Construction and Building Materials 181 (2018) 474–486

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Effects of fiber type, volume fraction and aspect ratio on the flexural and
acoustic emission behaviors of steel fiber reinforced concrete
Biao Li, Lihua Xu ⇑, Yuchuan Shi, Yin Chi ⇑, Qi Liu, Changning Li
School of Civil Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China

h i g h l i g h t s

 Effects of fiber parameters on the flexural and AE behaviors of SFRC were investigated.
 The flexural strength, toughness, fracture process and failure mode of SFRC was studied.
 The reinforcing mechanism of steel fiber with various fiber parameters was analyzed.

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

Article history: This paper investigates the effects of fiber type, volume fraction and aspect ratio on the flexural and
Received 7 April 2018 acoustic emission (AE) behaviors of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) using four-point bending tests.
Received in revised form 4 June 2018 Three types of steel fibers, i.e., straight, hooked-end and corrugated fiber, four volume fractions of 0.5%,
Accepted 8 June 2018
1.0%, 1.5% and 2.0%, three corrugated fiber aspect ratios of 40, 60 and 80, were respectively selected. The
Available online 15 June 2018
flexural behavior of SFRC in terms of load-deflection curve, ultimate flexural load and toughness was
studied. The AE parameters with respect to AE events, average frequency, RA value etc. were used to
Keywords:
describe the fracture process and fracture mode of SFRC. The results showed that the flexural and AE
Steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC)
Flexure
behaviors of SFRC vary with various fiber types, volume fractions and aspect ratios. Hooked-end SFRC
Mechanical behavior owns the best flexural behavior. Compared to plain concrete, the ultimate flexural strengths of specimens
Acoustic emission (AE) are maximally improved by 74.29%, 165.07% and 112.65% for straight, hooked-end and corrugated fibers,
Fracture process respectively. The peak load, deflection and toughness of concrete increase with increasing fiber volume
Fracture mode fraction and aspect ratio. It is noted from AE results that the cumulative AE events, shear cracks and
Fiber reinforcing mechanism AE source location points mainly induced by fiber pull-out and sliding increase with the increase of fiber
volume fraction and aspect ratio. Hooked-end SFRC has the largest AE events, shear cracks and the
amount of scatter points for all the four fiber volume fractions owing to the large amount of fibers sus-
taining the load at cracks and the good bond performance of hook-end steel fiber and concrete matrix.
Moreover, the failure of plain concrete is dominated by tensile cracks, and that is changing to shear cracks
with increasing fiber volume fraction.
Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction [1–5]. The mechanical behavior of fiber reinforced concrete (FRC)

In order to overcome the inherent drawbacks of ordinary con-
crete, such as low tensile strength, low deformation capacity and
poor post-cracking ductility, etc., fibers are introduced and widely
used in the field of concrete engineering. It is commonly acknowl-
edged that the addition of fiber into concrete matrix can enhance
the tensile, flexural and impact strengths, toughness and post-
cracking ductility of concrete materials, and consequently improve
the static, seismic and fatigue performance of concrete structures
⇑ Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: xulihua@whu.edu.cn (L. Xu), yin.chi@whu.edu.cn (Y. Chi).
are affected by many factors which include the concrete matrix
(concrete strength grade, matrix composites, additional mixture
etc.), fibers (fiber type, volume fraction, length, diameter, strength,
stiffness etc.), and interfacial transition zones (ITZs) [6–15]. For a
specified concrete matrix, fibers become the primary factor.
To date, considerable efforts have been conducted to investigate
the effects of fibers on the mechanical behavior of steel fiber rein-
forced concrete (SFRC) subjected to external loads, for example,
tension and flexure. Concrete with various fiber parameters
exhibits distinct mechanical properties [1–20]. However, how
fibers act in a concrete matrix becomes an important issue in the
design of engineering structures. With the development in

