Materials and Structures (2011) 44:109128
DOI 10.1617/s11527-010-9613-9
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
High mechanical performance of fibre reinforced
cementitious composites: the role of casting-flow
induced fibre orientation
Liberato Ferrara Nilufer Ozyurt
Marco di Prisco
Received: 29 April 2009 / Accepted: 12 April 2010 / Published online: 20 April 2010
RILEM 2010
Abstract Governing the dispersion and the orienta-
tion of fibres in concrete through a suitably balanced set
of fresh state properties and a carefully designed
casting procedure, is a feasible and cost-effective way
to achieve a superior mechanical performance of fibre
reinforced cementitious composites, which may be
required by the intended application, even keeping the
fibre content at relatively low values (e.g. around 1%
by volume). In this paper the possibility of pursuing the
above said integrated approach has been addressed
in the framework of larger project focused on devel-
oping a deflection-hardening FRCC (DHFRCC), rein-
forced with 100 kg/m3 (1.27% by volume) of short
steel fibres (13 mm long and 0.16 mm in diameter).
The material has to be employed to manufacture thin
(30 mm) roof elements, without any kind of conven-
tional reinforcement, which have been anticipated to
work, as simply supported beams, over a 2.5 m span.
The study hence paves the way to the possibility of
exploiting at an industrial level the correlation among
L. Ferrara (&)  M. di Prisco
Department of Structural Engineering, Politecnico di
Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milan, Italy
e-mail: liberato.ferrara@polimi.it
M. di Prisco
e-mail: marco.diprisco@polimi.it
N. Ozyurt
Muhendislik Fakultesi, Insaat Muhendisligi Bolumu,
Bogazici University, 34342 Bebek/Istanbul, Turkey
e-mail: nilufer.ozyurt@boun.edu.tr
fresh state performance, fibre dispersion and hardened
state properties of self consolidating steel fibre rein-
forced concrete to achieve enhanced structural perfor-
mance tailored to the specific application.
Keywords Fibre reinforced cementitious
composites  Fresh state performance 
Toughness  Fibre orientation  Constitutive
law identification
1 Introduction
Since the pioneering studies dating back to the early
sixties, research on fibre reinforced cementitious
composites (FRCC) has led to continuous develop-
ments in the concept of new materials, enhanced theory
and modelling, processing and standardization [1].
All along an almost half a century odyssey, improved
products for buildings and structures have been
developed and increasingly demanding and challeng-
ing structural applications have been successfully
attempted. Benefits which can be achieved thanks to
the addition of an even relatively small amount of short
(mainly, even if not exclusively, metallic) fibres to a
cementitious matrix range from obvious ones, in
terms of crack width control, fracture toughness and post-
cracking strength, to durability, ductility, fire resistance,
impact resistance, diffusion resistance, imperviousness
and, last but not least, constructability at reasonable
cost [2].
110
As far the mechanical performance of the material
is concerned, it has been clearly demonstrated that it
can be improved to such a point where the material
may exhibit multiple cracks after initial cracking
associated with a deflection-hardening response in
bending, which may even be accompanied by a strain-
hardening tensile behaviour. The achievement of the
latter rather than the former, which may even be
suitable for several applications, strongly depends on
the amount of fibres, on their dispersion [35] as well
as on their alignment with respect to the direction of
the applied tensile stress [68]. Besides being attrac-
tive from the cost point of view, reducing the fibre
content, while still keeping a deflection hardening
behaviour due to a more favourable orientation, may
also simplify the casting process, thus opening the
way to more widespread and larger scale practical
applications.
Governing the dispersion and the orientation of
fibres in concrete through a suitably balanced set of
fresh state properties and a carefully designed casting
procedure, if proved effective, would hence be a
feasible way to achieve a mechanical performance of
the FRCC which is optimal to the intended applica-
tion. The key idea is that the fluid mixture must be
self compacting, in order to fill the formwork without
any vibration or manual compaction. These opera-
tions may infact hinder homogeneous fibre dispersion
and hence affect the final structural performance due
to flaw effect of fibre-free or poorly reinforced zones.
In details, the fresh state performance of the mixture
must be characterized by an adequate viscosity, to
drive and orient the fibres along the direction of the
casting flow. The value of the yield stress must be also
carefully calibrated to control the downward settle-
ment of fibres due to their higher specific gravity
with respect to the suspending fluid mortar. Finally, the
casting process must be carefully designed so to make
the flow direction of fresh concrete, along which fibres
may be aligned, to match as close as possible with the
direction of the principal tensile stress within the
structural element when in service. In this way a more
efficient structural use of the material can be achieved,
leading to reduced or optimized structure size and self
weights, which also result into a more time- and cost-
effective construction process.
In order to spread this approach into the design and
manufacturing practice of high performance fibre
reinforced concrete (HPFRC) structural elements, the
Materials and Structures (2011) 44:109128
effect of fibre orientation on the mechanical perfor-
mance has to be assessed through a suitable exper-
imental procedure. This should form an integral part
of the design approach in order to identify relevant
material parameters.
In this paper the possibility of pursuing the above
