International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Technology (IJAERT) 175

Volume 4 Issue 5, May 2016, ISSN No.: 2348 8190

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON INFLUENCE OF ASPECT

RATIO OF STEEL FIBRE IN CEMENT CONCRETE
*(Shanmuganathan D, M.E. Structural Engineering (PT), Anna University, Regional Office, Madurai.
(Working as Junior Drafting Officer/Civil, Arasan Ganesan Polytechnic College, Sivakasi)
** (Dr. Ilangovan R, Head of Department, Department of Civil Engineering,
University College of Engineering, Dindigul
Glass
Carbon
Natural
Non Bio Degradable (NBD)

Abstract
Influence of aspect ratio of steel fibre in cement
concrete in investigated. Grade of concrete was M25.
For testing flexural strength reinforcements were
provided. Two shapes of Steel fibres, hooked ended
with round cross section and crimped type rounded
cross section were used. Aspect ratio of 50, 60 and 80
for hooked end and crimped type were used for
investigation. Deflections were noted during flexural
strength test. Dosage of fibre in cement concrete was
taken as 1%, 2% and 3% for compressive strength and
dosage of 0.5%, 1% and 1.5% was taken for flexural
strength test.
Keywords - Steel fibre, Aspect ratio, Dosage of fibre,
Compressive strength, Flexural strength

I.

INTRODUCTION

In cement concrete structure, formation of cracks are

the main reason for the failure. The cement concrete is
a brittle material which is strong in compression but
very weak in tension. This weakness in the concrete
makes it to crack under small loads at the tensile end.
These cracks gradually propagate to the compression
end of the member, deflects the member and finally the
member breaks. It can be controlled by increasing the
tensile strength of the cement concrete. To increase the
tensile strength of concrete many attempts have been
made. One of the successful and most commonly used
method is providing steel reinforcement. Steel bars,
however, reinforce concrete against local tension only.
Cracks in reinforced concrete members extend freely
until encountering are bar. Thus need for
multidirectional and closely spaced steel reinforcement
arises. That cannot be practically possible.
Fibre reinforcement gives the solution for this problem.
So to increase the tensile strength of concrete a
technique of introduction of fibres in concrete is being
used. These fibres act as crack arrestors and prevent the
propagation of the cracks. These fibres are uniformly
distributed and randomly arranged. This concrete is
named as fibre reinforced concrete. Fibre is discrete
material having some characteristic material can be
anything. But not all will be effective and economical.
Fibres that are most commonly used are:
Steel

Among these, steel fibre is one of the most commonly

used fibre. Generally round fibres are used. The
diameter may vary from 0.25 to 1mm.The steel fibre
sometimes gets rusted and lose its strength. But
investigations have proved that fibres get rusted only at
surfaces. Further they have investigated that steel fibre
has high modulus of elasticity. Hence use of steel fibre
makes significant improvements in compressive
strength and flexural strength of concrete. Though the
steel fibres are not substitute for steel reinforcement in
cement concrete, investigation was conducted on
reinforced concrete beam with fibres for flexural
strength test.
Properties of fibre reinforced concrete is affected by
many factors like properties of cement, fine aggregate,
coarse aggregate. Other than this, the fibre reinforced
concrete is affected by following factors:
Shape of fibre
Type of fibre
Aspect ratio
Quantity or Dosage of fibre
Orientation of fibre
This paper deals with the use of two shapes, hooked
ended (HE) and crimped type (CT) of steel fibres with
three aspect ratios and three different dosage of fibre.

II.

EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAMME
1) Details of the material used

In this experimental investigation, different types of

fibres which are available in market (see table 1) were
incorporated in a typical M25 concrete. Grade of
concrete was designed with Portland pozzolana cement,
natural sand (Zone II), locally available hard broken
granite stone and potable water. Steel reinforcements
are introduced in concrete beam.
2) Dosage of fibre
Dosage of fibre is calculated based on the weight of
cement in concrete. Based on the previous study, dosage
of fibre for compressive strength test was taken as 1%,

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International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Technology (IJAERT) 176

Volume 4 Issue 5, May 2016, ISSN No.: 2348 8190

2% and 3% and for flexural strength test it was 0.5%,

1% and 1.5%. Three specimen were casted for each
dosage of fibre for both cube of size 150 mm and prism
of 700 x 150 x150mm. All specimen were tested after

28 curing. Specimen with 0% fibre is also casted and

tested.

Table 1 types of fibre used in investigation

Hooked ended
round cross section (HE)

Crimped type
round cross section (CT)

3) Aspect ratio
Aspect ratio is defined as the ratio of length to width /
dia. of the fibre. The value of aspect ratio varies from
30 to 150. Generally the increase in aspect ratio
increases the strength and toughness till the aspect ratio
of 100. Above that the strength of concrete decreases.
In this experiment aspect ratio of 50, 60 and 80
were used.
4) Mixing of matrix
All materials were weigh-batched and thoroughly mixed
manually. Skilled labours were engaged for concreting
work. Fibres were added manually to the concrete after
all the other material components had been mixed
together for at least 3 minutes. The concrete was mixed
another 2 minutes after adding the required quantity of
fibres. Specimens were demoulded after 24 hours and
placed in curing tank.