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.06.065
0950-0618/Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 B. Li et al. / Construction and Building Materials 181 (2018) 474–486
non-destructive testing (NDT) technology, acoustic emission (AE)
technique has been successfully used in the damage monitoring,
recognition and evaluation of concrete materials and structures
[21–25]. The AE signals induced by elastic waves are emitted from
micro-cracks in concrete. Each type of a crack, such as tensile crack
and shear crack, has distinct AE signal characteristics. Therefore,
the AE signal features are always employed to distinguish the dif-
ferent concrete failure mechanism [26,27]. For example, Farnam
et al. [28] studied the waveform properties of individual concrete
components (i.e., aggregate, paste, and ITZs), and recognized the
distinct failure mechanism in concrete such as aggregate cracks
and matrix cracks. Prem and Murthy [29] investigated the damage
mechanism of reinforced concrete (RC) beams under four-point
bending, and distinguished damages in the beam into four zones:
symbolizing formation of micro-cracks, visible cracks, steel yield-
ing and concrete crushing. Wu et al. [30] studied the AE character-
istics of fracture process of mortar, concrete and SFRC beams, and
clarified the failure mechanism for different materials. Gostautas
et al. [31] also deemed that the different types of damage charac-
teristics in FRC such as fiber breakage, matrix cracking, and
debonding or false events can be identified by AE parameters. For
FRC, except for the matrix cracking and debonding between aggre-
gate and matrix, which are the same as those in plain concrete,
fiber pullout and sliding or fracture also contribute to the AE
sources [31,32]. Aggelis et al. [33] further reported that the fracture
process of SFRC can be divided into three stages: pre-peak stage,
main fracture, and failure stage. The tensile cracking incident
shows a preference to higher frequency and shorter waveform
unlike a shear event. The signals emitted at different fracture stage
exhibit distinct signatures. With respect to a concrete with various
fiber parameters, the AE signals from SFRC should be of a great dif-
ference. Aggelis et al. [33–35] investigated three types of steel
fibers (straight, hooked, and undulated fiber) on the AE behavior
of SFRC, and reported that hooked or wavy fibers exhibiting
mechanical interlocking anyway result in extensive matrix crack-
ing during pull-out, while straight fibers exhibit the purest shear
characteristics implying that only friction forces are active during
the pullout stage. Soulioti, et al. [36] investigated the effect of wavy
shape steel fiber content on the AE behavior of SFRC, and found
that the total AE hits are directly proportional to the fiber content.
The similar observation was also reported in Li’s study [37]. And
moreover, the total AE hits of SFRC decrease with increasing fiber
aspect ratio ranging from 30 to 80 under uniaxial compression
[33].
From the above literature review, it has to be mentioned that
although crucial experimental investigations on the AE behavior
of SFRC were conducted by researchers, most of the existing
research works were concentrated on the fracture process, damage
evaluation and failure mode of SFRC. Limited available analysis and
studies focused on the failure mechanism and fiber reinforcing
mechanism in SFRC, especially for various fiber types, volume frac-
tions and lengths, which is insufficient to explain the distinct dif-
ference in the mechanical responses of SFRC. Therefore, a
comparative study on the AE behavior of SFRC with considering
the effect of commonly used steel fiber type, volume fraction and
aspect ratio needs a systematical investigation. Moreover, the
cracking process and failure mechanism of SFRC as well as the
underlying reinforcing mechanism of steel fibers with various
parameters remain a deep and comprehensive research.
The objective of this paper is to investigate the effects of fiber
type, volume fraction and aspect ratio on the flexural and AE
behaviors of SFRC. Forty five SFRC beam specimens were fabricated
and tested under four-point bending with synchronously recording
of the AE activities. Three types of steel fibers i.e., straight, hooked-
end and corrugated fiber, with four volume fractions of 0.5%, 1.0%,
1.5% and 2.0%, and three corrugated fiber aspect ratios of 40, 60 and
475
80 were respectively selected. The flexural mechanical behavior in
terms of load-deflection curve and toughness was studied. The AE
parameters with respect to AE events, average frequency, RA value
as well as three-dimensional AE source location points were used
to describe the fracture process and fracture mode of SFRC. The
underlying reinforcing mechanism of steel fibers with different
types, volume fractions and aspect ratios was analyzed based on
macro-scale observations and meso-scale AE responses. The pre-
sent research work should be of critical significance in better
understanding the reinforcing and toughening characteristics of
SFRC.
2. Experimental details
2.1. Materials, mix proportions and specimen preparation
The mixture of basic plain concrete was designed according to
the code JGJ 55-2011 [38]. The mix proportions are given in Table 1.
The materials employed for the fabrication of concrete mixture are
following. Ordinary Portland P.O 42.5 cement was used as the bin-
der. The mineral composition of cement in the form of oxide was
examined by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and is given in Table 2.
Crushed gravel stones of sizes of 5–20 mm and natural river sands
of sizes of 0–5 mm were respectively used as the coarse aggregates
and fine aggregates. A highly effective water reducer with a reduc-
ing rate of about 20% was adopted in order to obtain good
workability.
Three types of steel fibers, namely, straight, hooked-end and
corrugated fiber, were used in this study. The typical features
and mechanical properties of them are shown in Table 3. Four vol-
ume fractions of 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5% and 2.0%, and three aspect ratios
of 40, 60 and 80 for the case of corrugated fiber, were respectively
selected and adopted. The straight and hooked-end fibers have a
circular shape, and the corrugated fibers own a rectangular section.
The straight, hooked-end and corrugated fibers are denoted as S, H
and C, respectively. Subsequently, the letters S, M and L are used to
indicate short, medium-length and long fibers, corresponding to
the aspect ratios of 40, 60 and 80, respectively. The details of spec-
imens are listed in Table 4.
The design of specimens is in accordance with the Chinese Stan-
dards CECS 13:2009 [39]. Prismatic beams with a cross section of
100 mm  100 mm and a length of 400 mm were employed for
four-point bending tests. For each concrete mixture, three speci-
mens were prepared in order to obtain an average value. In addi-
tion, for each case, six cubes with a side length of 150 mm were
cast to obtain the average concrete compressive strength and split-
ting tensile strength.
A forced mixer was used for the concrete mix. In order to
achieve good dispersion of steel fibers, a special mixing process
was adopted. The detailed procedure includes the following steps:
1) adding dry fine aggregates and cement into the mixer, and start-
ing the mixer for 2 min. 2) dispersing the fibers into the mixer
slowly to ensure an excellent fiber distribution. 3) pouring water
and superplasticizer into the running mixer, then mixing for 2
min. 4) adding coarse aggregates into the cement paste mortar,
and continuing for 3 min.
Once the mixing is completed, the fresh concrete was imme-
diately cast into the prepared plastic molds. After 3–5 min vibra-
tion on a vibrating table, the specimens were kept under a
laboratory condition for 24 h. They were then demoulded care-
fully and kept in a standard curing room with a constant temper-
ature of 20 °C and humidity of 95% until 28-day strength
achieved. All the operations were followed by the Chinese Stan-
dards in Ref. [40].
476 B. Li et al. / Construction and Building Materials 181 (2018) 474–486

Table 1
Designed concrete mix proportions.

W/B Unit weight (kg/m3)

Water Cement Sand Gravel Superplasticizer
0.42 175 417 724 1086 4.2

Table 2
Type P.O 42.5 cement constituents, in mass percent (%).

CaO SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 MgO SO3 K2O Na2O Loss on ignition
62.9 20.7 4.84 3.18 2.15 3.56 0.85 0.15 1.22

Table 3
Typical features of steel fibers.