said holistic approach has been addressed in the
framework of larger project focused on developing a
deflection-hardening FRCC, reinforced with 100 kg/m3
(1.27% by volume) of short steel fibres (13 mm long
and 0.16 mm in diameter). The material has to be
employed for thin (30 mm) roof elements, without any
kind of conventional reinforcement, which have been
anticipated to work, as simply supported beams, over a
2.5 m span [9]. Mix-design was first of all designed
through a multi-scale investigation (paste, mortar,
FRCC) of the fresh state behaviour. The efficacy
of the optimized mix composition to guarantee random
dispersion and tailored orientation of fibres was
checked. 1 m 9 0.5 m slabs, 30 mm thick as in the
intended application, were cast, with fresh concrete
flowing parallel either to their long or short side. Beams
were then sawn from hardened slabs with their axis
either parallel and vertical to the flow direction and
then tested in 4-point bending, either according and
upside down to casting, to check for the influence of
downward fibre settlement, if any. The results have
clearly demonstrated the possibility of orienting the
fibres along the casting flow direction of fresh concrete
and the related outcomes in terms of mechanical
performance. In order to clearly quantify the above said
effects a detailed measurement of the fibre orientation
on the fracture cross sections of the tested specimens
has been performed by means of a micro-imaging
analysis technique. The study hence paves the way to
exploit at an industrial level the correlation among
fresh state performance, fibre dispersion and hardened
state properties of FRCC with adapted rheology to
achieve the material performance tailored to the
intended application.
2 Material mix-design and fresh state
performance
The actual mix composition of the HPFRCC
employed in the present investigation, shown in
Table 1, was determined through a multiscale
Materials and Structures (2011) 44:109128
Table 1 Mix design of the employed fibre reinforced
cementitious composite
Constituent Dosage
(kg/m3)
Cement type I 52.5 600
Slag 500
Water 200
Superplasticizer 33 (l/m3)
Sand 02 mm 983
Straight steel fibres 100
(lf = 13 mm; df = 0.16 mm)
optimization procedure. First of all the properties of
the fluid cement paste, as a function of the w/b ratio
and of the superplasticiser (SP) dosage, were assessed
through the mini-cone slump and Marsh cone flow
tests [10, 11]. A set of mortars was hence prepared by
combining in different ratios the sand with cement
pastes, the composition of which was selected among
the previously investigated ones, also as a function of
the actual paste/aggregate ratios. The effect of fibre
addition was finally investigated, also with reference
to the ability of the fibre reinforced fluid mixtures to
drive the fibres and uniformly disperse them. This
was considered as a fundamental feature of the
overall fresh state performance. A detailed descrip-
tion of the mix-design optimization is given else-
where [12]. For the mix composition employed in this
study the results of the above said procedure are
summarized in Table 2 and in Table 3, as far the
stability of the fibres in static and dynamic conditions
is concerned. Despite the good ability of the quite
viscous matrix (see Marsh cone flow times in
Table 2) at driving the fibres along the flow (Table 3,
centre and right column), downward settlement of
fibres was not likely well counteracted (Table 3, left
column), as expectable from the quite low yield stress
of the suspending matrix (pointed out by the quite
Table 2 Multi-scale approach for mix-design optimization: details of the fresh state performance
Cement paste
Composition Slag/cement replacement ratio: 0.5 w/b
0.18 SP 3% (by weight of binder)
Mini-cone flow diameter (mm) 470
Marsh cone flow time (s) 60 0500
/ 11 mm (1lt over 1.5 lt)
111
high mini-cone flow diameters in Table 2). With
reference to the intended application and casting
process, this was deemed as not crucial to the targeted
performance and hence for the present investigation
the selected mix design was regarded as satisfactory.
Further information on the effect of fibre settlement
on the mechanical performance of the composite will
be provided in the forthcoming sections (see also
[13]).
The selected mix was hence tested at a precast
factory plant, where three batches, 1 m3 each, were
prepared and some full-scale prototypes of the
structural elements were cast [9]. The fresh state
performance of the mix was assessed through slump-
flow, V-funnel, L-box, U-box and J-ring tests,
according to the relevant standards [1417], as
summarized in Table 4 (see also Fig. 1 for example
pictures). The results are a clear proof of the almost
self leveling ability of the material, and furthermore
provide some embryonic information about the
robustness of its fresh state performance, with
reference to an on site manufacturing process. It
is worth remarking that the quite high values of the
V-funnel flow time (see also the values of the time to
a 500 mm spread in the slump flow test, T50) are
indicators of a likely high viscosity of the fibre
reinforced composite, which is required to ensure a
good fibre driving ability during the casting flow.
The on-site fresh state characterization was by the
way also instrumental at assessing the need of
defining suitable test methodologies and equipments
to measure the fresh state performance of such a kind
of fibre reinforced cementitious composite, where the
flow through narrow spaces, such as the V-funnel
orifice or the reinforcement gaps in L-box and U-box
devices, may be delayed by the high content of fibres,
but, at the same time, may also be not representative
neither of the intended application, with its geometry
and details, nor of its casting process.
Mortar Fibre reinforced mortar
Vpaste = 0.65 Vfibres = 0.013 (100 kg/m3)
Vsand = 0.35 Vmortar = 0.987
395 368
30 5300
112 Materials and Structures (2011) 44:109128

