Comparative structural performance of amorphous steel fibre reinforced concrete slabs on grade

Abstract

Amorphous steel fibres differ from conventional steel fibres by their high specific area with non-slipping properties. A total of five slabs on grade (SOGs) made of plain concrete, conventional steel fibre reinforced concrete and amorphous steel fibre reinforced concrete were tested and their comparative structural responses of load-settlement relationships were observed experimentally. Experimental parameters were of the fibre type (conventional hooked-end steel fibres and amorphous steel fibres) and their contents (none, 30 kg/m(3) and 60 kg/m(3)). Test results revealed that amorphous steel fibres preserved the integrity of SOG more effectively than hooked-end steel fibres by keeping SOG stiffer up to a greater pre-peak load. The relative increases of pre-peak load regarding SOG with amorphous steel fibres were 3.26 and 2.71 times greater than those of SOG with hooked-end steel fibres for fibre contents of 30 kg/m(3) and 60 kg/m(3) respectively. The SOGs with amorphous steel fibres exhibited almost the same failure load capacity as those of their counterparts with hooked-end steel fibres in fibre content.