No. Fiber type Density Diameter Length Aspect Elastic modulus Tensile strength Feature
(kg/m3) (mm) (mm) ratio (GPa) (MPa)
S Straight 7.9 0.2 12 60 200 1300

H Hooked-end 7.9 0.5 30 60 200 1195

CS Corrugated 7.9 0.75 30 40 200 1100

CM Corrugated 7.9 0.75 45 60 200 1100
CL Corrugated 7.9 0.75 60 80 200 1100
Length=60mm

Length=45mm

Length=30mm

Table 4
Details of specimens.

No. Specimen Fiber type Volume fraction V Compressive strength, fc Splitting tensile strength, fst
(%) (MPa) (MPa)
1 PC 0 47.53 2.75
2 S05 Straight 0.5 49.35 3.24
3 S10 1.0 51.44 3.79
4 S15 1.5 53.21 3.95
5 S20 2.0 52.25 4.12
6 H05 Hooked-end 0.5 50.76 3.61
7 H10 1.0 51.92 3.96
8 H15 1.5 53.65 4.47
9 H20 2.0 53.05 4.67
10 CM05 Corrugated 0.5 50.09 3.44
11 CM10 1.0 51.75 3.94
12 CM15 1.5 52.91 4.28
13 CM20 2.0 52.92 4.44
14 CS15 1.5 52.64 4.02
15 CL15 1.5 52.75 4.39
 B. Li et al. / Construction and Building Materials 181 (2018) 474–486
2.2. Test setup and loading scheme
The four-point bending test was performed on a universal
electro-hydraulic servo rock mechanical testing machine-RMT-
301 with a maximum load capacity of 1000kN, as shown in
Fig. 1. The clear span length was 300 mm, and the beams were
rotated 90° from the casting surface to minimize the eccentric
effect which is attributed to the roughness of the casting surface.
At the beginning of each test, a pre-loading of approximate 10%
of the ultimate flexural load was applied in order to stabilize the
testing system. After that, a uniaxial load was monotonically
applied to the beams at the rate of 0.12 mm/min. In this loading
system, the axial loads and deflections of the beams were automat-
ically measured and recorded in a computer. The details of the test
setup are shown in Fig. 1.
In order to capture the emitted signals and monitor the cracking
process of SFRC, six AE sensors were used and attached to the sur-
faces of the beam, as shown in Fig. 1. They were formed into a
three-dimensional space. Specifically, two sensors (#1, #2) were
distributed at the frontage, and #5, #6 sensors were coated at
the reverse side of the specimen. In addition, the other two sensors
(#3, #4) were distributed at the bottom of the beam. One aim for
that is to monitor the AE response due that they were nearest to
the position of the first initial crack, and the other is to guard
against the failure of other sensors, besides, more sensors should
obtain more precise location results. Each sensor was deviated
20 mm from the length side, and 30 mm from the pure bending
section of the beam. The sensor type is Nano30, with the operating
frequency range of 100–400 kHz. The amplitude distribution cov-
ers the range of 0–100 dB. The AE signals were obtained through
a PCI-2 AE acquisition system, the parameters of which are listed
in Table 5. The AE sensors were mounted through the following
four steps: 1) coating the couple agent-Vaseline on the AE sensors’
surface; 2) sticking sensors to the specimen surface by plastic tape;
3) checking the coupling effect between sensors and specimen by
the pencil lead break (PLB) test; 4) conducting ten times of PLB
tests in order to obtain the wave propagation speed (WPS) and test
the three-dimensional positioning accuracy by AE sensors.
3. Mechanical behavior
3.1. Load-deflection curve
The typical load-deflection response curves of SFRC are shown
in Figs. 2 and 3. The detailed information of the results in terms
of peak load, peak deflection and toughness are summarized in
Table 6. Each value is averaged by a group of three.
Fig. 1. Four-point bending test set-up and data acquisition system.
477
Table 5
Settings of the AE acquisition system.
Preamplifier gain 40 dB
Threshold of detection 40 dB
Peak definition time, PDT 50 ls
Hit definition time, HDT 200 ls
Hit lockout time, HLT 300 ls
Maximum duration time, MDT 100 ms
Wave propagation speed, WPS 4,260,000 mm/s
Event definition value, EDV 250DU
Event lockout value, ELV 500DU
Attenuation 0.25 dB/mm
The effect of fiber type on the load-deflection curves of SFRC for
various fiber volume fractions is shown in Fig. 2. It is noted that the
steel fiber type has a little effect on the pre-cracking stage, but a
significant influence on the post-cracking stage of load-deflection
curves. In general, the hooked-end SFRC shows the highest peak
load and best post-peak ductility, while the straight SFRC has the
lowest values, except for the fiber volume fraction of 0.5%, where
no significant differences in the peak loads are found for the three
fiber types. Compared to plain concrete, the peak loads of SFRC are
maximally improved by 74.29%, 165.07% and 112.65% for the
straight, hooked-end and corrugated fibers, respectively. This is
attributed to the distinct bonding performance between different
shaped steel fiber and concrete matrix and the amount of fibers
sustaining the load at cracks [15]. It is noted from Refs. [41–43]
that the corrugated steel fiber owns the largest pullout load and
energy dissipation, while the straight steel fiber has the lowest val-
ues. Moreover, the amount of steel fiber at the fracture section of
specimens is accounted manually. The obtained results are given
in Table 7. Each value is averaged by three tested specimens for
each concrete mixture. It is found that the steel fiber amount is
approximately proportional to the fiber volume fraction at the frac-
ture section of SFRC beams for the three fiber types, which induces
an increase in the flexural load with the increase of fiber volume
fraction. While for a fixed fiber volume fraction, the amount of
hooked-end fiber is about three times more than that of corrugated
fiber because of the different fiber cross-section shape and equiva-
lent diameter, which thus induces a higher flexural load. In addi-
tion, even though the amount of straight fiber is three or four
times more than that of hooked-end fiber, the load of SFRC is still
the lowest because of the no mechanical interlocking and small
sliding friction between straight fiber and concrete matrix [43]. It
can be also found that at a low fiber volume fraction, the load of
corrugated SFRC is a little smaller than that of straight SFRC, which
may be accounted for the very large amount of fibers bridging at
478 B. Li et al. / Construction and Building Materials 181 (2018) 474–486

