A STUDY ON THE COMPRESSIVE & FLEXURAL STRENGTH BEHAVIOR OF STEEL FIBER REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAM

In Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete (SFRC), steel fiber is added to concrete due to its ability to restrict the growth of cracks and thus changing the brittle mode of composite to a strong cement matrix with superior crack resistance. This paper presents an experimental program to investigate the compressive & flexural strength characteristics of concrete with or without steel fibers. A total of 54 nos. 100 mm concrete cube specimens & 44 nos. 100 mm x 100 mm x 500 mm concrete beam specimens were cast from M25 concrete with varying fiber volume fraction (1.0, 1.5, 2.0 & 2.5%) and two different aspect ratios (50 & 70). Required nos. of plain concrete specimens were also cast from the same concrete mix to compare the strength characteristics of plain and fiber reinforced concrete and to predict the effect of fiber inclusion. The result showed that both compressive and flexural strength of steel fiber reinforced concrete increased with the inclusion of steel fiber, the maximum being found that at 1.5% & 2% steel fiber content for compressive & flexural strength respectively and for aspect ratio of 70. Also, the cracking/failure pattern of SFRC specimens showed improved ductility over that of plain concrete.