Behavior of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete with M40 Grade Mix Design

Abstract

Concrete is the world’s most versatile, durable and very reliable material. Concrete is probably the most extensively used construction material in the world. Plain, unreinforced concrete is a brittle material, with low tensile strength and a low strain capacity. Fibre reinforced concrete (FRC) is a composite material made with Portland cement, aggregate and incorporating more or less randomly distributed discrete discontinuous fibres. . Round fibres are the most common type and their diameter ranges from 0.25 to 0.75 mm. Rectangular steel fibres are usually 0.25mm thick, although 0.3 to 0.5mm wires have been used in India. Deformed fibres in the form of a bundle are also used. The main advantage of deformed fibres is their ability to distribute uniformly within the matrix. The experimental program consists of casting and testing of 20 cubes of each for M40, in which 12 cubes would be cast with steel fibre and the remaining eight without steel fibres. The cubes proposed for tests would be of size 0.15m x 0.15m x 0.15m (length x width x depth). The fibre reinforced concrete cubes would contain steel fibres with a volume fraction (Vf) of 0.1%, 0.25%, 0.35%, and 0.45% of the volume of the cubes. The results would be statically analyzed and interpretation of the results would be carried out to arrive at the optimum quantity of steel fibres required to achieve the maximum flexural strength for M40 grade concrete.