(a) 40 (b) 40
Fiber volume fraction of 0.5% Fiber volume fraction of 1.0%

30 Straight Straight
30
Hooked-end Hooked-end
Corrugated Corrugated
Load (kN)

Load (kN)
20 20

10 10

0 0
0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4
Deflection (mm) Deflection (mm)

(c) 40 (d) 40
Fiber volume fraction of 1.5% Fiber volume fraction of 2.0%
Straight
Straight
30 30 Hooked-end
Hooked-end
Corrugated
Corrugated
Load (kN)

Load (kN)
20 20

10 10

0 0
0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4
Deflection (mm) Deflection (mm)
Fig. 2. Effect of fiber type on the load-deflection curves for SFRC. (a) 0.5%. (b) 1.0%. (c) 1.5%. (d) 2.0%.

(a) 40 (b) 40
Straight steel fiber 0% Hooked-end steel fiber 0%
0.5% 0.5%
30 1.0% 30 1.0%
1.5% 1.5%
2.0% 2.0%
Load (kN)

Load (kN)

20 20

10 10

0 0
0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4
Deflection (mm) Deflection (mm)

(c) 40
(d) 40
Corrugated steel fiber 0% Corrugated steel fiber 40
0.5% 60
30 1.0% 30 80
1.5%
2.0%
Load (kN)

Load (kN)

20 20

10 10

0 0
0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4
Deflection (mm) Deflection (mm)
Fig. 3. Effects of fiber volume fraction and aspect ratio on the load-deflection curves for SFRC. (a) Straight steel fiber. (b) Hooked-end steel fiber. (c, d) Corrugated steel fiber.
 B. Li et al. / Construction and Building Materials 181 (2018) 474–486 479

Table 6
Summary of test results of SFRC under flexure.

No. Peak strength (kN) Peak deflection (mm) Toughness (Joule)

Ppeak dpeak XL/600 XL/300 XL/150
C 13.885 0.317 1.379 – –
S05 13.704 0.315 1.687 6.493 10.806
S10 16.091 0.356 1.965 10.012 16.984
S15 19.501 0.398 2.218 12.382 21.555
S20 24.201 0.511 3.757 20.940 37.912
H05 14.267 0.573 2.034 9.769 17.003
H10 29.386 0.625 5.619 30.534 53.334
H15 33.306 0.811 6.981 41.127 69.363
H20 36.805 0.863 8.029 47.693 86.255
CM05 13.154 0.377 1.424 5.486 –
CM10 14.267 0.387 1.603 8.730 15.346
CM15 24.622 0.574 3.015 18.650 32.905
CM20 29.526 0.853 4.173 27.665 46.872
CS15 22.808 0.377 2.246 14.412 27.255
CL15 28.122 0.666 5.012 25.587 36.796

Table 7
Steel fiber amount for each concrete mixture at the fracture section.

Specimen Measured Specimen Measured Specimen Measured Specimen Measured

S05 90 H05 27 CM05 9 CS15 36
S10 201 H10 69 CM10 19 CL15 22
S15 297 H15 89 CM15 29
S20 424 H20 119 CM20 42

the main cracks that is approximately ten times more than that of
corrugated fiber.
The effects of fiber volume fraction and aspect ratio on the load-
deflection behavior of SFRC with different fiber types are shown in
Fig. 3. It can be seen that SFRC behaves a better flexural behavior
than that of plain concrete, for which, the load has a very sharp
drop to zero when the specimen generates the initial crack. While
the load-deflection curve of SFRC owns a relative short deflection-
hardening branch and an obvious deflection-softening branch.
Moreover, the fiber volume fraction has a significant influence on
the post-cracking behavior of SFRC, but a little effect on the pre-
cracking responses of the curves. The peak load, deflection and
post-peak ductility as well as the area under the load-deflection
curve all increase with increasing fiber volume fraction for the
three fiber types. It is noted from Fig. 3d that the peak load and
deflection of SFRC increase slowly with the increase of fiber aspect
ratio. This is mainly owing to the load carrying capacity of steel
fiber at the main cracks, which is a function of the fiber aspect ratio
and the amount at the fracture section. It can be found from Table 7
that the load carrying capacity of steel fiber increases slowly with
increasing fiber aspect ratio, which induces the insignificant
increase in the peak load and deflection of SFRC.
3.2. Toughness
Toughness is a useful parameter to evaluate the energy absorp-
tion capacity of materials and structures subjected to seismic,
explosive, impact and blast loads. The flexural toughness is defined
as the area up to a certain deflection under the load-deflection
curve. In this study, three kinds of toughness are defined according
to the Code ASTM C1609/C1609M-2012 [44], i.e. XL/600, defined as
the area up to the deflection L/600, XL/300, defined as the area up to
the deflection L/300, XL/150, defined as the area up to the deflection
L/150. The calculated toughness from averaging a group of three is
listed in Table 6.
The effects of fiber volume fraction and fiber type on the tough-
ness, XL/600, XL/300 and XL/150 is shown in Fig. 4. It can be observed
that the toughness for all the three fiber types increases with
increasing fiber volume fraction, especially for XL/300 and XL/150.
The toughness, XL/600, just has a little fluctuation for all the three
types of steel fibers at the volume fraction of 0.5%. It can also be
interpreted that when the fiber volume fraction is low, the effect
of steel fiber on the pre-cracking branch is insignificant. The pre-
cracking properties of SFRC are mainly affected by the tensile prop-
erties of concrete matrix, such as concrete strength grade, physical
compositions, additional mixtures, etc. While with increasing fiber
volume fraction, the crack arresting and resistant capacities of steel
fiber become strong enough to restraint the crack generation and
propagation, and therefore, the influence of fiber volume fraction
on the toughness XL/600 is remarkable for high fiber volume frac-
tions. Moreover, the toughness XL/600 of hooked-end SFRC is the
largest and the straight SFRC shows the lowest value when the
fiber volume fraction is over 1.0%. The reason for that can also be
accounted for the mechanical interlocks created by deformed
waves of hooked-end fiber. The same variable trend is also found
for the toughness XL/300 and XL/150. The results also indicate that
the straight SFRC has better deflection and energy absorption
capacities than the corrugated ones when the fiber volume fraction
is low due to the very large amount of straight fiber added into the
concrete matrix when compared to the corrugated fiber. However,
when the fiber volume fraction is over 1.0%, the flexural perfor-
mance of corrugated SFRC is better than that of the straight one
accounted for the mechanical interlocks of corrugated fibers.
What’s more, it also should be noted that the flexural toughness
of straight and corrugated SFRC has a small difference. In addition,
it can be seen from Fig. 4d that all the three toughness have a small
increase with increasing fiber aspect ratio.
4. AE behavior
AE phenomenon is the elastic wave induced by micro-cracks’
formation and propagation in a material. AE technique is one of
the useful method for the investigation of local damage. The
related AE behavior can be used to qualitatively character the dam-
age process inside a concrete specimen [29]. The usually used AE
480 B. Li et al. / Construction and Building Materials 181 (2018) 474–486

