Fibers in Reinforced Concrete

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Fiber-reinforced concrete in precast concrete applications: Research leads to innovative products Nemkumar Banthia, Vivek Bindiganavile, John Jones, and Jeff Novak ■ This paper summarizes common ber types and their application in precast concrete. ■ The role of ber reinforcement in improving the mechanical properties and durability of cement-based systems is described. ■ Recent ndings illustrate the mechanisms that underlie the bene ts accruing from bers. iber-reinforced concrete (FRC) is a composite material made of hydraulic cement or cements; water; ne and coarse aggregate; and short, uniformly dispersed discontinuous bers. Fibers may be of steel, glass, polymeric materials, carbon, cellulose, and so forth, and their lengths vary from 3 to 64 mm (0.12 to 2.52 in.). The diameters may vary from a few μm to about 1 mm (0.04 in.). The sections may be round, oval, polygonal, triangular, crescent shaped, or even square depending on the manufacturing process and the raw material used. The two broad categories of bers are micro and macro. Micro bers have diameters or equivalent diameters less than 0.3 mm (0.012 in.), and macro bers have diameters or equivalent diameters greater than 0.3 mm. The equivalent diameter of a ber is the diameter of a round ber having the same cross-sectional area A as the ber in question, that is, 4A /π . Fibers may be used in concrete at volume fractions varying from 0.1% to 5%. The volume fraction is determined by both the ease of mixing and the application. For example, a low ber dosage in the range of 0.1% to 0.3% is often provided for control of secondary stresses arising from shrinkage and temperature change. At dosage rates above 0.3%, the mechanical response of FRC is substantially F PCI Journal | S u m m e r 2012 33 Figure 1. Description of the tensile stress-strain response of ber-reinforced concrete and its

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