Engineering Structures 113 (2016) 328–334

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Engineering Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/engstruct

Behaviour of different types of fibre reinforced concrete without

admixture
Messaoud Saidani ⇑, Danah Saraireh, Michael Gerges
Faculty of Engineering, Environment and Computing, School of Energy, Construction and Environment, Coventry University, Priory Street, Coventry CV1 5FB, United Kingdom

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this paper the behaviour of the normal concrete and concrete with different types of fibre (steel,
Received 17 March 2015 macro-polypropylene and micro-polypropylene fibres) have been studied; in terms of the compressive
Revised 6 December 2015 strength, split tensile strength, density, and the workability for concrete grade 30 without admixture.
Accepted 19 January 2016
Varied fibre content to determine the optimum strength with 1%, 2%, and 4% by the volume of cement,
Available online 15 February 2016
cubes specimens of size 100 mm  100 mm  100 mm to test the compressive strength were cured for
the period of 7, 14 and 28 days before crushing, and cylinder specimens with 100 mm diameter and
Keywords:
200 mm length were cured for 28 days before breaking. The results show that there are some limitations
Fibre
Steel
of adding fibres to the mix; however the use of fibres has shown a significant change on the behaviour of
Macro-polypropylene the concrete without admixture. In total, 66 specimens including the normal concrete were cast and
Micro-polypropylene tested in comparison. The test also results show that the use of steel, macro-fibre, and micro-
Optimum strength polypropylene change the failure types to ductile failures, thus overcoming the brittleness problem of
Compressive strength the concrete, and improves the split tensile strength.
Split tensile strength Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Aspect ratio

1. Introduction show that the compressive strength and splitting tensile strengths
and modulus of rupture (MOR) properties of the nylon-steel fibre
Portland cement is commonly utilized in the construction sec- concrete improved by 3.2%, 8.3% and 10.2%, respectively, over those
tor, the concrete that is manufactured from this cement has some of the polypropylene-steel fibre concrete [6].
features. It is strong in compression; however, it is brittle in ten- The strength and fire resistance properties of glass fibre con-
sion [1]. Generally, it was found that the addition of fibres to the crete were also investigated. It was found that reinforcing with
concrete mixtures made significant changes to the brittle tension glass fibre contributes immensely to enhancing the compressive
reaction of the concrete. The efficiency of the fibre depends on fac- strength of concrete with an increase equal to 1.78 times that of
tors such as the volume content, the length of the fibre, the aspect normal concrete [7]. The durability of fibre reinforced concrete of
ratio, and the tensile strength of the fibre [2]. marine structures was investigated. Polypropylene triangular
Moreover, even the addition of small quantities of fibre produces fibres were used for the reinforcement. It was found that this
a substantial increase in the strength of the concrete once cracked improved the durability of the concrete as well as the compressive
in the development stage [3]. In addition, substantial achievements strength to a dosage up to 0.3%, but then started decreasing [8].
have been made towards crack control, with a reduction in the Fibre-reinforced concrete in precast applications and the role of
cracks’ width and spacing. The reduction in crack width and the fibres in improving mechanical properties and durability were
increased resistance to corrosion developed the long-term service- reviewed [9].
ability of fibre concrete by stopping the penetration of chemicals An experimental investigation was carried out on steel fibre
and water, which may have adverse effects [4]. Previous research reinforced concrete beams strengthened with fibre reinforced poly-
has investigated the effect on the properties of concrete with the mer laminates. The resulting beams were found to have higher load
addition of polypropylene and steel fibres which have widely differ- carrying capacity with a 48% increase in the ultimate load and a 63%
ent elastic moduli [5]. The strength properties of hybrid nylon-steel decrease in deflection at ultimate stage [10]. Concrete reinforced
and polypropylene-steel fibre-reinforced high strength concrete with 0.1 vol% of different synthetic fibres of steel, polypropylene,
were also investigated and compared. The experimental results glass, and carbon were investigated. It was observed that the type
of fibre used had a huge impact on the workability of the concrete.
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 2477658385. Only the steel fibres were found to enhance the density of concrete.
E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Saidani). It was also found that the given fibre dosage enhances the early

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2016.01.041
0141-0296/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 M. Saidani et al. / Engineering Structures 113 (2016) 328–334 329

