Concrete Basics Concrete Basics Concrete Basics Concrete Basics Guide To Steel Fibres Guide To Steel Fibres Guide

Guide To Steel Fibres Guide To Steel Fibres

Comparison of slab on grade floor options from different suppliers
INTRODUCTION
Scancem Materials development of the
use of steel fibres for slabs on grade over
the last ten years has proven the
performance, construction advantages
and cost savings of high performance
steel fibres. This has led to growth in
demand and more recently a large range
of fibres being promoted.
Whilst competition is good for the
consumer it is a concern if the customer
is not getting what he expects or needs.
Scancem Materials have established their
track record using high performance
fibres and a toughness based design
approach. Most of the new fibres on the
market are low performance (hence low
cost/kg) and suppliers are following less
conservative design approaches in order
to be competitive. This is leading to slab
failures, which is reflecting poorly on the
steel fibre industry.
The purpose of this note is to provide a
simple guide to specifiers on how to:
differentiate between low
performance and high performance
fibres
compare the performance of
different SFRC floor options provide
by different manufacturers.
Fibres can vary in performance quite
dramatically and so fibre dosage and slab
thickness should reflect this. Fibre
geometry, strength, deformations and
their ability to be evenly distributed
through the concrete all have a bearing
on the load carrying capacity of Steel
Fibre Reinforced Concrete (SFRC)
SPECIFICATION OF SFRC SLABS ON
GRADE
There is no Australian standard covering
the design of SFRC slabs on grade. The
only guidance comes from Technical
Report 34 (TR34) from the Concrete
Society (UK). It requires that Re3 values
(% of flexural strength at 3mm deflection
of a standard beam test) shall be such as
to assure the stress in the slab is
acceptable for the applied stress. This
applied stress should combine
temperature, shrinkage and applied load
induced stresses. TR34 gives guidance on
one load case but the designer is left to
determine how to handle other load
cases.
Scancems design guide fully details how
to handle each load case and can be used
to calculate the stress and required Re3.
CHARACTERISTICS OF STEEL FIBRES
There are four properties of steel fibre
that are important.
1. Aspect Ratio (L/D)
All other things being equal performance
increases as the aspect ratio
(length/diameter) of a fibre increases.
To increase the aspect ratio of a fibre you
must increase the length while decreasing
the diameter. By doing this you are
increasing the number of fibres per kg.
All else being equal twice the dosage of a
loose fibres with aspect ratio of 40 would
be required to give the same performance
as a fibre with an aspect ration of 80.
This has particular relevance as loose
fibres (most suppliers) have to have an
aspect ratio of under 50 to avoid balling
while Scancem commonly use a collated
80 aspect ratio fibre (see 4).
2. Fibre Anchorage Details
In order for the SFRC to continue to
carry load and deform plastically after
cracking has occurred, it is essential that
the fibre is sufficiently anchored
in the concrete matrix to enable the
full tensile strength of the fibres to be
harnessed
fibres pull through as the ultimate
fibre capacity is reached. This means
the full capacity of the fibre is
achieved over high deformations
giving high energy absorption and the
characteristic ductility required to
prevent brittle failure. This is the basis
for TR34s specification of Re3 values.
In terms of fibre geometry the following
is important:
Small changes to the shape of a
hooked end anchorage can mean the
difference between high and low
toughness
Continuously deformed fibres,
enlarged end fibres and mill cut fibre
will bond over a short length of the
fibre rather than pull through and a
more brittle failure will result. Full
scale tests show that this type of
failure is not consistent with increased
load carrying capacity even at high
dosages. Manufacturers of these types
of fibres typically do not quote Re3
values as they are low. More typically
they quote I5, I10, and I30 vales which
correspond to the more brittle failure
mode.
3. Physical Properties of Steel
Fibres
To maintain the ductility of SFRC and
ensure the reliability of the plastic
deformation, it is imperative that the
well-anchored fibres do not break.
Breaking fibres equates to a brittle failure
mode (this is the main problem with
fibres continuously deformed). To
prevent breakage steel fibres should be
manufactured with sufficient tensile
strength to ensure the ultimate failure
mode is pullout rather than breakage.
Fibres manufactured from hard drawn
steel wire make available tensile strengths
in excess of 1000MPa.
Sleet sheet steel fibres are available from
some supplier are particularly cheap/kg
but their Re3 performance is generally
very low.
4. FIBRE PACKAGING
High aspect ratio fibres are generally
highly efficient in structural terms
however, they tend to ball when mixed in
concrete unless packaged correctly.
Fibres can be glued together in strips of
about 30-50 fibres with a water-soluble
glue. High aspect ratio fibres when
collated in this way can be added to the
mix almost like an extra aggregate and no
balling will occur. The aspect ratio of the
bundle is less and the water-soluble glue
guarantees that the fibres are uniformly
distributed in the mix. Fibres are added
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into the truck in degradable bags for ease
of handling. Low aspect ratio, loose
fibres tend to be packaged in boxes. They
can ball (even though low aspect ratio)
and dispersion problems can occour if
not handled and mixed with care.
SFRC SLAB ON GRADE DESIGN
Based on the fibre properties shown in
table 1 (properties shown are from
manufacturers information) we can do a
comparative design. The design consist
of checking the fibre dosage to achieve
the required moment capacity and
checking that the fibre dosage is adequate
to achieve load transfer between fibres.
Re3 Requirement
Re3 is a toughness coefficient defined in
section 3.2.6 of Technical Report 34
(TR34) from the Concrete Society (UK)
and is used in Appendix F of the same
publication to determine the moment
carrying capacity of a SFRC slab on
grade.
Re3 is calculated as the average load
carrying capacity offered after cracking
(due to the presence of fibre
reinforcement) divided by the flexural
tensile strength of the uncracked
concrete matrix the ratio is typically
expressed as a percentage. TR34 states
the Re3 value used should be greater than
30%. Under this critical value the slab
will behave as an unreinforced or plain
concrete slab and should be designed
using the Westergard formulae.
Example
If we want to calculate the fibre dosage
for a 150mm thick slab, 32MPa concrete
with a moment capacity (Mu) of 7.80
kN/m we know:
Mu = Re3ft x bd
2
/6 of a SFRC section
Therefore Re3 (ductility required from
fibres and is different for different fibres)
= Mu x 6/bd
2
ft
= 7.8 x 6 x 10
6
/150 x 150 x 10
3
x 4.73
= 0.44 (ie ductility factor required)



