14) Reduce Cracking In Concrete

Think out of the box. Yes, it’s better to explore something new in your life. Of course being an Engineer, besides theoretical studies, practical approach is very important. We should always go for new researches and technologies related to our field. With the increasing new technologies coming out every day, this modern era is named as the “Era of Advanced technology and research”. It is very important for anyone in the Engineering field to always stay up to date with all newly developing technologies that relate to their industry.

Fibre Reinforced Concrete (FRC) may be defined as a concrete incorporating relatively short, discrete, discontinuous fibres. The use of FRC has been increasing steadily in recent years. A number of different types of steel fibres are used to produce FRCs of various kinds. The most common ones are steel, organic polymers (primarily polypropylene), glass, carbon, asbestos, and cellulose. These fibres vary considerably in geometry, properties, effectiveness, and cost.

Steel fibres may be produced either by cutting wire, by shearing sheets or from a hot melt extract. The first generation of steel fibres were smooth, but it was soon found that, as a result, they did not develop sufficient bond with cementitious matrix so modern steel fibres are generally either deformed along their lengths or at their ends.

Steel fibres are classified by ASTM A820. The purpose of steel fibre is to increase the energy absorption capacity and toughness of the material, but also increases tensile and flexural strength of concrete. It also improves the impact resistance. The continuous steel bars cannot stop the increment of micro cracks; it can be reduced by steel fibres which are discontinuous and randomly distributed in the compressive and tensile areas of structural section. As by (Brown J. & Atkinson T.2012) the efficiency of steel fibre reinforcement is dependent upon achievement of uniform distribution of the fibres in the concrete, their interaction with cement matrix, and the ability of the concrete to be successfully cast and sprayed.

Hence SFRC is particularly well suited for structures which are enquired to exhibit resistance to blast and shock loads and high fatigue, very high flexural, shear and tensile strength, resistance to splitting, erosion and abrasion, high thermal resistance and resistance to seismic hazards. The steel fibers are used in Hydraulic structures, airport and highway paving and overlays, industrial floors, slab on grade, bridge decks, in shortcrete linings and covering, thin shell structures, explosion-resistant structures.

Although this is just the bird’s eye view of the use of steel fibres as a an advanced research in FRCs but this research is very interesting and one can discover more in it and can certainly get huge benefit to improve their current state of knowledge for future use.

Sara Shahid
Civil Engineer