Experimental Study and Failure Criterion Analysis of Rubber Fibre Reinforced Concrete under Biaxial Compression-Compression

In order to examine the biaxial compression-compression properties of rubber fibre reinforced concrete(RFRC),an experimental study on RFRC under different lateral compressive stresses was carried out by considering different rubber replacement rates and polypropylene fibre contents.The failure modes and mechanical property parameters of different RFRC working conditions were obtained from the experiment to explore the effects of rubber replacement rate and polypropylene fibre content on the biaxial compression-compression properties of RFRC.The following conclusions were drawn.Under the influence of lateral compressive stress,the biaxial compression-compression failure mode gradually developed from a columnar pattern to a flaky pattern,suggesting that the incorporation of rubber and polypropylene fibres into the concrete resulted in a significant change in the development of cracks.For different rubber replacement rates and polypropylene fibre contents,the vertical compressive stress exhibited the same developing trend under the influence of lateral compressive stress.Specifically,the lateral compressive stress imposed the minimum effect on the vertical compressive stress when the rubber replacement rate and polypropylene fibre content were 20%and 0.4%,respectively,and imposed the maximum effect when the rubber replacement rate and polypropylene fibre content were 20%and 0%,respectively.With the increase of rubber replacement rate,the vertical peak stress was significantly reduced,which implies that an appropriate amount of polypropylene fibres can increase the vertical peak stress to a certain extent.Then,the biaxial compression-compression mechanism of RFRC was analysed from the microscopic level by using scanning electron microscope(SEM).Meanwhile,based on Kupfer’s biaxial compression-compression failure criterion and the octahedral stress space,a biaxial compression-compression failure criterion for RFRC was proposed,which was proven to have good applicability.The research results of this study provide important theoretical basis for the engineering application and development of RFRC.

Glass Fibre Reinforced Concrete Rebound Optimization

Glass fibre reinforced concrete placement technique generates losses due to rebound effects of the already sprayed concrete particles.Rebounded concrete amount cause a significant difference between the initial mix design and emplaced mix compositions.Apart from the structural differences,it comes with a cost increase which was resulted by the splashed concrete amount.Many factors such as viscosity and quantity of mixes dominate this rebound amount in sprayed glass fibre reinforced concrete applications depending on production technologies and processes;however,this research focuses on the spray distance and the angle of the spray gun which mainly effects the rebound amount in glass fibre reinforced concrete production.This paper aims to understand the required angle and distance for glass fibre reinforced concrete mixes having on-site plastic viscosity values.Glass fibre reinforced mixtures were also modelled with a finite element method based software and,the analysis results were compared with production line results.Results of the analysis and on-site studies showed a decisive correlation between,discharge distance,discharge angle and the viscosity of the concrete.

Strength and Toughness of Steel Fibre Reinforced Reactive Powder Concrete Under Blast Loading

The blast resistance of structures used in buildings needs to be investigated due to the increased threat of a terrorist attack. The damage done by Composition B or Powergel to steel fibre reinforced reactive powder concrete （SFRPC） panels and ordinary reinforced concrete （RC） panels of equivalent static flexural strength is compared. A 0. 5 kg charge was detonated at a distance of 0. 1 m from the 1. 3 m × 1. 0 m × 0. 1 m （thick） panels, which were simply supported and spaning 1.3 m. Dynamic displacement measurements, high-speed video recording and visual examination of the panels for spall and breach were undertaken. The SFRPC panels withstood the bare charge blast better than the reinforced ordinary concrete panels. Neither type of panel was breached using a O. 5 kg charge, The RC panel exhibited more spalling when Composition B was used. Under successive Composition B loading conditions, the RC panel was breached. In comparison the SFRPC panel was not breached. Exposure to fragmenting charge loading conditions confirmed these performance differences between the SFRPC panel and the reinforced ordinary concrete panel.

Application of steel fibre reinforced sprayed concrete to a deep tunnel in weak rocks

Based on an engineering background of a deep tunneling in weak rocks, the numerical modeling is used to compare different support schemes of tunnel at great depth in this paper. Focused on the general behaviors of weak rocks at great depth, a tunneling scheme with rock bolting and steel fibre reinforced sprayed concrete is proposed. This scheme is practiced successfully at a deep tunnel in weak rocks in Coal Mine No 10 of Hebi Coal Mining Administration.

