Influence of Fiber Volume Fraction and Fiber Orientation on the Uniaxial Tensile Behavior of Rebar-Reinforced Ultra-High Performance Concrete

Abstract

This paper studied the influence of fiber volume fraction ( V f ), fiber orientation, and type of reinforcement bar (rebar) on the uniaxial tensile behavior of rebar-reinforced strain-hardening ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC). It was observed that the tensile strength increased with the increase in V f . When V f was kept constant at 1%, rebar-reinforced UHPC with fibers aligned with the load direction registered the highest strength and that with fibers oriented perpendicular to the load direction recorded the lowest strength. The strength of the composite with random fibers laid in between. Moreover, the strength, as well as the ductility, increased when the normal strength grade 60 rebars embedded in UHPC were replaced with high strength grade 100 rebars with all other conditions remaining unchanged. In addition, this paper discusses the potential of sudden failure of rebar-reinforced strain hardening UHPC and it is suggested that the composite attains a minimum strain of 1% at the peak stress to enable the members to have sufficient ductility.