Effect of Steel Fibers in Concrete

Historically, much effort has been spent improving the performance of concrete structures. Flexural, compressive, shear strength, ductility, and other properties have been the focus of many researchers who have tested concretes with added steel and other materials to improve the behavior of concrete. The concept of adding fibers to improve brittle material behavior is very old. For example, Mesopotamians used straw to reinforce sun baked bricks. This ancient technology is used to improve concrete characteristics. Plain concrete acquire a very low tensile strength and limited ductility and little resistance to cracking internal micro cracks are inherently present in the concrete and its deprived tensile strength is due to the propagation of such micro cracks eventually leading to brittle fracture of concrete, and so to enhance the performance of concrete steel fibers are added to the concrete to gain required strength. The steel fibers are generally used as a resistance of cracking and strengthen of concrete, in this study hooked end steel fibers of length 30mm with thickness of 0.5mm diameter is used.