Table 3 Results of tests for

static and dynamic
Static segregation Dynamic segregation
segregation of fibres (column test) Mini-cone slump flow Channel flow

Fiber dispersion in a channel-

Fiber dispersion in the
Fiber content along column like flow
mini-slump flown patty
height

Table 4 Results of the on site fresh state characterization

Batch Slump flow V-funnel L-box U-box J-ring
Diameter (mm) t50 (s) Flow time tV (s) Height ratio t200 (s) t400 (s) Height ratio Diameter (mm)

1 770 7 23 735
2 730 7
3 775 4 20 1 2.5 4 0.98 755

Fig. 1 On-site fresh state

characterization

Slump-flow V-funnel L-box U-box J-ring

3 Specimen manufacturing
The casting of the specimens tested in the present
study was conceived to mimic, as close as possible,
the casting of the structural elements, so that any
induced anysotropy on the mechanical performance
due to the fibre alignment, as governed by the casting
flow and the fresh concrete viscosity, could be
identified and consistently used to anticipate what
would happen at the true-scale.
Two slabs 30 mm thick, as in the intended struc-
tural application, and measuring 1 m 9 0.5 m in plan
were cast. Fibre reinforced material was poured
directly from the flying bucket moved through the
bridge crane around the precast plant. The slabs were
cast according to two different procedures, which is, as
shown in Fig. 2, either pouring the material at one
short edge of the moulds, and allowing it to flow
parallel to the long sides, or, alternatively, pouring the
material centrally along one long edge and achieving
formwork filling through an almost radial spread of the
fresh concrete.
From the slabs, when hardened, beam specimens
150 mm wide and 500 mm long were cut, according
to the schematic also shown in Fig. 2, to be tested in
4-point bending. In one case (slab A in Fig. 2) the
Materials and Structures (2011) 44:109128
SLAB A
SLAB B
Fig. 2 Schematic of slab-specimen casting and beam cutting
(dashed specimens were further used for fibre orientation
analysis) [measures in mm]
axis of the beams, and hence the direction of the
principal tensile stresses due to the bending action,
was either parallel or perpendicular to the flow
direction of the fresh concrete, along which the fibres
are believed to be aligned. In the other case (slab B in
Fig. 2), the coincidence is likely to be jeopardized by
the radial flow, to an extent which is not easily
a-priori quantifiable, unless through some Computa-
tional Fluid Dynamics modelling of the casting flow
[18]. The position of specimens in the slabs was
devised in such a way that the possible location,
during tests, of the fracture zone was far from regions
were fibre orientation could have been affected
turbulent/transient flow (close to points where con-
crete was poured), with the only exception of beam
T3 in slab A. It has to be remarked that the prediction
of such effects, even through numerical modelling,
Fig. 3 Scheme
and measuring instruments
for 4pb tests
113
may not be a trivial a task, due to the computational
efforts required by the description of a fluid matrix
with embedded discrete wirelike particles, such as
fibres [19, 20]. In addition, wall effect along the
edges of the formworks most likely affected the
behaviour of a few specimens (beam L1 in slab B and
beam T1 in slab B) to an extent not larger than 10%
(as predictable from the ratio between the length of
the fibre lf = 13 mm, to the width of the specimen,
b = 150 mm).
4 Mechanical performance
Beam specimens, cut from hardened slabs as described
in the previous section, were tested in 4-point bending,
according to the set-up shown in Fig. 3. Beams labelled
as L3 and T3 from both slabs were tested upside down
to casting, to check for the effect of downward
settlement of fibres. Tests were performed controlling
the actuator displacement, which was applied at a
5 lm/s rate, and measuring either the deflections below
the loading points and the Crack Opening Displace-
ment (COD) at the beam intrados over a gauge length
equal to 200 mm. The test set-up complies with the
prescriptions of the recently issued Italian guidelines
on the design of SFRC structures [21], where material
characterization through tests on unnotched beams is
recommended in the case of either structural elements
in bending less than 150 mm deep or deflection-
hardening FRCC, which both apply to the present
study.
From the loadCOD behaviour, shown in Fig. 4,
clear evidence appears of the effectiveness to align
the fibres along the flow direction of the fresh
concrete, due to its viscosity, as well as of the
influence of the thus obtained fibre orientation on the
mechanical performance of the composite material in
the hardened state.
114
Fig. 4 LoadCOD curves
for tested beams
In details, it can be observed that:
with reference to slab A, where the moulds were
filled by an almost 1-D flow of the fluid mixture
parallel to the long sides of the slab, beams cut
with their axis parallel to the fresh concrete flow,
along which fibres are likely to be preferentially
oriented, exhibit a deflection-hardening behav-
iour, characterized by a pre-peak multicracking in
the constant bending moment and by a post peak
localization and propagation of a single major;
on the other hand, still with reference to slab A
but for the beams cut with their axis perpendic-
ular to the direction of the casting flow, a
deflection softening-behaviour, like for ordinary
fibre reinforced cementitious composites, was
obtained.
in the case of slab B this remarkable difference in
the mechanical performance could have been
smoothed (jeopardized) by the radial spread of the