Fig. 1. The different types of fibre that used in this investigation.

compressive strength of concrete but reduces the 28 days compres- In total 66 samples were tested. Table 2 gives the distribution of
sive strength. Steel fibres increase the tensile strength more than the tests that were carried out and the number of samples tested
any other fibre used during the investigation. It was noticed that for each case.
addition of fibres in concrete largely improves the failure pattern
of the concrete subjected to compressive loads [11].
Currently, civil engineering installations have structural and 2.2. Materials and mix proportion
durability requirements of their own, each structure has its own
intended purpose, and thus to meet this target, the modification 2.2.1. Materials
in the conventional cement concrete has become necessary. There-
fore, this investigation examines the behaviour of various types of A. Cement: Ordinary Portland Cement Grade 52.5 was available
fibre and compares it to the normal concrete, and highlights the in this investigation, which has a bulk density of 1200 kg/m3,
properties for each type of fibres. In this paper, different sets of and a specific gravity of 3.15. Moreover this cement had a
concrete specimen were prepared to study the behaviour of steel recorded strength of 58.5 MPa after 28 days.
fibre, micro-synthetic polypropylene fibre, and macro-synthetic B. Aggregates: The coarse aggregate that have been used were
polypropylene fibre reinforced concrete in comparison with con- uncrushed gravel, and the maximum size was 10 mm. The
ventional concrete without admixture (see Fig. 1). river sand was used as fine aggregate with a particles size
was less than 3 mm, and the sand specific gravity was 2.6.
C. Water: Tap water has been used to mix the ingredients of
2. Methodology
concrete.
D. Fibres: All the fibres that were used in this investigation sup-
2.1. Preparation of the samples
plied by MAPEI Company [12].
 Steel fibres: The fibres used were Steel Fibre DE 50/1N.
The paper focuses on the usage of Steel, Micro-Synthetic
The fibres were supplied by MAPEI by the name DE
Polypropylene, and Macro-Synthetic Polypropylene fibres rein-
50/1N. In the present investigation the fibres have a
forced concrete. In this investigation the steel fibre is stiff and
50 mm (± 10%) length and 1.0 mm (± 10%) diameter.
strong, whilst the polypropylene fibre is more ductile and flexible.
The steel fibres have a high tensile strength of
Samples have been made to find out the compressive strength, and
1100 MPa (± 15%) and aspect ratio (L/D) of 50.
split tensile strength for each type of fibres. The fibres properties
 Macro-Polypropylene Fibre: The fibres used were
that were used in this experimental investigation are illustrated
Polypropylene Fibre. The fibres were supplied by MAPEI
in Table 1.
by the name plastic fibre M50. In the present investiga-
tion the fibres have a 50 mm (± 10%) length and
Table 1 (1.28/0.81) mm (± 10%) fibre Width/Thickness. The plas-
Properties of the fibres used. tic fibres have a tensile strength of 250 N/mm2.
Material Fibre type Length Diameter Aspect
 Micro-Polypropylene Fibre: The fibres used were
(mm) ratio Polypropylene Fibre. The fibres were supplied by MAPEI
Steel fibre DE 50/1N 50 1 mm 50
by the name PP-fibre M6. In the present investigation
Macro-fibre Plastic polypropylene 50 1 mm 50 the fibres have a 6 ± 1 mm length and 18 ± 3 lm
Micro-fibre Multifilament polypropylene 6 18 lm 333.3 diameter. The plastic fibres have a tensile strength
300 N/mm2 and 0.91 g/cm3 density.

Table 2
Distribution of the tests that were carried out and the number of samples tested for each case.

Normal concrete Concrete with steel fibres Concrete with plastic fibres Concrete with PP fibres
Compressive strength after 7 days 3 Samples 9 Samples, 3 samples for 9 samples, 3 samples for 9 samples, 3 samples for
each percentage of fibre each percentage of fibre each percentage of fibre
content (1%, 2% and 4%) content (1%, 2% and 4%) content (1%, 2% and 4%)
Compressive strength after 14 days 3 Samples 3 Samples 3 Samples 3 Samples
Compressive strength after 28 days 3 Samples 3 Samples 3 Samples 3 Samples
Tensile strength 3 Samples 3 Samples 3 Samples 3 Samples
330 M. Saidani et al. / Engineering Structures 113 (2016) 328–334

