Fiber reinforced Concrete

What is Fiber?
• Fiber is a small piece of reinforcing material which increases structural integrity.

• Aspect ratio:- 30 to 150

Why Fiber ?

• Concrete:

o Weak in tension

o Brittle (The amount of inelastic strain that can occur before failure is a measure of

the ductility of the material.)

o little resistance to cracking.

• Main role of fibers is to bridge the cracks that develop in
concrete and increase the ductility of concrete elements.

• There is considerable improvement in the post-cracking

behavior of concrete containing fibers due to both plastic
shrinkage and drying shrinkage.

• They also reduce the permeability of concrete and thus reduce

bleeding of water.

• Some types of fibers produce greater abrasion and shatter

resistance in concrete.

• Imparts more resistance to Impact load.

 Micro-cracks in concrete
• Micro-cracks in concrete are formed due to its
hardening stage.
• Micro-cracks are present in concrete and because of
its poor tensile strength, the crack propagate with
the application of load, leading to brittle fracture of
concrete.
 What is fiber reinforced concrete

• Concrete containing cement, water, aggregate,

and discontinuous, uniformly dispersed or
discrete fibers is called fiber reinforced
concrete.
• It is a composite obtained by adding a single
type or a blend of fibers to the conventional
concrete mix.
• Fibers can be in form of steel fibers, glass
fibers, natural fibers , synthetic fibers, etc.
 Types of Fibers
• Steel fibres
• Polypropylene fibres
• Nylons
• Asbestos
• Coir
• Glass
• carbon
 Steel Fibers
• Aspect ratios of 30 to 150.
• Diameters vary from 0.25 mm to 0.75 mm.
• High structural strength.
• Reduced crack widths and control the crack widths
tightly, thus improving durability.
• Improve impact and abrasion resistance.
• Used in precast and structural applications, highway
and airport pavements, refractory and canal linings,
industrial flooring, bridge decks, etc.
 A steel fiber content in excess of 2 per cent by volume and
an aspect ratio of more than 100 are difficult to mix. The
typical proportions for fiber reinforced concrete is given
below:
 
• Cement content 325 to 550 kg/m3

• W/C Ratio 0.4 to 0.6

• Percentage of sand to total aggregate 50 to 100 per cent

• Maximum Aggregate Size 10 mm

• Air-content 6 to 9 per cent

• Fiber content:0.5 to 2.5 per cent by volume of mix

• Steel —1 per cent 78 kg/m3

• Glass —1 per cent 25 kg/m3

• Nylon —1 per cent 11 kg/m3

 Glass fiber
• High tensile strength, 1020 to 4080 N/mm2
• Generally, fibers of length 25mm are used.
• Improvement in impact strength.
• Increased flexural strength, ductility and resistance
to thermal shock.
• Used in formwork, swimming pools, ducts and
roofs, sewer lining etc.
 Synthetic fibers

• Man- made fibers from petrochemical and textile

industries.
• Cheap and available.
• High chemical resistance.
• High melting point.
• Low modulus of elasticity.
• It’s types are acrylic, carbon, nylon, polyester,
polyethylene, polypropylene, etc.
 Natural Fibers
• Obtained at low cost and low level of energy using
local
• manpower and technology.
• Jute, coir and bamboo are examples.
• They may undergo organic decay.
• Low modulus of elasticity, high impact strength.
 Types

• High fibre volume micro-fibre systems

• Slurry infiltrated fibre Concrete (SIFCON)

 
• Compact reinforced composites

• Polymer concrete
 High fibre volume micro-fibre systems

• Micro-fibres are the fibres generally of size about 3

mm long and 5 to 25micron in cross-section.

• The specific surface of micro-fibres is more than 200

cm2/gram.

• High fibre volume micro-fibres cement composite

will be a very useful material for repair and
rehabilitation works.
 Slurry Infiltrated fibre Concrete
• Slurry infiltrated fibre concrete (SIFCON) was
invented by Lankard in 1979.

• Steel fibre bed is prepared and cement slurry is

infiltrated. With this techniques, macro-fibre
contents up to about 20% by volume can be
achieved.

