Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 754-755 (2015) pp 373-377 Submitted: 06.01.

2015
© (2015) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland Accepted: 06.01.2015
doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.754-755.373

The Effect Of Steel Fiber As Additional Reinforcement In The Reinforced

Concrete Beam

Mustaqqim Abdul Rahim1a, 3a, Zuhayr Md Ghazaly1b, 3b,

Muhammad Azizi Azizan 2a, Fazdliel Aswad Ibrahim 2b,
Norlia Mohamad Ibrahim1c, 3c, Nur Izzati Mahmud1d
1
Department of Civil Engineering, School of Environmental Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis,
02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia.
2
Department of Civil Engineering Technology, Faculty of Engineering Technology, Universiti
Malaysia Perlis, 02100 Padang Besar, Perlis, Malaysia.
3
Center of Excellence Geopolymer and Green Technology (CEGeoGtech), School of Materials
Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) P.O. Box 77, D/A Pejabat Pos Besar 01000,
Kangar, Perlis, Malaysia.
1, a
mustaqqim@unimap.edu.my, 1, b zuhayr@unimap.edu.my, 2, aaziziazizan@unimap.edu.my
2, b
fazdliel@unimap.edu.my 1,cnorlia@unimap.edu.my 1, d nurizzati_mahmud@yahoo.com

Keywords: Steel fiber, Beam, Steel Fiber Reinforce Concrete, Flexural strength, Deflection

Abstarct. Steel fiber reinforced concrete has been increasingly used in structural applications
during the last four decades. It is generally accepted that addition of steel fibers significantly
increases tensile toughness and ductility, also slightly enhances the flexural strength. Effects of steel
fibers as addition reinforcement in reinforced concrete (RC) beams are the main objectives of this
study. The hooked-end steel fibers with the dimensions of 0.75 mm in diameter, 33 mm in length
and with the aspect ratio of 44 were used in this study. Initially the optimum percentage addition of
steel fibers in concrete was determined. In order to accomplish this task, eighteen concrete beams
with the same mix proportioning of concrete and different volume fractions of steel fiber (0.5 % and
0.75%) were prepared. Then, by determining the flexural strength and deflection of samples, it was
concluded that the optimum volume fraction was 0.50 % (0.44 kg). In the next step,the flexural
behavior and deflection of RC beams with the addition of steel fibers in concrete was considered.
The study was conducted on two types of beam which is beam with 5 links and no steel fibers as a
contol beam and the other one was beam with 4 links and 0.50% and 0.75% volume of steel fibers.
The overall dimensions of the beams were 150 mm in height, 150 mm in width, and 500 mm in
length. The beams were tested under four-point loading test. The results showed that addition of
steel fibers increases the cracking load, load, stiffness and ductility of the concrete beams.

INTRODUCTION
In the normal practice in the reinforced concrete design, the main reinforcement steel bar
and links was used to fabricate the concrete structure. However new materials such as steel fiber has
been introduced as the reinforcement to the reinforced concrete structure [1]. Nowadays, the
application of fiber in concrete increase slightly as an engineering material demands. Fibers have
distinctive of geometry, size and material. The characteristics and properties of fiber influence the
properties concrete. Steel, glass and synthetic fibers were used in concrete in 1960s because of the
difficulty to handle the asbestos fiber [2].
The utilization of fibers has increased gradually since the early 1950’s when waste steel
material was added to concrete [3]. Steel fibers are initially used to control and also prevent drying
shrinkage and plastic while in the concrete.The addition of steel fibers significantly improves many
of the engineering properties of mortar and concrete, notably impact strength and toughness.
Tensile strength, flexural strength, fatigue strength and ability to spalling are also enhanced [4]. The
amount of steel fiber used effect strength of the beams, which the flexural strength is increased