(a) 10 (b) 60
Straight Straight

Toughness, ΩL/300 (Joule)

Hooked-end 50 Hooked-end
Toughness, ΩL/600 (Joule) 8
Corrugated Corrugated
40
6
30
4
20

2
10

0 0
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
Fiber volume fraction (%) Fiber volume fraction (%)

(c) 100 (d) 50

Straight Ω
OδL/600
Toughness, ΩL/150 (Joule)

Hooked-end 40 Ω
Oδ
80 L/300
Corrugated
Ω
OδL/150

Toughness (Joule)
60 30

40 20

20 10

0 0
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 40 60 80
Fiber volume fraction (%) Fiber aspect ratio
Fig. 4. Effects of fiber type, volume fraction and aspect ratio on the toughness of SFRC. (a) Toughness, XL/600; (b) Toughness, XL/300; (c) Toughness, XL/150; (d) Toughness.

parameters are AE hits, events, counts, rise time (RT), duration time matic diagram of crack classification method based on AF and RA
(DT), amplitude (A), average frequency (AF), and rise angle (RA) value is shown in Fig. 5b.
value etc., which are all defined in Fig. 5a. Besides, AE crack source location is an advanced technique to
Moreover, the failure of concrete is determined by two kinds of precisely capture the crack formation and distinguish the crack
cracks, i.e. tensile crack and shear crack. Results from Refs. [29– mode of concrete, and has been widely used in the field of civil
35,45,46] showed that AE parameters such as AF and RA value engineering [47,48]. During the formation of a crack, energy is
can be used in the crack classification of concrete. The signal char- emitted as an elastic wave from the crack location to the AE trans-
acteristic of tensile and shear cracks is shown in Fig. 5a. The sche- ducers at the surfaces of a specimen. The localization map of AE

(a) Rise time, RT Low average frequency, AF (b)

& high RA value
Aamplitude, A

Rise angle, RA
Tensile cracks
Treshhold
Average frequency

Treshhold crossings
(counts)
RA=RT/A
Shear Mode
Duration AF=Counts/Duration

High average frequency, AF Shear cracks

& low RA value
RA
A
Treshhold

RA value
Tensile Mode

Fig. 5. (a) Parameters’ definition with AE hits and counts. (b) Typical crack classification.
 B. Li et al. / Construction and Building Materials 181 (2018) 474–486 481