5) Reinforcement for beam

Beam of under reinforced section is considered for
flexural strength test with the following reinforcement.
Top: 3 nos. of 8 mm dia RTS rod
Bottom: 2 nos. of 8mm dia RTS rod
Stirrups: 6 mm dia @ 130mm c/c

6) Procedure used for Compressive strength

of concrete
After 28 days of curing, concrete cubes were taken out
from the curing tank and water on the surface of the
cube was wiped off with cloth and kept in a
compression testing machine which is 200T capacity.
Cube was so placed and loaded as per the specifications
stated in code and load at first crack and ultimate load
was noted and compressive strength was calculated and
tabulated (see table 2)

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International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Technology (IJAERT) 177

Volume 4 Issue 5, May 2016, ISSN No.: 2348 8190

Table: 2 Average compressive strength of concrete cubes at 28 days

Aspect ratio in x axis

Aspect ratio in x axis

Aspect ratio in x axis

Table 2 and figures 1,2 and 3 show that compressive
strength of concrete cube incorporated with hooked
ended fibre with aspect ratio 60 with dosage of 2%
gives maximum compressive strength than others. It

gives 21% higher strength than the concrete with 0%

dosage. Further it shows in both type of fibre, concrete
with 2% of fibre gives better result than 1% and 3%.
During testing crack pattern was noted. specimen

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International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Technology (IJAERT) 178

Volume 4 Issue 5, May 2016, ISSN No.: 2348 8190

without fibre was disintegrated and sides were fell

down. But specimen incorporated with fibre got crack
but sides were not fell down. It is due to increase in
tensile strength of concrete due to addition of fibre.

noted. Deflection and flexural strength of beams were

and calculated (see table 3)
Deflections due to load were calculated using the
following equilibrium equation for moment.

7) Procedure used for flexural strength test

Beams were taken out from the curing tank after 28
days curing and they were cleaned with cloth and
placed in a universal testing machine in a simply
supported configuration with a span of 550 mm and
load was applied at the third points. The beam was
placed and loaded such that the main reinforcement at
bottom and hanger bars at top. The test procedure
conforms the code requirement. Deflection at regular
interval of loading was noted using deflectometer of
0.02 mm accuracy. Pattern of crack was observed and

EI d2y/dx2 = Px P(x-l/3) P (x-2l/3)

Where,
E = 5000 fck = 5000 25 = 2.5x104 N/mm2
I = moment of inertia of section = bd3//12
= 150 x 1503/12
l = span = 550 mm
P = load at mid third point in Newton
x = moment at a distance from support
Solving the above equation we get y = -5.476x106P
(- sign indicates deflection downward)

Table: 3 Average flexural strength and deflection of reinforced beams at 28 days

Beam
ID

Fibre
type

Aspect
ratio

B1
BH5011
BH5012
BH5013
BH6011
BH6012
BH6013
BH7711
BH7712
BH7713
BC5011
BC5012
BC5013
BC6011
BC6012
BC6013
BC7711
BC7712
BC7713

--

--

HE

50

HE

60

HE

80

CT

50

CT

60

CT

80

Fibre
dosage
%
0
0.5
1
1.5
0.5
1
1.5
0.5
1
1.5
0.5
1
1.5
0.5
1
1.5
0.5
1
1.5

Load (N)
2P
P
21600
25320
24600
23200
26400
25240
22600
23200
24200
23080
23880
24440
23320
26040
24400
22800
23240
23320
20000

Deflection (mm)
observed calculated

10800
12660
12300
11600
13200
12620
11300
11600
12100
11540
11940
12220
11660
13020
12200
11400
11620
11610
10000

0.7
0.2
0.25
0.3
0.12
0.18
0.20
0.20
0.34
0.34
0.20
0.30
0.34
0.28
0.34
0.40
0.42
0.54
0.52

Aspect ratio in x
axis
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0.06
0.07
0.07
0.06
0.07
0.07
0.06
0.06
0.07
0.06
0.07
0.07
0.06
0.07
0.07
0.06
0.06
0.06
0.05

Flexural
Strength
N/mm2
3.59
4.21
4.09
3.86
4.39
4.20
3.76
3.86
4.03
3.84
3.97
4.06
3.88
4.33
4.06
3.79
3.86
3.86
3.32

International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Technology (IJAERT) 179

Volume 4 Issue 5, May 2016, ISSN No.: 2348 8190

Aspect ratio in x
axis

Aspect ratio in x
axis
Table 3 and figures 4, 5 and 6 show the flexural strength
of reinforced beam specimen incorporating with hooked
ended fibre of aspect ratio 60 with the dosage of 0.5%
gives more than the beam with 0% fibre. The
percentage of increased in strength is 22.28%. The
deflection of same specimen shows lesser deflection.
III.

CONCLUSION

From the above experimental investigation, it is

concluded that
1. Compressive strength of the cement concrete is
improved maximum by incorporating of steel fibre of
dosage 2% with aspect ratio 60. After 2% of dosage the
strength reduces.
2. Hooked ended fibre performs well than the crimped
type fibre in. 21% of compressive strength is increased
in cement concrete incorporating of steel fibre than the
conventional concrete.

3. Flexural strength of reinforced cement concrete beam

is increased maximum for 0.5% dosage of fibre in
concrete.
4. In flexural strength also hooked end fibre with aspect
ratio 60 performs well than crimped type fibre.
5. While observing cracks during compressive strength,
the specimen was cracked and after some times of
loading, concretes on surface was fell down in
conventional concrete. Specimen incorporating with
fibre also cracked but in was not fell down. This is due
to steel fibre in concrete. The same was observed in
flexural strength also. In flexural strength test deflection
was controlled in fibre reinforced concrete than
conventional concrete.
6. From the above observations it is concluded that
fibres with aspect ratio 60 performs well than other
aspect ratio.

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International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Technology (IJAERT) 180

Volume 4 Issue 5, May 2016, ISSN No.: 2348 8190

REFERENCES
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