SHEAR BEHAVIOUR AND FAILURE MECHANISMS OF STEEL FIBER REINFORCED CONCRETE STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS

Abstract

Steel fibers increase the stiffness, ultimate load and failure deformation of beams, but the increase effect of steel fiber decreases with the increase of stirrup ratio. After the diagonal crack appears, steel fiber reduces the concrete strains of the diagonal section, stirrup strains and diagonal crack width, reducing crack height and increasing crack number. (Zhao et al., 2018) This fundamental behavior demonstrates that steel fibers provide enhanced post-cracking performance by bridging cracks and redistributing stresses across the concrete matrix, making them valuable for applications where traditional stirrup reinforcement may be inadequate.