Steel fibre reinforced concrete: material properties and structural applications

Short and randomly distributed steel fibres are often used for concrete reinforcement since they offer resistance to crack initiation and, mainly, to crack propagation. In steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) of low fibre volume content, the fibre reinforcement effectiveness is only significant after matrix cracking , since fibres crossing the crack guarantee a certain level of stress transfer between the faces of the crack, providing to the concrete a residual strength, the magnitude of which depends on the fibre, matrix and fibre-matrix propertie s. The mechanical performance of SFRC is also highly influenced by the fibre dispersion, since the effectivenes s of fibre reinforcement depends on the orientation and arrangement of the fibres within the cement matrix