Constitutive property behavior of an ultra-high-performance concrete with and without steel fibers

A laboratory investigation was conducted to characterize the constitutive property behavior of Cor-Tuf, an ultra-high-performance composite concrete. Mechanical property tests (hydrostatic compression, unconfined compression (UC), triaxial compression (TXC), unconfined direct pull (DP), uniaxial strain, and uniaxial-strain-load/constant-volumetric-strain tests) were performed on specimens prepared from concrete mixtures with and without steel fibers. From the UC and TXC test results, compression failure surfaces were developed for both sets of specimens. Both failure surfaces exhibited a continuous increase in maximum principal stress difference with increasing confining stress. The DP tests results determined the unconfined tensile strengths of the two mixtures. The tensile strength of each mixture was less than the generally assumed tensile strength for conventional strength concrete, which is 10 percent of the unconfined compressive strength. Both concretes behaved similarly, but Cor-Tuf with steel fibers exhibited slightly greater strength with increased confining pressure, and Cor-Tuf without steel fibers displayed slightly greater compressibility.