Materials Today: Proceedings 42 (2021) 816–820

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Materials Today: Proceedings

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Flexural and shear performance of HFRC beams

M. Vinod Kumar a, S. Jebamalai Raj b,⇑, K. Rajesh Kumar c, N. Gurumoorthy d, A. Chithambar Ganesh e
a
Vel Tech Rangarajan Dr. Sagunthala R & D Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai 600062, India
b
Kombolcha Institute of Technology, Wollo University, Kombolcha, South Wollo, Ethiopia
c
Centre for Construction Methods and Materails, S R University, Warangal, Telangana, India
d
PSNA College of Engineering and Technology, Dindigul 624622, Tamil Nadu, India
e
Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education, Srivilliputhur 626128, Tamil Nadu, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper describes the load bearing capacity prediction of two different types of fibres in Reinforced
Received 12 October 2020 Concrete (RC) beams exposed to bending loads. A two-point test in a loading frame was conducted under
Received in revised form 9 November 2020 static loading to examine the flexural and shear performance of Hybrid Fibre Reinforced Concrete (HFRC)
Accepted 12 November 2020
beams in the preparation of steel-polypropylene fibres (SPF) and glass-polypropylene fibres (GPF). In this
Available online 04 January 2021
experimental study, 1% of steel fibres, 0.03% of glass fibres and 0.30% of polypropylene fibres were added
by volume of concrete in two different combinations. Totally 6 numbers of beams of size
Keywords:
150 mm  200 mm  2100 mm were casted and tested in two series (A series & B series), each series con-
Hybrid fibre reinforced concrete (HFRC)
Steel
taining 3 beams. The beams of A series and B series were designed to fail in flexure and shear respectively.
Glass and polypropylene fibres An experimental test was performed to explore the behaviours namely ultimate load along with its crack
Flexural and shear behaviour patterns and width, load deflection behaviour, ductility and stiffness relations. The test results revealed
that HFRC beams significantly increased the ultimate load than the control beams. In addition, an HFRC
beam reduces the deflection and crack width. It was also identified that RC beams with SPF showed
enhanced performance than the RC beams with GPF.
Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Second International
Conference on Recent Advances in Materials and Manufacturing 2020.

1. Introduction adding 0.20% volume fraction of polypropylene fibre in the con-

Fibre Reinforced Concrete (FRC) is made of ingredients such as
cement, fine aggregate and coarse aggregates along with fibres
(ACI Committee 544) [1]. The main motive for adding fibres is to
enhance the toughness, tensile strength, deformation and control
the cracks of the concrete. The properties of FRC based on particu-
lar types of fibres utilized. Thus the introduction of different types
of fibres and their combination improves the behaviour and prop-
erties of concrete [2–5]. Adding Light Extended Clay Aggregate
(LECA) and self-curing agents into concrete will further enhance
the properties if necessary, resulting in sustainable light weight
[6–8]. In last few years many researchers have begun to identify
the performance of RC beams with different fibres. 0.03% of glass
fibre incorporated into RC beam offers enhanced ultimate load car-
rying capacity with better deformation characterizes than the ref-
erence RC beam [9]. The flexural strength increased about 80% by
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: stephen.raj@wu.edu.et (S. Jebamalai Raj).
crete beam, and the strength reduces with increases in fibre con-
tent [10]. The flexural performance of RC beams with 1% and 2%
of steel fibres is investigated and from the result it is found that
RC beams with steel fibres showed superior performance than
the control beam [11].
An inquiry was undertaken to investigate the performance of
fresh and hardened glass fiber reinforced concrete. The higher per-
centage of glass fibre has been found to affect concrete’s workabil-
ity and could involve the use of super plasticizers to enhance
workability. As the amount of fibre content of the concrete by total
weight increases from 0.025% to 0.075%, the compressive and split
tensile strength of the concrete also increases from 5.15 %to
15.688% percent [12]. Polypropylene fibres incorporating with
steel fibres affect the behavior of RC beams, increasing ductility
characteristics by 80% and energy absorption characteristics by
up to 160%. Finally, it was demonstrated that the mixture of differ-
ent types of fibres improves the load carrying ability, energy
absorption capacity, stiffness and ductility characteristics instead
of adding single fibres [13]. In this study, polypropylene and glass

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.11.370
2214-7853/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Second International Conference on Recent Advances in Materials and Manufacturing 2020.
M. Vinod Kumar, S. Jebamalai Raj, K. Rajesh Kumar et al. Materials Today: Proceedings 42 (2021) 816–820

fibres are used with different proportions of the fibre blend. The Table 2
glass fibre percentage ranges from 0 to 0.04 percent, while the Reinforcement details.

polypropylene fibre percentage varies from 0% to 0.45%. The test Diameter (mm) Yield strength (Mpa) Reinforcement type
results showed that by adding 0.04% glass fibre combination and 8 250 Shear
0.3% polypropylene fibre and further adding hybrid fibres to con- 10 412 Longitudinal
crete, the optimum strength was found by increasing the compres- 12 420 Longitudinal
sive and flexural strength with respect to the mixing proportions
[14]. Through the accumulation of one or more fibres, RC structural
elements strengthen the bearing ability. [15–20]. Table 3
Properties of fibres.