• SIFCON can be used for blast resistant structures

and burglar proof safe vaults in banks and
residential buildings.
 Compact Reinforced Composites
• Compact Reinforced Composites (CRC) is a material
consisting of an extremely strong, dense cement matrix,
20-30% silica fume by weight of cement, 10-20% by
volume off conventional reinforcement and 5-10% of
fine fibres of 6 mm long and 0.15 mm diameter.

• While such a material is extremely expensive, it exhibits

a flexural strength up to 260 MPa and compressive
strength of about 200 MPa.

• Advantage is that it can be moulded and fabricated at

site.
 Mechanical Properties of FRC
• Compressive Strength
o The presence of fibers may alter the failure mode of cylinders, but
the fiber effect will be minor on the improvement of compressive
strength values (0 to 15 percent).
• Modulus of Elasticity
o Modulus of elasticity of FRC increases slightly with an increase in
the fibers content. It was found that for each 1 percent increase in
fiber content by volume, there is an increase of 3 percent in the
modulus of elasticity.
• Flexure
o The flexural strength was reported to be increased by 2.5 times
using 4 percent fibers.
• Splitting Tensile Strength
o The presence of 3 percent fiber by volume was reported
to increase the splitting tensile strength of mortar about
2.5 times that of the unreinforced one.
• Toughness
o For FRC, toughness is about 10 to 40 times that of plain
concrete.
• Fatigue Strength
o The addition of fibers increases fatigue strength of about
90 percent.
• Impact Resistance
o The impact strength for fibrous concrete is generally 5 to
10 times that of plain concrete depending on the volume
of fiber.
 Structural behaviour of FRC
• Flexure
o The use of fibers in reinforced concrete flexure members increases ductility,
tensile strength, moment capacity, and stiffness. The fibers improve crack
control and preserve post cracking structural integrity of members.

• Torsion
o The use of fibers eliminate the sudden failure characteristic of plain concrete
beams. It increases stiffness, torsional strength, ductility, rotational capacity,
and the number of cracks with less crack width.

• High Strength Concrete

o Fibers increases the ductility of high strength concrete. Fiber addition will
help in controlling cracks and deflections.
• Shear
o Addition of fibers increases shear capacity of
reinforced concrete beams up to 100 percent.
Addition of randomly distributed fibers
increases shear-friction strength and ultimate
strength.
 Factors affecting the Properties of FRC

• Volume of fibers
• Aspect ratio of fiber
• Orientation of fiber
• Relative fiber matrix stiffness
 Volume of fibers

• Volume of fibers: low volume fraction (less then

1%): Used in slabs and pavement that have large
exposed surface leading to shrinkage cracking

• Moderate volume fraction(between 1 and 2%):

Used in construction method such as shotcrete

• High volume fraction(greater then 2%): Used in

making high performance FRC
 Aspect Ratio of fiber

• It is defined as ratio of length of fiber to it’s

diameter (L/d).

• Increase in the aspect ratio up to 75, there is

increase in relative strength and toughness.

• Beyond 75 of aspect ratio, there is decrease in

strength and toughness.
Source: M.S Shetty
 Orientation of fibers

• Aligned in the direction of load

• Aligned in the direction perpendicular to load
• Randomly distribution of fibers

o It is observed that fibers aligned parallel to

applied load offered more tensile strength and
toughness than randomly distributed or
perpendicular fibers.
 Relative fiber matrix

• Fiber should be significantly stiffer than matrix

• Low modulus of fibers imparts more energy
absorption while high modulus of fibers
imparts strength and stiffness.
• Low modulus fibers e.g. nylon, polypropylene
• High modulus of elasticity e.g. steel, glass and
carbon fibers.
 Workability and compaction of concrete

• Usage of steel fibers, higher aspect ratio and

non-uniform distribution of fibers will reduce
workability
• Prolonged external vibration fails to compact
the concrete
• These properties can be improved by
increasing water/cement ratio or by using
water reducing admixtures
 Size of coarse aggregate and Mixing

• Restricted to 10mm
• Friction between fibers and between fibers and
aggregates controls orientation and distribution.
• Mixing of FRC needs careful precautions to avoid
balling effect and segregation
• Increase in aspect ratio, volume percentage and
size of coarse aggregate will increase the
difficulties.