Table 3 Density against % of fibre content

Mix quantities for 1 m3. for various types of fibre
kg/m3 Cement Water Fine aggregate Coarse aggregate
3
1m 592.1 kg 225 kg 691.2 kg 1036.7 kg

Density kg/m3
2.2.2. Mix proportion
The concrete mix design was prepared based on the technical
properties of the materials used and the required properties in
the hardened concrete. Table 3 illustrates the mix design that used
for the normal concrete. It is worth noting the high volume cement
content of 592.1 kg. This is a bit on the higher side of the limit of
Fig. 3. The optimum strength of each types of fibre after 7 days.
550 kg according to BS:8007, but the calculations were based on
the graphs of the DOE (British) mix method. The ratio of fine aggre-
gate and coarse aggregate is 0.67 which is again a bit on the higher concrete. In case of polypropylene fibres, the decrease in the den-
side, but not out of proportion with similar values used by other sity occurs because of the reduction of the weight of the mixture
researchers. For instance Muhit et al. [13] use a similar ratio for that replaced by fibres.
their mixes.
The volume fraction of the fibre has been taken as a percentage
3.3. Slump test
of the volume of the cement; in this study the concrete samples
have been prepared with fibre ratios 1%, 2% and 4% by volume of
Table 4 indicates the results of the slump for the normal con-
the cement to find the optimum strength for each type of fibres.
crete and maximum compressive strength of different types of
fibre: steel fibre, macro-polypropylene and micro-polypropylene
3. Results and discussion with 4%, 4% and 1% fibre ratio respectively. It has been observed
that the polypropylene fibres play a significant role in the concrete
3.1. Identification of optimum amount of different fibres workability. With high volume fraction of the macro-
polypropylene fibres which have a long length and with small fibre
To make a comparison between steel fibre, macro- content of the micro-polypropylene fibres which have a short
polypropylene fibre and micro-polypropylene fibre reinforced con- length, both types decrease the workability of the concrete largely.
crete, the normal concrete was taken as the benchmark specimen; However, the reduction of the slump of the steel fibres comparing
it gave 46 MPa in the compressive strength after 7 days. to the polypropylene fibres was slight, and still within the slump
As illustrated in Fig. 2 below, the optimum compressive design mix range. It is worth noting that for the normal concrete,
strength of the steel fibres, and the macro-polypropylene fibres the slump of 93 obtained is similar to that obtained by Muhit
were found to be 4%. Whilst the optimum strength of the micro- et al. [13] for the same water to cement ratio of 0.38.
polypropylene fibres were 1%. Steel fibres affect the workability of the fresh concrete, whilst
the polypropylene fibres reduce the value of the slump signifi-
3.2. The density cantly. However, the overcoming of this problem could be through
the use of the admixture.
The average density of the normal concrete cubes was The use of fibres results in an increase of surface area and con-
2.39 MPa. As shown in Fig. 3, the density of the cubes that have a tributes to the apparent slump loss. Also, the type of fibre, config-
steel fibre increases with the increase of the percentage of the fibre uration of fibre, quantity and length of fibre are all parameters that
content, whilst the density of the polypropylene cubes with both contribute to both the workability and slump of the resulting mix.
types of fibres has decreased with the increase of the volume Previous research [14] has shown that synthetic fibre can reduce
fraction of the fibre. slump by up to three inches (i.e. up to about 75 mm). The reduction
The highest density amongst them was for the cubes that have seen in this research (from 93 to 20) falls within the reduction
steel fibres, and the reason is due to the density of the steel fibre range (93 20 = 73 mm).
which is greater than the constituent materials of the normal
3.4. Compressive strength tests

Cube specimens of size 100 mm  100 mm  100 mm were

cured for the periods of 7, 14 and 28 days before crushing.
Initially, the compressive strength is directly proportional with
the age of the concrete. As shown in Fig. 4 the compressive
strength of the micro-fibres mix after 28 days has reached the

Table 4
The slump results for the normal concrete and the maximum strength for different
types of fibre.