Fibre Type Steel fibre (S) Glass fibre Polypropylene

2. Research significance (G) fibre (P)
Length in mm 48 6 12
Due to the importance of fibres, the usage and applications in Diameter in mm 0.75 0.014 0.05
various areas of civil engineering are increased in the last two dec- Density in kg/mm3 7680 2680 980
ades. In this exploration steel fibre are used to improve the tensile Modulus of Elasticity in GPa 200 72 3.5
Tensile Strength in Mpa 1100 1700 400
strength moreover the glass fibre are used to reduce the plastic
shrinkage cracks and polypropylene fibre are used to enhance
impact resistance of concrete. The aim of this investigation is to
evaluate and analyze the flexural and shear behavious of HFRC Table 4
Different proportions of different fibres.
beams in the preparation of steel-polypropylene fibres (SPF) and
glass-polypropylene fibres (GPF). MIX ID Mix proportion in volume (%)
Steel fibre (S) Glass fibre (G) Polypropylene fibre (P)
AO 0 0 0
3. Experimental program B2 1 0 0.30
C2 0 0.03 0.30
3.1. Material properties

The material properties of ingredients of concrete and steel are Table 5

given in Table 1 and 2 respectively. Likewise the properties of dif- Concrete mix proportions.
ferent types of fibre and its proportions are given in Table 3 and
Fibre Type Cement Fine Aggregate Coarse Aggregate
Table 4 respectively. The concrete mix proportions are intended
3
as per the design guidelines of IS 10262:2009 [21] with water- Mix proportions (kg/m ) 437.7 624 1172
Mix ratio 1 1.43 2.68
cement ratio of 0.45.

3.2. Details of tested beams 4. Results and discussions

Totally 6 numbers of beams were casted for experimental
investigation of size 150 mm  200 mm  2100 mm is shown in
Table 6. Beams of A series were considered to fail in flexure and
B series were designed to fail in shear as shown in Table 5. The
reinforcement details of A series and B series are provided in
Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 respectively.
3.3. Experimental Set-Up
4.1. Load carrying capacity
The load details of the tested beams are mentioned in Table 7.
The RC beams incorporated with hybrid fibres enhanced the load
carrying capacity in terms of first crack, yield and ultimate. Exper-
imental results revealed that RC beams with SPF, GPF increases the
ultimate load of 47%, 22% and 20%, 12% respectively over the refer-
ence beams.

Four-point bending tests were conducted under static loading
in the RC beams. The loads were gradually increased at a regular
interval of 1 kN and applied through hydraulic jack of 50 kN capac-
ity. LVDT and deflectometers were fixed to measure the deflections
at middle and under the point of application of loads respectively.
Crack widths of the tested beams were measured using crack
width microscope (0.02 precision). The details of test set up are
given in Fig. 3.
4.2. Crack pattern & crack width
Crack width for the A series (A0F, B2F, and C2F) beams are
0.82 mm, 0.54 mm, 0.60 mm and B series (A0S, B2S, C2S) beams
are 2.2 mm, 1.4 mm, 1.8 mm. The crack width values exhibits that
RC beams incorporated with fibres takes more load with minimum
crack width. Fig. 4 shows the crack patterns for flexure and shear
beams.

Table 1
Properties of Ingredients of Concrete.

Material Specific Gravity Fine Modulus Specifications Remarks

Cement 3.12 – IS: 12269:1987 Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC)
Fine Aggregate 2.69 2.75 IS: 383:1970 Passing through 2.36 mm size sieve
Coarse Aggregate 2.72 6.6 IS: 383:1970 12 mm maximum size
Water – – – Potable Water
Super-plasticizer 1.08 – – Dosage range of 500–1500 ml per 100 kg of cement

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M. Vinod Kumar, S. Jebamalai Raj, K. Rajesh Kumar et al. Materials Today: Proceedings 42 (2021) 816–820

Table 6
Beam Details.

Test Beam ID Beam Type Longitudinal reinforcement Shear Reinforcement

Top Bottom
AOF Flexure 2 # 8 mm Ø 2 # 10 mm Ø 8 mm Ø @ 100 mm c/c
B2F Flexure 2 # 8 mm Ø 2 # 10 mm Ø 8 mm Ø @ 100 mm c/c
C2F Flexure 2 # 8 mm Ø 2 # 10 mm Ø 8 mm Ø @ 100 mm c/c
AOS Shear 2 # 8 mm Ø 3 # 12 mm Ø 8 mm Ø @ 450 mm c/c
B2S Shear 2 # 8 mm Ø 3 # 12 mm Ø 8 mm Ø @ 450 mm c/c
C2S Shear 2 # 8 mm Ø 3 # 12 mm Ø 8 mm Ø @ 450 mm c/c

Fig. 1. Details of A series Beams (Units in millimeter).