fresh concrete which most likely characterized
the filling of formworks.
The limited scattering between results from nomi-
nally identical beam specimens, which in some cases
can also be interpreted in the sight of the previously
recalled wall effect, is a further index of the
appreciable dynamic stability of the fresh concrete,
which is effective, thanks to its viscosity, as above
said, to drive the fibres and orient them along the
casting flow direction, also guaranteeing their rea-
sonably random dispersion within the cast element as
a whole.
Besides this issue, static stability of the fresh
concrete was also evaluated, i.e. its ability to hold,
Materials and Structures (2011) 44:109128
when at rest, fibres in suspension thanks to its yield
stress, thus preventing their downward settlement.
The comparison between the results from beams
tested downside-and upside-down to casting allows to
have a significant insight into this problem. Still with
reference to the beams cut from slab A, a significant
difference in the mechanical performance (e.g. a 25%
less peak load) can be observed for beams cut with
their axis parallel to the flow, whereas the difference
is much less evident (only 10% on the peak load), for
transverse beams cut from slab A, most likely due to
the higher randomness of fibre orientation in the
specimen tested upright. As remarked above, its
original position in the slab was very close with the
zone where fresh concrete was poured. Higher
randomness of fibre orientation, due to the casting
flow directions, can be also called to understand the
differences, which still hold but to a less significant
extent, in the case of beams cut from slab B. The
evident saw-tooth spikes, which stand as a distinctive
feature of the loadcrack opening behaviour mea-
sured for beams tested upright, can be associated to
the formation of a sequence of cracks in the most
downward layer of the beams. This infact coincides
with the uppermost one in the slab as cast, resulting
poorer in fibre due to the fibre settlement. Neverthe-
less, as soon as a crack propagated into the depth of
the fibre-lacking layer and encountered a zone richer
in fibres, the crack propagation was arrested, which
allowed to recover load-bearing capacity, till another
crack formed at another location. This has obviously
affected, as also discussed above, the maximum load-
bearing capacity of the beams, but, thanks to the
reduction of the stored elastic energy, may have also
Materials and Structures (2011) 44:109128
Fig. 5 Crack opening
versus load-point behaviour
for tested beams
SLAB A
been helpful at achieving a more stable post-peak
behaviour, as shown in Fig. 4.
The effect of fibre orientation and downward
settlement on the kinematics and deflection stiff-
ness of the tested beams was also investigated. As it
clearly appears from the evolution of the COD versus
the measured average load-point deflection (Fig. 5),
the performance of beams cut with their axis
transverse to the orientation of the fibres, as induced
by the casting flow, was always characterized by a
faster growing COD, for the same load-point deflec-
tion. This obviously affects the behaviour under
serviceability limit states, since a lower (higher)
crack-opening under a prescribed deflection limit
(e.g. as a function of the span, in a code-wise
perspective), corresponds not only to a higher (lower)
stress retention capacity and hence the ability to
sustain higher (lower) loads, but may also involve an
improved durability.
4.1 Fracture toughness and identification of the
r-w law
A quantitative analysis of the mechanical perfor-
mance has been performed by calculating suitable
toughness indicators as a function of the COD,
coherently with the prescriptions of the above
referred guidelines [21]. Dealing with a deflection-
hardening fibre reinforced material, the behaviour of
which is characterized by a pre-peak multiple crack-
ing followed by a single crack localization, the
processing of the loadCOD curve to the above
said purpose must be handled with care, taking into
115
SLAB B
account the different length scales involved in the
fracture process, to which the guideline prescriptions
have to be furthermore adequately suited.
In the pre-peak regime, where multiple cracking
has been observed in the central constant-bending-
moment region of the specimens, the length-scale
governing the measured loadCOD behaviour may be
reliably assumed equal to the COD-measuring gauge-
length (COD = 200 mm). On the other hand, once
the localization into a single crack has occurred, the
fracture governing length scale can be assumed equal
to the specimen depth h. This does not apply to the
case of beams cut from slab A with the axis vertical
to the flow, for which a conventional-SFRC deflec-
tion-softening behaviour was measured, with no
multiple cracking. The governing length scale is
hence equal to h all along the fracture process.
In this case, coherently with a straightforward
application of current guidelines on the design of
SFRC structures [21], from the nominal stress versus
COD curves, the following equivalent post-cracking
strengths have been calculated as indicators of the
material mechanical performance:
the first cracking matrix strength, fIf, defined as
the maximum nominal stress in the COD range
00.1 mm, the corresponding crack opening
being defined as wI;
the equivalent post-cracking strengths feq,1 and
feq,2, defined as the nominal stress averaged in the
COD range 35 wI (mainly 0.30.5 mm in the
present case) and 0.02 h 20% (0.480.72 mm),
the last one corresponding to an average tensile
116 Materials and Structures (2011) 44:109128