events is based on arrival times of the first wave at each sensor and
their respective velocity in specimen. Once the arrival time is
picked, a least-square method is used to estimate the event loca-
tion [48].
4.1. Crack development
The typical cracking process of SFRC beam with hooked-end
fibers at the volume fraction of 1.5% is schematically shown in
Fig. 6. For the specified SFRC, the first crack occurs at about 200
s, and reaches the peak load at about 400 s. Around the time of
1000 s, the load-deflection curve is convex to the deflection axis.
When the loading time reaches 1600 s, the load-deflection is
stable, with only the main crack propagating slowly. The schematic
of the four key points is included in Fig. 6. The experimental obser-
vation and AE source location results for each loading time at 200 s,
400 s, 1000 s and 1600 s are plotted in Fig. 7.
It can be seen from Fig. 7 that the width of the crack and the AE
source location points increase with increasing loading time. The
cracks incessantly change their orientations during the loading
process, and tiny derivative cracks from the main cracks are
observed. Due to the fiber crack bridging effect, the main cracks
are not smooth. When the main crack propagates up to the top sur-
Load (kN)
Micro cracking
B Many fiber pull-out
P400s and sliding events
A cracks are formed. After the peak load (point B), the RA value
P200s
Fiber sliding
Matrix cracking
Few fiber sliding C and pull-out events
P1000s
D
Fiber pull-out events
P1600s
0 200s 400s 1000s 1600s
Fig. 6. Schematic diagram of key points of the loading process.
face of the beam, the specimen loses its load carrying capacity,
showing a very low residual load. The finding from the experimen-
tal observations is verified by AE location results at the meso-scale.
It is also noted from Fig. 7 that during the loading process, mainly
the main crack propagates, with AE location points nucleated at
the main crack region. While around the main crack, the propaga-
tion of the micro-cracks is very slight, with only few AE location
points freshly generated.
Moreover, in an attempt to analyze the mechanism of fiber
effect, the RA value (ms/V) and average frequency (AF, kHz) during
the loading process are plotted in Fig. 8. Each value in the curve is
averaged by the values of one hundred points. At each key point,
the AE parameters are also included in Fig. 8. It can be observed
that AF and RA values vary notably during the loading process.
Before the time of 203 s (point A), low RA value and high AF AE sig-
nals are observed, which indicates that the AE signal sources are
mainly tensile cracks caused by the matrix cracking. When the
time reaches at 203 s, the RA value has a sharp increase and after
that, the value is higher than that before the time of 203 s. Mean-
while, the AF has a sharp drop at this point. The phenomenon
reveals that the fiber sliding occurs after the matrix cracking.
When at the interval between point A and B, the RA value almost
remains the same, while the AF owns a high value, which means
that the AE signal sources are also tensile cracks, however, except
for the matrix cracking, the split cracks induced by the deformed
steel fibers are also contributed to the signal amount. At the time
of about 400 s, a sharp increase in the AR value and a remarkable
decrease in the AF can be seen, which demonstrates that more steel
fibers are pulled out from the concrete matrix and thus more shear
increases and the AF decreases simultaneously. When the time
reaches at about 1000 s, the RA value is high and AF is low, with
more shear cracks generated due to fiber pullout and fiber sliding.
After that, the RA value and AF almost remain a constant level. The
fiber pull-out and sliding are the main contributors to the AE sig-
nals. While at the time of 1600 s, the fiber pullout and sliding
events decrease due to a great deal of steel fibers are completely
pulled out from the concrete matrix. Based on the above analysis,
Time (s) it can be concluded that AE technique can well characterize the
fracture or cracking process of SFRC under bending at the meso-
scale.

Time: 200s
Load: 23.382kN

Time: 400s
Load: 35.826kN

Time: 1000s
Load: 25.238kN

Time: 1600s
Load: 17.202kN

Fig. 7. Failure process of SFRC under bending based on AE location and macro observation results.
482 B. Li et al. / Construction and Building Materials 181 (2018) 474–486

10 250 10 250
RA value 1.5 160 RA value
AF
AF
8 200
A B C D 8 200

RA value (ms/V)
RA value (ms/V)

6 150 6 150

AF (kHz)
AF (kHz)
4 100 4 100
1.2 150
2 50

RA value (ms/V)
2 50

0 0
Drop 0
990 995 1000 1005 1010
0

AF (kHz)
190 195 200 205 210 215
Time (s) Time (s)
0.9 140
Point A Point C
10 250 10 250
RA value RA value
AF AF
8 200 8 200

0.6 130

RA value (ms/V)
RA value (ms/V)

6 150 Increase 6 150

AF (kHz)
AF (kHz)

4 100 4 100

2 50 A B C D 2 50

0 0
0.3 120 0 0
390 395 400 405 410
0 500 1000 1500 2000 1590 1595 1600 1605 1610

Time (s) Time (s)

Point B Time (s) Point D

Fig. 8. RA value and AF of SFRC during the loading process.

4.2. AE activity the meanwhile, the matrix cracking plays the most important role.
While for SFRC, expect for the AE signal sources being the same to
The typical relation between AE events and load level of SFRC is plain concrete, fiber sliding and pull-out responses are contributed
shown in Fig. 9. The relation of the cumulative AE events versus to the AE phenomenon [30]. Especially after the peak load, the fiber
loading time is also plotted. It can be seen that the AE activity pull-out and sliding events occupy a very large percentage of the
has a very slow emission rate before the formation of the first total AE activities. When compared with the two figures in Fig. 9,
crack. At this interval, only few AE signals are captured by the AE the maximum amount of AE events of SFRC is about 1200, while
sensors. It can be interpreted that at this stage, the specimen still that of plain concrete is only 70. The total AE events of SFRC are
remains elastic, and micro-cracks have no fresh appearance and about 100 times more than those of plain concrete, which can be
propagation with increasing external loads. While it has a sharp owing to the corrugated fiber pull-out and sliding, and on the other
increase when the load across the first crack load, with a large hand, due to the deformed waves on the fibers, multiple and
amount of AE events produced. At this moment, macro cracks are smeared cracks are formed which cause more signals. In addition,
formed in concrete specimen. The AE events increase quickly when due to the brittle failure behavior of plain concrete, the emitting
the load increases from the first crack load to the peak load. More- time of AE signals is much less than that of SFRC.
over, the increased load speeds up the emission of AE signals and Fig. 10 illustrates the total AE events of concrete specimens, and
the growth of cracks. After the peak load, the AE events increase it can be found that the total AE events are proportional to the fiber
at a slow rate, reaching at a stable status. At this stage, the main volume fraction. The similar observations are reported in other lit-
crack of the beam has been formed, and the AE signals are just erature [36,37]. In addition, it can be seen from Fig. 10b that the
caused by the micro-cracks caused by the propagation of the main total AE events increase with increasing fiber aspect ratio. It is
crack. attributed that a longer fiber has a longer sliding and pullout path,
Fig. 9a shows the load and AE history of plain concrete. It can be which induces a larger amount of AE signals. Particularly for
found that after the peak load, the load decreases sharply to zero, deformed fibers, the mechanical interlocks induced by the corru-
with very few AE signals emitted. While for SFRC with 1.5% corru- gated waves cause split cracks, which further induce more AE sig-
gated fibers (see in Fig. 9b), AE signals emit suddenly at the peak nals [17,46], as shown in Fig. 11.
load. The phenomenon is attributed that, for plain concrete, the The effect of fiber type on the cumulative AE events of SFRC for
AE signals are mainly induced by the matrix cracking, debonding various fiber volume fractions is shown in Fig. 12. It can be seen
between aggregate and matrix, and aggregate shear fracturing, in that the hooked-end SFRC owns the largest total AE events for all