Comparative Design
17kg/m
3
Scanfibre CHO80/60NB
(high tensile wire, hooked end fibre
with 80 aspect ratio)
20kg/m
3
of Scanfibre CHO65/60NB
(high tensile wire, hooked end fibre
with 65 aspect ratio)
30kg/m
3
of Qubix UW10/50 fibre (50
aspect ratio wire fibre with continuous
deformations. Estimate based on
aspect ratio and design. Manufacturers
only quote I5, I10, and I30)
40kg/m
3
of Qubix CR50 fibre (slit sheet
fibre. Estimate based on type of fibre.
No performance values quoted by
manufacturer)
40kg/m
3
of BHP EE25HT fibre
(enlarged end high tensile fibre)
75 kg/m
3
of BHP EE18mm fibre
(enlarged end fibre)
Minimum Reinforcement
European publications also
recommendation that, irrespective of the
Re3 requirements the minimum steel
fibre dosage permitted shall be that
required to give a maximum avaerage
spacing factor of 0.45 times the nominal
fibre length calculated using the spacing
theory of McKee. This is to ensure
adequate overlap between fibres to
transfer load. The McKee formula can
be broken down to min. dosage = 67,658
/ (Aspect ratio)
2

This has been used to calculate the
minimum fibre dosage for load transfer
in table2.
Final Dosage Requirements for
various fibres.
The final dosages required for the various
options is found from the maximum of
moment capacity or load transfer
requirements and are given in table 2
CONCLUSIONS
Fibre dosage varies according to the
performance of the particular fibre
chosen. Merely specifying a dosage will
not take into account the individual
performance of the fibre. At a low
dosage a particular fibre may meet the
ductility requirements as determined via a
beam test, however the dosage may not
be enough to provide the continuous
reinforcement required for load transfer
as determined by McKee.
It is therefore important for designers to
agree the toughness design (even when
undertaken by suppliers) and to specify
that the SFRC slabs shall:
1. achieve a performance
requirement for load carrying by
stating the required Re3 value
2. comply with minimum dosage
requirements of McKee
In this way the design requirements of
load capacity and load transfer will be
equal for all fibre suppliers and the most
cost competitive supplier will win the
project.
Table 1: Fibre Properties
Fibre Properties Scanfibre
CHD80/60NB
Scanfibre
CHO65/60NB
BHPEE25HT QUBIX CR50
Length 60mm 60mm 25mm 50mm
Diameter 0.75mm 0.92mm 0.55mm??mm
Aspect Ratio 80 65 45 ??
Tensile strength 1200Mpa 1200Mpa 800Mpa 750MPa
Anchorage Hooked ends +
indent
Hooked ends Enlarged ends Undulating
Collation Collate Collate Loose fibres Loose fibres
Fibre type Drawn wire Drawn wire Cut sheet Shit Sleet
Packaging Degradable bags Degradable bags Boxes Boxes
Re3 value 44% at 15kgs 44% at 20kgs 38% at 35kgs ??
Min. Dose 11kg/m
3
16kg/m
3
35kg/m
3
??kg/m
3


Table 2 Fibre Dosages For Structural Design Of Slab
On Grade using Toughness Design Method.
Fibre Type For
Moment
Capacity
For Load
Transfer
Final
Dosage
Scanfibre
CHO80/60NB
17kg/m
3
11kg/m
3
17kg/m
3

Scanfibre
CHO65/60NB
20kg/m
3
16kg/m
3
20kg/m
3

Qubix UW10/50 30kg/m
3
27kg 30kg/m
3

BHP EE18mm 75kg/m
3
67kg 75kg/m
3

BHP EE25HT 40kg/m
3
34kg/m
3
40kg/m
3

Qubix CR50 40kg/m
3
?kg/m
3
40kg/m
3

The information given is based on knowledge and performance of the material Every precaution is taken in the manufacture of the product and the responsibility is limited to the quality of supplies, with
no guaranty of results in the field as Scancem Materials has no control over site conditions or execution of works


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