strain over the cross section equal to 1%. The
above said values should be regarded as repre-
sentative of the material load-bearing capacity in
the serviceability and ultimate limit states.
It is by the way worth remarking that for the very
thin structural elements herein dealt with, the second
COD range may prove not adequate for a correct
design-oriented identification of a tensile stress versus
crack-opening law. This either because it is partially
overlapping with the first one and may be not enough
representative of the actual ductility and deformation
capacity of the material. For this reason post-cracking
equivalent strengths corresponding to higher COD
ranges, respectively, equal to 0.04 h 20% and
0.10 h 20%, have been herein calculated. Under
the above recalled assumptions about the characteristic
length governing the fracture process, whenever a
deflection-hardening behaviour accompanied by pre-
peak multiple cracking has been observed, the above
said procedure for the calculation of equivalent post-
cracking strengths was modified as follows:
the peak nominal stress, rN,peak and the correspond-
ing strain epeak = CODpeak/COD were calculated;
the crack opening ranges for equivalent post-
cracking strengths were redefined according to
the following relationships:
for feq,1:
35 wI  epeak h epeak COD 1a
for feq,2:
0:02 h  20%  epeak h epeak COD 1b
for further limits:
0:04 h  20%  epeak h epeak COD 1c
0:10 h  20%  epeak h epeak COD 1d
This results in post-cracking equivalent strengths
which are representative for the same openings of the
localized crack, irrespective of the flow-induced
orientation of fibres with respect to the tensile stress
and of the consequently obtained deflection-harden-
ing or softening behaviour.
The results are summarized in Table 5 for all the 12
tested specimens and provide quantitative confirmation
to the experimental evidence, for a thorough appreci-
ation of the mechanical performance of the material.
An attempt to address the issues concerning the
identification of the tensile stress versus crack-
opening law from bending loadCOD curves has
been also herein performed [22]. For the sake of
consistency, reference has been made only to spec-
imens tested according to casting, assuming average
values for each couple of nominally identical spec-
imens (either L1-2 and T-12 from either slab A or B).
As a starting point reference has been made to the
procedure recommended by the Italian guidelines [21],

