Effectiveness of steel fibers in ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete construction

This study investigates the behavior of ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) with hybrid macro-micro steel and macro steel-polypropylene (PP) fibers. Compression, direct and indirect tension tests were carried out on cubic and cylindrical, dogbone and prismatic specimens, respectively. Three types of macro steel fibers, i.e., round crimped (RC), crimped (C), and hooked (H) were combined with micro steel (MS) and PP fibers in overall ratios of 2% by volume. Additionally, numerical analyses were performed to validate the test results. Parameters studied included, fracture energy, tensile strength, compressive strength, flexural strength, and residual strength. Tests showed that replacing PP fibers with MS significantly improves all parameters particularly flexural strength (17.38 MPa compared to 37.71 MPa). Additionally, the adopted numerical approach successfully captured the flexural load-deflection response of experimental beams. Lastly, the proposed regression model for the flexural load-deflection curve compared very well with experimental results, as evidenced by its coefficient of correlation (R2) of over 0.90.