All rights reserved. No part of contents of this paper may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of TTP,
www.ttp.net. (ID: 58.27.57.107-10/02/15,05:15:22)
374 Advanced Materials Engineering and Technology III

constantly with the increment of steel fiber [5]. The fiber reinforced concretes are classified into
three groups based on the fiber volume friction and fiber effectiveness. The groups are very low
volume (< 1% fiber volume), moderate volume (1-2 % fiber volume) and high volume (>3% fiber
volume) [6].
The objectives of the research are to evaluate the flexural behavior, mode of failure and
deflection of steel fiber reinforced concrete and reinforce concrete beam. To be more details, two
different steel fiber volumes 0.5% and 0.75% will be tested and compared with control specimen
without steel fiber.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Type of steel fiber used in this research was hooked end steel fiber with the 0.75 mm diameter and
33 mm length. Percentage of steel fiber use in this project was 0.5% and 0.75%. The overall
dimensions of the beam are 150 mm width, 150 mm height and 500 mm length. The size of main
reinforcement used in the concrete beam was 10 mm (high yield steel). The link reinforcement was
6 mm diameter (mild steel). Nominal concrete cover is 20 mm because of the limitation of available
clear spacing. Cement, coarse aggregate, fine aggregate and water were mixed together in mixer
with using volume ration 1:2:4 to obtain the concrete paste. Once finished the entire test, the
concrete mixture were filled in the plywood beam. Next, the specimens were left for 24 hour for
drying process and curing process were done for 7 days and 28 days in water curing tank [7]. Test
for determination of fresh concrete were carried out by slump test [8], vebe time test [9] and
compaction test [10] while for hard concrete were flexural strength test [11].

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Flexural Strength

From Figure 1, it is shown that the result of flexural strength test for 7 and 28 days. The result was
showing according to the percentage of steel fiber in the concrete. From the graph also illustrated
that either the percentage of steel fiber influenced the flexural strength or not. The graph was
gradually decreased due to the different percentage of steel fiber. It was because at the 7th curing,
maturity level is weak compared to 28th days curing because at the 28th curing the concrete had
reached the level of maturity. While for 28 days, the result were gradually upward but declined
sharply for 0.75% steel fibers. . In the other word, with addition of steel fibers more than 0.5%, the
flexural strength of concrete started to decrease. Furthermore, it can be seen that the most increase
in flexural strength of concrete happened by addition of 0.50% volume of steel fibers. It is because
the excessive of steel fibers makes the possibility of honeycomb occurred as a result water cannot
penetrate into specimens wisely and thus affects the strength of concrete.

6 5,773
Flexural strength (Mpa)

5,8 5,646
5,6
5,338
5,4
5,2 5,097
4,946
5 4,829 7 days
4,8
4,6 28 days
4,4
4,2
0% 0,50% 0,75%
Samples (Percent of Steel Fiber)

Figure 1: The result 7th and 28th days of flexural strength test
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 754-755 375

Load-Deflection

Graph load versus deflection for all beams for 7 days curing were plotted and shown in
Figure 2. From the graph, it is starting from 0 kN to 200 kN. The load-deflection slope for each
beam was quite similar, in which the load increased proportionally with deflection. The deflection
of the beam with 5 link and no steel fibers was much higher than other beams with the value 8.609
mm at 200kN. From the time curing which is 7 days, the beam was still not reached maturity of
concrete. Therefore, the value was not as accurate as beam with curing for 28 days. While the right
graph was Graph load versus deflection for all beams for 28 days.
The load-deflection slope for each beam was quite similar, in which the load increased
proportionally with deflection. From Figure 2, the deflection of the beam with 4 links and 0.50% of
steel fibers was much higher than other beams with the value 7.388 mm at 200 kN. This is because
it gained the highest of maximum flexural strength compared to others beam. The more load that
applied, the more value of deflection that obtain. Meanwhile, the lowest deflection was beam with 4
links contained 0.75% steel fibers with the 4.692 mm at 200 kN. This is because the beam has too
many steel fibers, so that the concrete cannot bond very well each other. Therefore, the pressure
was only able to charge a small load on the beam.
This could indicate beam with 4 link and 0.50% steel fibers have a better structural
characteristic compared with other beams. The area under the load-deflection graph displays the
ductility of the beams. It can be seen that the area under the beams that contains steel fibers was
more than the beams with concrete without steel fibers. So, Steel fiber reinforcedconcrete beams
have more ductile behavior than RC beams. Although the addition of steel fibers increased which is
0.75% but the deflection at was less than normal concrete beams. Consequently, it can be said that
the addition of steel fiber improve the structural behavior of concrete. The reason can be due to
effects of steel fibers and good bonding among steel fibers with the surrounding concrete which will
act as confinement to the concrete.