Concrete Slump (mm)

Normal concrete 93
Steel fibre (4%) 70
Macro-polypropylene (4%) 20
Micro-polypropylene (1%0 20
Fig. 2. Density of different types of fibres with different fibre content.
 M. Saidani et al. / Engineering Structures 113 (2016) 328–334 331

highest strength observed in the lab, followed by the steel fibres 3.7. Tensile strength and workability in relation to aspect ratio
mix, then the macro-fibres mix, which has reached the lowest
strength. However, all the mixes with fibres have not exceeded The aspect ratio of the fibres is the ratio of the lengths over the
the normal concrete compressive strength after 28 days. diameter. Table 7 illustrates the tensile strength, the workability
The compression strength of the normal concrete mix and the and the aspect ratio of different types of fibre.
concrete mix with fibres has shown very similar values, which As shown in the table above, the highest aspect ratio was for the
means that the compressive strength was slightly affected by the micro-polypropylene fibres, which has obtained the lowest split-
fibres addition. ting tensile strength with 3.70 MPa, followed by the macro-
polypropylene fibres which reached a 5.63 MPa tensile strength,
3.5. Split tensile tests and the lowest aspect ratio was for the steel fibres with the highest
tensile strength at 6.78 MPa. Therefore, the relationship between
Cylinders specimens with 100 mm diameter and 200 mm the aspect ratio and the tensile strength is inverse correlation.
length were cured for 28 days before breaking. Table 5 shows the It can be noticed that the aspect ratio of the macro-fibres and
results from the split tensile test for all specimens. the micro-fibres is very similar (54 and 54.5 respectively), resulting
The tensile strength results for the normal concrete came extre- also and in the same slump value. Whilst the steel fibres which
mely low as expected, because the concrete as known is brittle in have the lowest aspect ratio reached the highest slump and the
tension, ductile in compression. best workability (see Fig. 5).
As shown in Table 5 the tensile strength of the normal concrete One of the main issues of fibre reinforced concrete is the work-
mix (bunch mark mix) was 3.42 MPa, the micro-polypropylene ability. Usually, fibres usage decreases the slump, and several fac-
fibres mix showed a very close tensile strength to the original nor- tors play a role in the workability of concrete, such as the volume
mal mix, which was 3.70 MPa. Whilst both of the steel and the fraction of the paste, the fibre content, water content and the
macro-polypropylene fibres mixes showed an increment in the aspect ratio of the fibre. However, a reduction in the slump does
tensile strength capacity significantly, the macro-polypropylene not necessarily mean that the mixture becomes harder to compact.
fibres mix gave approximately 1.5 times the tensile strength that Fibres that have a high surface area can make the mixtures to some
was observed from the normal concrete mix with a difference of extent drier.
2.21 MPa, whilst the steel fibres mix gave almost twice the tensile There is a strong link between the slump and the fibre content;
strength with increased tensile capacity of 6.78 MPa. which means that the workability of concrete is highly influenced
Despite the fact that the micro-polypropylene didn’t show a sig-
nificant improvement in the tensile strength, the addition of the
micro-polypropylene, the macro-polypropylene, or the steel fibres Table 6
can overcome the brittleness problem of the concrete. Compressive strength in relation to the tensile strength.

Concrete Compressive Tensile Tensile strength in

3.6. Tensile in relation to compressive strength strength strength relation to compressive
(MPa) (MPa) strength (%)
The tensile strength in relation to compressive strength of the Normal concrete 58.4 3.42 5.86
normal concrete was 5.86% lower, and the percentage of the Steel fibres concrete 57.7 6.78 11.75
micro-polypropylene fibres was slightly higher than this value Macro-polypropylene 55.3 5.63 10.18
fibres concrete
with 6.36%, whilst both of the macro-polypropylene fibres and
Micro-polypropylene 58.2 3.70 6.36
the steel fibres reached almost twice the ratio of the normal con- fibres concrete
crete (Table 6).

Table 7
The tensile strength, the slump and the aspect ratio of different types of fibre.

Concrete Tensile strength Aspect Slump

(MPa) ratio
Steel fibres concrete 6.78 50 70
Macro-polypropylene fibres concrete 5.63 54 20
Micro-polypropylene fibres concrete 3.70 54.5 20

Fig. 4. The compressive strengths of the concrete with and without fibres at 7, 14
and 28 days.

Table 5
Tensile strength after 28 days of the concrete with and without fibres.