(a) 20 80 200 (b) 30 1600 25000

Load Load
AE events 25 AE events
Cumulative AE events

20000
Cumulative AE events

15 Cumulative AE events 60 150 Cumulative AE events 1200

20
AE events

AE events
Load (kN)

Plain concrete
Load (kN)

15000
10 40 100 15 800
10000
10
5 20 400
50 5000
5

0 0 0
0 0 0 0 300 600 900 1200 1500
0 50 100 150 200 250
Time (s) Time (s)

Fig. 9. Load and AE history for specimen with: (a) 0% fiber and (b) 1.5% corrugated steel fiber.
 B. Li et al. / Construction and Building Materials 181 (2018) 474–486 483

(a)20000 (b)9000
Straight Corrugated steel fiber
Hooked-end
8000 with volume fraction of 1.5%
15000 Corrugated
Total events

Total events
7000
10000
6000

5000
5000

0 4000
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 40 60 80
Fiver volume fraction (%) Fiber aspect ratio
Fig. 10. Total events of SFRC with varying fiber parameters. (a) Effect of fiber volume fraction. (b) Effect of fiber aspect ratio.

Fiber debonding Crack face

(a) (b) Side view
and pullout mechanism
Micro-cracks in paste and
Micro-cracks in paste Debonding Tensile load
interfacial transition zone F
and friction direction
between aggregate and paste

Crack face
separation Deformed fiber
Potential micro
split cracking

Front view

Split cracking

Aggregates
Deformed fiber
Corrugated fiber
Straight fiber
Hooked-end fiber

Fig. 11. (a) Illustration of fiber debonding and pullout mechanism; (b) Mechanism of matrix micro split cracking through deformed fibers.

(a) 20000 (b)20000 Straight

Straight Fiber volume fraction Fiber volume fraction
Hooked-end Hooked-end
of 0.5% Corrugated
of 1.0%
15000 Corrugated 15000
Cumulative AE event

Cumulative AE events

10000 10000

5000 5000

0 0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 0 500 1000 1500 2000
Time (s) Time (s)

(c) 20000 (d)20000 Straight

Straight Fiber volume fraction Fiber volume fraction
Hooked-end Hooked-end
of 1.5% of 2.0%
Cumulative AE events

15000 Corrugated 15000 Corrugated

Cumulative AE events

10000 10000

5000 5000

0 0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 0 500 1000 1500 2000
Time (s) Time (s)

Fig. 12. Cumulative AE events of SFRC. (a) 0.5%; (b) 1.0%; (c) 1.5%; (d) 2.0%.
484 B. Li et al. / Construction and Building Materials 181 (2018) 474–486

the four fiber volume fractions. When the fiber volume fraction is
low, i.e. 0.5% and 1.0%, the cumulative AE events of straight SFRC
are larger than those of corrugated SFRC. However, when the fiber
volume fraction is over 1.0%, the straight SFRC shows the lowest
cumulative AE events. The observation is attributed that at the
low fiber volume fractions of 0.5% and 1.0%, the amount of straight
fibers is ten times more than that of corrugated fibers. The fiber
pullout and sliding events of straight fibers are higher than those
of corrugated fibers. However, when the fiber volume fraction is
large, a large amount of corrugated fibers sustain the load at cracks,
and at this moment, the mechanical interlocking acts as a very
important contributor to the production of AE activities. Therefore,
the total AE events of straight SFRC are larger first and then become
lower than those of corrugated SFRC as the fiber volume fraction
increases. In addition, due to the long fiber sliding and pullout path
and large fiber numbers at cracks, the effectiveness of hooked-end
fiber is stronger than that of corrugated fiber, which makes larger
total events of hooked-end SFRC.
It is interesting to be observed that when the fiber volume frac-
tion is 2.0%, the cumulative AE events of corrugated SFRC are
higher than those of the hooked-end ones. The possible reason
for that is the hooked-end fibers should own a large deformation
before they are sliding, while for corrugated fibers, because of
the twisted waves on the total body of fibers, they cause multiply
micro-cracks which produce many AE signals, as shown in Fig. 11.
However, with the increase of loading time, hooked-end fibers
start sliding and bridging cracks, and finally they are pulled out.
This process should induce many micro-cracks and emit a mass
of AE signals (see in Fig. 11). Therefore, the cumulative AE events
of hooked-end SFRC are higher than those of the corrugated one
when the load exceeds the peak load, as shown in Fig. 12d.
Fig. 14. Failure pattern of SFRC with varying fiber parameters.
4.3. Fracture mode

The effects of fiber volume fraction and aspect ratio on the crack those of plain concrete, and the points increase with increasing
classification of SFRC are shown in Fig. 13. The corresponding fiber volume fraction. For plain concrete, only few points (four
experimental observations of specimens are shown in Fig. 14. It points) distribute at the shear crack region. The failure of plain con-
can be seen that the scattering points of SFRC are much more than crete is just determined by tensile cracks, with an obvious brittle

(a) 500 (b) 500 (c) 500

400 400 400

300 Tensile crack 300 Tensile crack 300 Tensile crack

AF (kHz)

AF (kHz)

AF (kHz)

