How can I quantify the differences between various steel fibers?
The post crack strength of steel fiber concrete is a material property which is commonly used to differentiate fiber performance. this will typically be determined with a bending test and is often referred to as the residual flexural strength (see below). For the same concrete composition, steel fiber performance is a function of fiber length, diameter, aspect ratio, anchorage and tensile strength. A fiber dosage alone has no performance related value at all. AStM international has two flexural testing procedures for fiber reinforced concrete. the two testing procedures are AStM c1399 Standard test Method for obtaining Average residual-Strength of Fiber-reinforced concrete and AStM c1609 Standard test Method for Flexural Performance of Fiber-reinforced concrete. bekaert propose the use of AStM c1609. AStM c1399 can lead to inflated post crack flexural strengths due to favorable fiber orientation and the use of a steel plate to control the first crack’s energy release.