Table 5 First cracking and post-cracking equivalent strengths at different COD calculated from load versis COD curves in Fig. 4;
peak stresses and corresponding CODs and strains
Specimen fIf feq,1 (N/mm2) feq,2 (N/mm2) feq (N/mm2) feq (N/mm2) rN peak CODpeak epeak
(N/mm2) 35 wI 0.02 h 20% 0.04 h 20% 0.1 h 20% (N/mm2) (mm)

A-L1 12.6 24.8 23.5 21.6 16.6 26.0 1.08 5.4e-3

A-L2 15.4 26.7 24.6 20.9 12.2 27.6 1.36 6.8e-3
A-L3 11.7 21.4 21.3 19.3 14.6 21.5 2.29 1.2e-2
A-T1 9.2 8.0 8.9 8.6 7.0 9.2 0.08
A-T2 8.9 8.4 8.8 8.4 6.8 8.9 0.10
A-T3 8.9 7.9 8.4 7.8 6.5 8.9 0.05
B-L1 12.4 23.3 23.5 19.8 13.7 24.1 1.12 5.6e-3
B-L2 12.7 22.9 21.4 19.5 15.2 23.5 1.07 5.4e-3
B-L3 12.3 22.6 21.9 18.1 14.5 22.8 1.79 9.e-3
B-T1 12.2 19.7 19.2 16.9 12.2 20.3 1.7 8.5e-3
B-T2 11.7 19.4 18.9 16.2 13.5 19.4 1.04 5.2e-3
B-T3 9.7 17.2 16.9 15.3 11.4 17.6 0.72 3.6e-3
Materials and Structures (2011) 44:109128 117

Fig. 6 Crack opening (a)

stages and related stress
distributions assumed in
[17] for identification of
tensile r-w from bending
tests

(b)