Figure 2: The result 7th and 28th days Load versus Deflection Graph
376 Advanced Materials Engineering and Technology III

Mode of Failures

Figure 3 shows the same mode of failure. As aware, the cracks resulting from external loads,
cracks can also result from restrained volume change. When concrete dries, it shrinks. Tensile
stresses develop if the shrinkage was restrained. Cracks develop if stresses exceed the tensile
strength of the concrete. Restraint can be provided by connection to other elements which do not
undergo the same amount of shrinkage, or it can arise because of non-uniform drying throughout
the member. The mode of cracking occurred during failure condition was diagonal cracking. The
cracks also occurred at the flexural tension area and almost propagate to the compression area. This
is because when steel fibers placed in the beam, while in the vibration process the steel fiber does
not distribute uniformly throughout specimens.
The cracking in all figures are happened at the pure moment zone area, which is the area
between the support conditions during the flexural strength test. The cracking occurred at randomly
location in the weaken part of the beams within the area due to the fact of the steel fiber was placed
randomly in the mould. As the load increased steadily, the cracks propagate upwards. In
comparison to the control beam, it is shows the beam with 0.50% steel fiber with 4 links had
significantly less slightly cracked surface than beam with 0.75% steel fiber with 4 links and control
beam which is no steel fiber and have 5 links. Therefore, it can be concluded that the beams with
steel fibers have more ductility compared to the beams without having steel fibers. For that reason,
it can be concluded that the addition of 0.50% by volume of steel fibers in beams improves the
number of cracks and decreases the average crack width due to the higher ductility behavior
concrete beams.

Figure 3: Beam with 5 links and 0% steel fiber and beam with 4 links and 0.5% and 0.75% steel
fiber

CONCLUSION

This study shows the effect of steel fibers as addition reinforcement in reinforced concrete beam. As
conclusion from this study, it can be conclude that the optimum addition of hooked-end shape steel
fibers in concrete is 0.5% and below volume friction. Addition of 0.5% by volume of steel fibers in
the reinforced concrete beam increases both the flexural strength and deflection and leads to an
appreciable increase in their ductility and stiffess compared to those conventional reinforced
concrete beams without addition of steel fibers.
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 754-755 377

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author wish to acknowledge the support from School of Enviromental Engineering, University
Malaysia Perlis and Center of Excellence Geopolymer & Green Technology (CEGeoGTech),
School of Materials Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Malaysia.

REFERENCES

[1] Mustaqqim A.R et.al, 2014, The Behaviours Of Steel Fiber As Main Reinfocement In High
Performance Slurry Infiltrated Fiber Reinforced Concerete, Key Engineering Materials Vols.
594-595 pp 34-38.
[2] Abdonasrah M.N., 2011. Toughness of Concrete Reinforced with Recycled Tire Steel fiber,
MSc Thesis, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.
[3] ACI Committee 544.1R, (1996) Fibre reinforced concrete, American concrete institute,
Michigan, USA.
[4] H. Chenkui, Z. Guofan, Properties of steel fibre reinforced concrete containing larger coarse
aggregate, Cement and Concrete Composites 17 (1995) 199–206.
[5] Mustaqqim A.R et.al, 2013, Flexural Behaviour Of High Performance Slurry Infiltrated Fiber
Reinforced Concerete With Different Curing Method. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied
Sciences, 7(4): 184-188
[6] Mon, T.K. 2010. Flexural Behavior of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete Slab, MSc Thesis,
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.
[7] British Standard, BS 1881 Park 112:1983 – Method for curing concrete
[8] British Standard, BS1881: Part 102:1983 – Method for determination of slump test
[9] British Standard, BS 1881: Part 104: 1983 – Method for Determination of Vebe Time
[10] British Standard, BS 1191:1983 – Method for determination Compaction test
[11] British Standard, 1983, BS 1881- Part 118, Method the determination of flexural strength of
test specimens of hardened concrete by moment in the centre zone using two point loading.