The objective of this study is to formulate a high volume steel fibre concrete and to evaluate its mechanical characteristics. The main objective is to improve the post-cracking behaviour of the concrete under tension, in particular by reducing the stress drop generally observed. A high volume of metallic fibres is targeted in order to inhibit the softening regime and to try to obtain a strain-hardening regime (positive strain-hardening) in the post-cracking regime. Generally, the concern is that beyond a certain fibre content the concrete is no longer self-compacting and its plasticity is strongly degraded, which makes it unusable for precast elements due to the need to pour the concrete quickly. The self-compacting criterion is therefore essential, and the mix design and admixture must allow for its verification. The approach is to improve the conventional formulation of the concrete used in a given precast plant or concrete batch plant and upgrade it to a self-compacting concrete with a high volume of fibres.
Project partner(s)
Project leader - team
Abdelkrim Bennani
(HEPIA),
Florian Fazio
(HEPIA),
Salim Sawadogo (HEPIA)