Flexural fatigue strength of steel fibrous concrete containing mixed steel fibres

This paper reports investigation conducted to study the fatigue performance of steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) containing fibres of mixed aspect ratio. An extensive experimental program was conducted in which 90 flexural fatigue tests were carried out at different stress levels on size 500 mm×100 mm×100 mm SFRC specimens respectively containing 1.0%, 1.5% and 2.0% volume fraction of fibres. About 36 static flexural tests were also conducted to determine the static flexural strength prior to fatigue testing. Each volume fraction of fibres incorporated corrugated mixed steel fibres of size 0.6 mm×2.0 mm×25 mm and 0.6 mm×2.0 mm×50 mm in ratio 50:50 by weight. The results are presented both as S-N relationships, with the maximum fatigue stress expressed as a percentage of the strength under static loading, and as relationships between actually applied fatigue stress and number of loading cycles to failure. Two-million-cycle fatigue strengths of SFRC containing different volume fractions of mixed fibres were obtained and compared with plain concrete.

Experimental study on behaviors of polypropylene fibrous concrete beams

Synthetic fibers made from nylon or polypropylene have gained application when loose and woven into geo textile form although no information on the matrix’s mechanical performance is obtained so that more understanding of their structural contribution to resist cracking can be determined. This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation to determine the performance characteristics of concrete reinforced with a polypropylene structural fiber. In this investigation “Fiber mesh” brand of fibers manufactured by SL Concrete System, Tennessee, USA and marketed by M/S Millennium Building System, Inc., Ban-galore, India are used. The lengths of the fibers used were 24 mm. Fiber dosages used were 0.9, 1.8, 2.7 kg/m3. A total of three mixtures, one for each fiber dosage were made. A standard slump cone test was conducted on the fresh concrete mix with and without fibers to determine the workability of the mix. The test program included the evaluation of hardened concrete properties such as compressive, split tensile, modulus of rupture and flexural strengths. The increase in compressive strength is about 36.25%, 26.20%, and 23.75% respectively that of plain concrete. This increase in strength was directly proportional to amount of fibers present in the mix. The increase in flexural strength for Mixes I^III is about 21%, 16.6%, and 23% respectively that of plain concrete specimens. An experimental investigation was also made to study the behaviors of reinforced fibers concrete beams (with longitudinal reinforcements) under two-point loading. The deflection and crack patterns were also studied. The improvements in strength and ductility characteristics were discussed.

Strength and deformation characteristics of steel fibrous concrete beams

The results of an analytical investigation of the flexural behaviour of Steel Fibre Reinforced Concrete （SFRC） beams are presented. The complete response of the SFRC beams under displacement controlled static loading was obtained using nonlinear Finite Element （FE） techniques implemented with the help of ATENA 2D soRware. Issues relating to the behaviour of SFRC which have a direct bearing on the FE modelling are discussed with relevance to the software employed for the nonlinear analysis. Constitutive models amenable to numerical analysis for steel fibrous concrete are presented. The structural response throughout the loading regime was captured in terms of the load-deflection behaviour, which in addition to the post-peak response characterized the failure mode of the test beams. The crack patterns at crack initiation and at the end of the tests were also recorded. Experimental results from the specimens of two other investigators were used as control values for this investigation. The response of the specimens of this investigation was evaluated in terms of initial tangent stiffness, peak loads and toughness. Good match was obtained between the results from this investigation and corresponding experimentally obtained values, wherever available. The influence of the fibre content is reflected in the observed trends in peak loads, deflection at peak loads and toughness, which are in broad agreement with known behavioral patterns of SFRC.

Construction of a Butterfly Web Bridge

A new type of bridge called ＂butterfly web bridge＂ is under construction in Japan. In a butterfly web bridge, the butterfly-shaped web forms a structure that exhibits behavior similar to a double Warren truss. The 80 MPa concrete is used for the butterfly web which has a precast plate with a thickness of 150 mm. As butterfly web is a concrete material, reinforcement provided by prestressing tendons is needed on the tension side. Moreover, the 150 mm plate has no re-bars but is reinforced by steel fibers. This bridge, named Takubogawa Bridge, is a highway bridge and has 10 spans including the 87.5 m maximum span length. Takubogawa Bridge is constructed by flee cantilevering method. The butterfly web enables the construction speed of cantilevering to be advanced about 50% compared with conventional cast-in-situ method and can meet the requirement of light weight and low maintenance.

An Improved Test Method and Numerical Analysis for Crack Opening Resistance of FRC Round Determinate Panels

This paper presents a numerical analysis of a material test program investigating the crack opening properties of fibre reinforced concrete （FRC） round determinate panels （RDP）. The objective of this research is to set up a modified RDP test method to improve the current ASTM C1550 test method for FRC and fibre reinforced shotcrete （FRS） composite. By this test method, light small-diameter panels are applied and more crack information can be obtained by a new rotation angle measuring technique. It is shown that this modified test method can be used to effectively evaluate the crack opening resistance of FRC. The finite element analysis was then performed to clarify the crack propaga- tions and failure mode of FRC RDP panels. It helps establish a reasonable theoretical method to predict the structural response of RDP. combining with this modified testing technioue.