Macromodeling of SFRC Flexural Behavior and Impact of Fiber Characteristics on Flexural Behavior

Abstract

With advances in materials science, the performance of concrete materials has continued to improve, especially its compression strength. However, increases in compression strength often result in ductility decreases and sudden failures. The addition of steel fibers can improve the tensile strength of concrete materials and its ductility. This investigation developed an analytical material model for steel fiber–reinforced concrete (SFRC) based on a variable engagement model. This model was extended to an analytical method that predicts the precracked and postcrack flexural behavior of SFRC beams, with various fiber orientations. To validate the proposed model, direct tension and pullout fiber tests and flexural beam tests on a variety of fiber configurations were used to evaluate the effect of fibers added in mortar beams. The proposed analytical models were used to predict the tensile behavior of proposed steel fiber–reinforced composites, including precrack and postcrack flexural behaviors. Comparisons show that although more work is needed in precrack behavior, reasonable agreement was found between predicted and measured behavior.