200 200 200 Shear crack

Shear crack Shear crack
100 100 100

0 0 0
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20
RA value (ms/V) RA value (ms/V) RA value (ms/V)

(d) 500 (e) 500 (f) 500

400 400 400

300 Tensile crack 300 Tensile crack 300 Tensile crack

AF (kHz)

AF (kHz)
AF (kHz)

200 Shear crack 200 200 Shear crack

Shear crack
100 100 100

0 0 0
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20
RA value (ms/V) RA value (ms/V) RA value (ms/V)

Fig. 13. Influence of fiber volume fraction and aspect ratio on the crack classification and AE source location results of corrugated SFRC. (a) 0% fiber; (b) 0.5% fiber (60); (c)
1.5% fiber (60); (d) 2.0% fiber (40); (e) 2.0% fiber (60); (f) 2.0% fiber (80).
 B. Li et al. / Construction and Building Materials 181 (2018) 474–486
(a) 500 (b) 500
400 400
300 Tensile crack 300
AF (kHz)
AF (kHz)
200
Shear crack 200
100 100
0 0
0 5 10 15 20
RA value (ms/ V)
Fig. 15. Influence of fiber type on the crack classification and AE source location results of SFRC with 1.5% fibers. (a) Straight fiber; (b) hooked-end fiber; (c) corrugated fiber.
failure mode. When the fiber volume fraction increases, shear
cracks in SFRC specimen induced by fiber sliding and pull-out
increase as well for the three fiber types. With respect to the effect
of fiber aspect ratio, it can be inferred from Fig. 13 that the scatter-
ing points increase with increasing fiber aspect ratio, as well as the
points distributed at the shear crack region. Moreover, the fracture
sections of plain concrete specimens are neat and smooth. While
for SFRC, the main cracks are not trim, and a mass of visible cracks
with small width exist at the main cracks. Due to the fiber crack
bridging effect, the further crack propagation is not alongside with
the initial crack orientation, and the cracks would change their ori-
entations or bifurcate into two or more cracks, as shown in Fig. 14.
In addition, no distinct difference in the failure mode of specimens
with different fiber aspect ratios is observed, as illustrated in
Fig. 14.
The typical AE source location results of SFRC with different
fiber volume fractions are also shown in Fig. 13. Each plotted point
(in red) indicates a detected AE source. It can be seen that the AE
source location points increase with increasing fiber volume frac-
tion. For plain concrete, only few points are observed, which indi-
cates the cracks do not propagate with increasing axial loading
displacement. While for SFRC, due to the effect of fibers, the cracks
have a complete propagation, which induces more AE events. In
addition, it can also be seen that the AE events mainly occur at
the main cracks, with a large amount of location points nucleated,
and only few points distribute around the main cracks. From the
above analysis, it can be concluded that the determination of the
failure mode of concrete specimens transfers from tensile cracks
to shear cracks with increasing fiber volume fraction. With respect
to the effect of fiber aspect ratio, the amount of location points has
a small increase with increasing fiber aspect ratio (see in Fig. 13).
Fig. 15 shows the effect of steel fiber type on the crack classifi-
cation and AE source location results of SFRC with 1.5% fibers. It is
noted that the amounts of scattering points and shear cracks of
hooked-end SFRC are the largest, while those of straight SFRC are
the smallest. Results from Fig. 14 indicate that the widths and
lengths at the vertical direction of cracks in hooked-end SFRC spec-
imen are the smallest. Moreover, the lengths of the main cracks at
the vertical direction in corrugated SFRC specimen are smaller than
those of straight SFRC specimen at high fiber volume fractions.
What’s more, the main cracks of hooked-end SFRC specimen are
saw-toothed and the crack tips are thinner than those of the
straight one. In addition, it can also found that the location points
of hooked-end SFRC are more than those of corrugated SFRC, and
then much more than those of straight SFRC.
5. Conclusions
From the present research study, the main following conclu-
sions can be summarized:
485
(c) 500
400
Tensile crack 300 Tensile crack
AF (kHz)
Shear crack 200 Shear crack
100
0
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20
RA value (ms/V) RA value (ms/V)
(1) Flexural performance, which includes flexural strength,
deflection capacity and toughness, of SFRC is improved with
an increase in fiber volume fraction and aspect ratio.
Hooked-end SFRC owns the best flexural behavior. Com-
pared to plain concrete, the ultimate flexural strengths of
specimens are maximally improved by 74.29%, 165.07%
and 112.65% for straight, hooked-end and corrugated fibers,
respectively. When at low fiber volume fractions, the flexu-
ral strengths and toughness of corrugated SFRC are slightly
lower than that of straight fibers, but they increase and
exceed for high fiber volume fractions.
(2) The AE parameters correlated with the damage of specimen
changing with the loading time can be used to characterize
the fracture process of concrete. A small load drop and initial
AE signals mainly induced by matrix cracking occur at the
formation of the first crack. A rapid damage evolution at
the peak load can be observed, with a large amount of AE
signals with high RA value detected owing to fiber sliding
and pullout.
(3) The total AE events, shear cracks and source location points
mainly induced by fiber pull-out and sliding increase with
the increase of fiber volume fraction and aspect ratio. In
most cases, hooked-end SFRC with sufficient crack propaga-
tion has the largest amount of AE events and shear cracks
due to the large amount of fibers sustaining the load at
cracks and the good bond performance between hook-end
steel fiber and concrete matrix. Moreover, the fracture mode
of specimen changes from tensile to shear with increasing
fiber volume fraction, and hooked-end SFRC exhibits the
best cracking behavior for the four fiber volume fractions.
Conflict of interest
The authors declared that there is no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by the Chinese National Natural
Science Foundations (Grant No. 51478367 and Grant No.
51608397). The support is gratefully acknowledged.
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