Mixture Tensile strength Tensile strength

load (kN) (MPa)
Normal concrete 107.30 3.42
Steel fibres concrete 212.95 6.78
Macro-polypropylene Fibres concrete 176.76 5.63
Micro-polypropylene fibres concrete 116.27 3.70
Fig. 5. Tensile strength in relation to the aspect ratio.
332 M. Saidani et al. / Engineering Structures 113 (2016) 328–334

by the fibre content. Therefore, to show the effect of the fibre; the
normal concrete has been taken as a bench mark. As shown in
Fig. 6, the normal concrete slump was within the range that it
was designed for, observed at 93 mm, and the concrete was
homogenous and the mixture was moisturized enough.
With the 1% fibre content of micro-fibres, the slump decreased
compared to the normal concrete (used as the benchmark) with
20 mm. With the increase of the micro-fibre dosage to more than
2%, the slump dropped till the slump reached zero, and as is
observed in Fig. 7, the mix appeared to be sticky and relatively
dry after taking the slump cone off. This has drawn attention to
the amount of water that been sucked by the fibres. In Addition,
the aggregate particles were segregated and not surrounded well
by the mix. As can be seen, increasing the fibre dosage to more
than 4% leads to collapse (Fig. 7).
For the macro-polypropylene fibres as shown in Fig. 8, there
weren’t any significant differences between the high and the low
fibre content. The macro-polypropylene fibre was easier to consol-
idate, and that was due to the lower surface area per weight.
A high dosage of the fibres needed to be added to the mixture
before the slump significantly decreases. High dosage with 4% fibre
content of the macro-polypropylene fibres gave the same slump as
the micro-fibres with very low dosage (with 20 mm). Moreover,
the macro-fibres with high fibre contents in the mixture seemed
as fully wet as the low fibre content; the macro-polypropylene
fibres did not dry up the mixture as much as the micro-
Fig. 6. Slump of the normal concrete. polypropylene fibres did. Furthermore, adding more than 4% of

Fig. 7. The slump with different percentage of the micro-polypropylene fibres.

Fig. 8. The slump with different percentage of the macro-polypropylene fibres.

 M. Saidani et al. / Engineering Structures 113 (2016) 328–334 333

Fig. 9. The slump with different percentage of the steel fibres.

the macro-fibres did not lead to collapse, only the slump became the aspect ratio of 50 the tensile strength and the workability went
very close to zero. on decreasing. Thus, the best impact strength and workability
As shown in the figure below, it has been observed that the could be realized an aspect ratio equal to 50.
slump of the steel fibres reinforced concrete reduced by increasing
the fibre content. However, the reduction in the slump was not as 3.8. Comparison between different types of fibre
significant as the other types of fibre compared to the normal con-
crete and was within the range of the mix design. The steel fibres This investigation tested three types of fibres (steel, micro-
have shown the best workability compared to the other types of polypropylene, and macro-polypropylene), and this section pro-
fibre (Fig. 9). vide some attempts to classify each type of fibres. This is not
In summary, the highest aspect ratio led to the lowest tensile intended that all fibre types of those classifications will follow
strength and workability, and vice versa (Fig. 10). Moreover, after the trends seen; because these are observations. The normal con-
crete was taken as a benchmark of these observations for compar-
ison purposes (Table 8).

4. Conclusions

 The optimum compressive strength results of steel, macro-

polypropylene and micro-polypropylene fibres were found to
be 4%, 4%, and 1% respectively.
 The addition of the steel, macro-fibre, and micro-polypropylene
does not provide a significant improvement in the compressive
strength after 28 days. Compared to the normal concrete; the
compressive strength values of the concrete with fibres has
dropped slightly.
 The failure types significantly changes after adding the fibre to
Fig. 10. Workability in relation to the aspect ratio. the mix with more ductile failures.

Table 8
Comparison between different types of fibre.

Property Steel fibres Macro-polypropylene fibres Micro-polypropylene fibres

Slump decrease Moderate decrease Major decrease Major decrease
Fibre dosage increase Density increase Density decrease Density decrease
Drying of mixture Minimal drying Moderate drying Major drying
28 days compression strength Slight decrease Slight decrease Slight decrease
28 days tensile strength Major increase Major increase Slight increase
Brittle decrease Major decrease Major decrease Moderate decrease
334 M. Saidani et al. / Engineering Structures 113 (2016) 328–334

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