Experimental study of the tensile and flexural mechanical properties of directionally distributed steel fibre-reinforced concrete

Abstract

Directionally distributed steel fibre-reinforced concrete has been proposed as a novel concrete because of its high tensile strength and crack resistance in specific directions. Based on the existing studies of the effect of the fibre direction on the mechanical properties of fibre-reinforced concrete, the authors in this paper performed further studies of the mechanical properties of directionally distributed steel fibre-reinforced concrete by conducting split tensile and bending tests. The split tensile strength of the directionally distributed fibre-reinforced concrete clearly exhibited anisotropy. The split tensile strength perpendicular to the fibre direction was much higher than that parallel to the fibre direction. The split tensile strength perpendicular to the fibre direction was almost twice the tensile strength of plain concrete. The flexural performance of directionally distributed fibre-reinforced concrete in the fibre direction significantly improved compared to that of randomly distributed fibre-reinforced concrete. Specifically, the flexural strength increased by as much as 97%. Gravity resulted in a deviation in the tensile properties of concrete prepared by manually and directionally placing fibres in a layered casting process. The test results can be utilised in subsequent concrete designs. The conclusions reached in this paper provide comprehensive mechanical design parameters for the application of directionally distributed fibre-reinforced concrete.