Tensile Behavior of Steel Fiber-Reinforced Self-Compacting Concrete

The tensile behavior of a self-compacting concrete (SCC) reinforced with two hooked ends steel fiber contents was assessed in this paper by performing stable displacement control tension tests. Based on the stress-displacement curves obtained, the stress-crack width relationships were derived, as well as the energy dissipated up to distinct crack width limits and residual strengths. The number of effective fibers bridging the fracture surface was determined and was compared with the theoretical number of fibers, as well as with the stress at crack initiation, residual stresses and energy dissipation parameters. In general, a linear trend between the number of effective fibers and both the stress and energy dissipation parameters was obtained. A numerical model supported on the finite element method was developed in this paper. In this model, the fiber reinforced concrete is assumed as a two phase material: plain concrete and fibers randomly distributed. The plain concrete phase was modeled with 3D solid finite elements, while the fiber phase was modeled with discrete embedded elements. The adopted interface behavior for the discrete elements was obtained from single fiber pullout tests. The numerical simulation of the uniaxial tension tests showed a good agreement with the experimental results. Thus, this approach is able of capturing the essential aspects of the fiber reinforced composite’s complex behavior.