . At 0.10 mm crack width the stress of the reinforced concrete slabs
containing polypropylene fibers improved the stresses in the reinforcing bar of slabs only
slightly . At 0.10 mm crack width the stress of the reinforced concrete slabs containing
polypropylene fibers increased the stress by only 70 N /mm
2
over the control slabs with
no fibers . This was a gain of only 50 % . The round steel fibers for a similar slab and
crack width increased the stress by 120 % N / mm
2
. The best results were obtained by
the Duoform steel fibers were the stress reached 310 N /mm
2
which is 2.3 times that in
the control slab. A few additional tests were made on specimens containing no
reinforcing bars, but having 1 % of steel fibers . These specimens were tested in uniaxial
tension to determine the magnitude of the tensile strength contribution of the fibers after
cracking has occurred
Most of these specimens were deliberately precracked before being subject to
Fig. (1):Reinforcing Bar Stress VS. Crack
Width Of 75x75x50 mm. Specimens Tested
in Pure Tension
tensile load. Specially designed clamps holding the ends of the specimens were in turn
attached to the solid frame of the tension machine in such a way as to prevent any
bending during test . The loads were applied in small increment and cracks observed and
measured by the aid of special microscopes with 7x magnification . It was possible due to
the high strain control characteristics of the testing machine to determine the loads which
the specimens able to sustain . One set of specimens was tested without cracking the
specimens prior to the application of the loads . The other sets were cracked to 0 .01,
0.02 and 0.04 mm maximum crack widths . In the uncracked specimens no cracks were
detectable until stresses of up to 1.4 N /mm
2
were reached which would indicate the
tensile strength of the matrix .The specimen continued to gain stress beyond this point but
beyond 0 .04 crack width the increase in stress was small until failure occurred at a stress
of 1.53 N /mm
2
. The cracked specimens exhibited similar behavior by carrying a
significant amount of stress until the crack width increased to values of between 0.04 and
0.16 . The extened to which the specimens were pre-cracked did not seem to affect
significantly either the mechanism of fiber action or the ultimate strength .

It is evident from the work described in the present paper that the main function
of the fibers in reducing crack widths is to cause cracks to form at closer spacing than
occurs when no fibers are present. This results in narrower cracks for a given strain in
the reinforcement. When the cracks widen, the initial contribution to tensile resistance
which the fibers make falls off until it is negligible at crack widths substantially smaller
than the normally acceptable limiting values. However, the most significant observation
from these tests was the fact that though the fibers carried a substantial amount of stress
after matrix failure, they were incapable of sustaining any load when cracks were wider
than 0.16 mm. This was due to the bond failure between the fibers and the matrix . It is
also possible to see from the table that the improvement in tensile strength of specimens
containing fibers over those without any fibers is slight . The direct tensile strength of
concrete specimens containing 1.5 % Duoform steel fibers was 1.58 times that of
specimens without fibers .
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