Fig. 2. Details of B series Beams (Units in millimeter).

4.3. Load vs deflection relations

The load - deflection curves for A series and B series beams are
revealed in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6 respectively. The load - deflection
curves shows that RC beams with SPF carries higher load with les-
ser deflection than control beams and RC beams with GPF.

4.4. Ductility relations

Table 8 and Fig. 7 shows the ductility details for the tested
beams. From these values, it is observed that the ductility beha-
viour of HFRC beams improved significantly than control beams.
As the content of hybrid fibres increases, deflection and energy
ductility are found to increase. For HFRC beams, the deflection
and energy ductility values are 1.4 to 1.8 and 1.7 to 2.5 times
greater than those of the control beams.
Fig. 3. The details of experimental set up.

4.5. Stiffness relations

Fig. 8 shows the stiffness values for the flexure and shear
Table 7 beams. The addition of various types of fibers (hybrid fibers) to
Load details of the tested beams. the concrete beam increases the capacity of the load carrier with
Test Beam ID First Crack Load (kN) Yield Load (kN) Ultimate Load (kN)
lower deformation. The mixture of various types of fibres substan-
tially increases the stiffness characteristics. With the increase in
AOF 17.2 26.1 34.4
B2F 19.4 38.6 50.5
hybrid fibre content, beam stiffness has been found to increase.
C2F 19.8 32.5 42.1 The stiffness values are 1.0 to 2.3 times higher for HFRC beams
AOS 24.9 45.5 60.1 than for control beams. From these values, it is observed that stiff-
B2S 35.7 54.7 72.3 ness values of RC beams with SPF was higher than that of RC beams
C2S 29.6 50.4 67.5
with GPF and control beams for the tested ultimate load.
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M. Vinod Kumar, S. Jebamalai Raj, K. Rajesh Kumar et al. Materials Today: Proceedings 42 (2021) 816–820

Fig. 4. Crack patterns of all the tested beams.

Fig. 6. Load – Deflection curve for B series beams.

Fig. 5. Load – Deflection curve for A series beams.

5. Conclusions
Table 8
Ductility values for the flexure and shear beams.
1] Based on experimental findings, HFRC beams reached higher
levels in all loads than control beams due to the use of hybrid fibers Test Beam ID Deflection ductility (mD) Energy ductility (mE)

that arrest the cracks. AOF 2.10 3.6

2] Flexure and shear RC beams contains SPF, GPF increases the B2F 3.83 6.1
C2F 3.01 5.0
ultimate load carrying capacity of about 47%, 22% and 20%, 12% AOS 1.81 3.1
respectively over the reference beams. B2S 3.21 5.3
3] In comparison with the RC beams contains GPF (C2F and C2S) C2S 2.63 4.6
and SPF (B2F and B2S) in flexural and shear showed an increase in
final load of approximately 20% and 7%.
4] The test results show the load - deflection characteristics of 6] With a corresponding increase in the content of hybrid fibers,
hybrid beams performed better than conventional beams. the deflection and energy ductility characteristics have been found
5] From the observational and experimental results, due to the to be increased. For HFRC beams, the deflection and energy ductil-
use of hybrid fibers that arrest the cracks, it is recognized that the ity values obtained are 1.4 to 1.8 and 1.7 to 2.5 times greater than
HFRC beams have less crack width. those of the control beams. Similarly, the stiffness characteristics of

819
M. Vinod Kumar, S. Jebamalai Raj, K. Rajesh Kumar et al.
Fig. 7. Ductility comparisons of all the tested beams.
Fig. 8. Stiffness values of the tested beams.
the obtained HFRC beams are 1.0 to 2.3 times greater than those of
the control beams.
7] Throughout the experimental results, RC beams with SPF
showed enhanced performance the GPF. This improvement is
important and is due to the high tensile strength of steel fibres
compared to glass fibres.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
M. Vinod Kumar: Conceptualization, Methodology. Stephen
Jebamalai Raj: Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing.
K. Rajesh Kumar: Visualization, Investigation. N. Gurumoorthy:
Supervision. A. Chithambar Ganesh: Validation.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
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820
Materials Today: Proceedings 42 (2021) 816–820
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Further Reading
[1] IS: 12269-1987, Indian Standards - Specification for 53 grade ordinary
Portland cement, Bureau of Indian Standards, New Delhi, India.
[2] IS, Indian Standards - Specification for coarse and fine aggregates from natural
sources for concrete, Bureau of Indian Standards 383–1970, New Delhi, India.
[3] IS, Indian Standards - Plain and reinforced concrete - code of practice, Bureau
of Indian Standards 456–2000, New Delhi, India.
[4] IS, Indian Standards Concrete Admixtures - Specification, Bureau of Indian
Standards 9103–1999, New Delhi, India.