which assumes, for the beam cross section represen-

(a)
tative of the tested specimen, two relevant crack
opening stages, characterized by a crack opening at the
intrados, respectively, equal to 4 wI and wu = 0.02 h,
in correspondence of which the equivalent post-
cracking strengths feq,1 and feq,2 have been calculated.
Relevant parameters of the r-w law through are hence
identified through force and moment equilibrium
equations for the related stress distributions over the
cross section (Fig. 6a, b).
In the case of deflection hardening behaviour, it is
proposed to consider a pre-peak stressstrain law
(Fig. 7a, the first linear elastic branch is coherent (b)
with CEB-Model Code prescriptions) together with a
post-peak stress crack-opening law (Fig. 7b). This
can be still identified as in [21], provided inverse
analysis is carried out, also accounting for the pre-
peak stressstrain law. As a first trial reference has
been made to the same crack opening ranges as above
and hence to feq,1 and feq,2 calculated over the crack
opening ranges defined in (1a) and (1b).
The whole procedure detailed as above resulted in
either the stressstrain and/or stresscrack opening
Fig. 7 Pre-peak stressstrain (a) and post-peak stress crack-
laws shown in Fig. 8ad. It can be observed that, opening (b) laws for deflection-hardening materials (coeffi-
irrespective of the considered fibre orientation, they cients b1, j1 and j2 computed through inverse analysis)
are all featured by a quite steeper post-peal stress
drop, surely not representative of the true, experi- procedure, with related crack opening limits, as
mentally measured material performance. This points defined for conventional fibre reinforced concrete,
out the need to carefully reconsider the above said when a deflection hardening behaviour is considered
118
Fig. 8 Tensile stressstrain
and stress versus crack
opening laws identified
from 4pb tests
Slab A pre-peak
Slab B prepeak
[23]. For this reason, it has been herein proposed to
add a further crack opening stage at wu = 0.10 h and
calculate the corresponding equivalent strength in the
range defined in Eq. 1d. By applying inverse analysis
under the above said assumption, the r-w laws shown
in Fig. 8ad labelled as proposed procedure are
obtained. After an initial stress-drop as before, a more
gentle loss of the post-cracking residual bearing
capacity has been got, which is likely to be much
more consistent with the experimental results. Sig-
nificantly, the crack opening at zero stress turns out
more or less closely to half the fibre length
(lf = 13 mm) for all the investigated cases, which
would result in an average tensile strain over the bent
cross section equal to lf/4 h [24].
Research work is on-going in order to substantiate,
also in the sight of structural behaviour prediction,
the proposed identification procedure.
Materials and Structures (2011) 44:109128
Slab A post-peak
Slab B post-peal
5 Fibre dispersion and orientation analysis
Issues related to dispersion and orientation of fibres in
fibre reinforced cement-based materials have been
recognized to play a significant role on the overall
structural performance, to which aim they have to be
evaluated. Different dispersion characteristics may be
suited for different structural applications: while a
1-D alignment of fibres could be favourable for a
tensile or bent member which will be loaded in only
one direction, random orientation would be nec-
essary for a member which will meet forces from two
(such as a slab) or even three direction, such as for
example in a D-region. Results shown in the previous
sections have clearly demonstrated that fibre disper-
sion and orientation characteristics, as induced by the
casting flow of the fresh concrete thanks to its
suitably calibrated performance in the fresh state,
Materials and Structures (2011) 44:109128
may be crucial to obtain the anticipated high
mechanical performance which is required for the
intended application.
For this reason image analysis was carried out on a
representation selection of tested specimens to eval-
uate the fibre dispersion and orientation characteris-
tics and attempt to find out a correlation with the
previously calculated parameters, representative of
the mechanical performance of the fibre reinforced
composite.
5.1 Fundamentals of the method
Image analysis is a well developed and trusted
method and is widely used to analyze fibre dispersion
properties in different materials. Basically, micro-
graphs are taken from specimen cross sections and
various fibre dispersion related issues can be evalu-
ated, such as fibre segregation, orientation, clumping,
etc. In this study focus was on fibre orientation and,
to a lesser extent, fibre segregation.
Because of the time consumption of the method,
fibre orientation was evaluated with reference to the
fracture surface of the specimens, also for a meaningful
correlation with the measured mechanical properties.
Four among the twelve tested specimens (respectively,
T2 and L2 in both slab A and B, see Fig. 2) were
selected for fibre dispersion analysis, representative of
all the possible combinations of fracture surface
orientation with respect to the casting flow direction.
Due to the roughness of the fracture surface, a
diamond-saw cut was first made by means of a surface
grinder. Micrographs 3 9 3 mm, as shown in Fig. 9
were taken to map the specimen cross section.
Fibre counting was first performed: in order to get
information on the tendency of fibres to downward
settle, each cross section was subdivided into four
layers, having thickness from bottom to top of 9, 9, 9
and 35 mm (depending on the actual thickness). The
number of fibres in each of them was separately
counted and then normalized to the layer area.
The analysis for fibre orientation, being much more
time consuming and labour intensive, was performed
only on selected micrographs for each of the four
specimen cross sections, as shown in Fig. 9b. This
choice is meant, also on the basis of previous inves-
tigation [25] as statistically representative of the fibre
orientation characteristics over the whole section.
119
To study fibre orientation a tensor description
method was used. The method is based on calculating
fibre orientation densities in reference directions. A
detailed description of the method can be found in
literature [2629]. This method is used to understand
fibre dispersion features of polymer matrix compos-
ites. Ozyurt et al. applied the method to study fibre
orientation in cement-based materials [25].
The idea is based on defining 3-D fibre orientation
state of a group of fibres by using a 2-D micrograph of
a sample. For a single fibre, the orientation state can be
described using in-plane (/0 ) and out-of-plane (h0 )
angles (Fig. 10). On the other hand, to describe the
fibre orientation state of a number of fibres that are
distributed in a volume, a more general description is
needed. The most commonly used description is the
probability distribution function, w, which gives the
probability of encountering a fibre between the angles
h0 1 and (h0 1 ? dh0 ) and /0 1 and (/0 1 ? d/0 ), and is
defined as,
Ph01  h0  h01 dh0 ; /01  /0  /01 d/0
wh01 ; /01 sinh01 dh0 d/0 2
It is also possible to involve fibre length as a
variable in Eq. 2 [27]; however this was not neces-
sary in this study, since rigid fibres with uniform
circular cross-section and uniform length were used.
Thus, fibre length was not considered as a variable.
As an alternative and simpler way, it is common to
use a unit vector p, as shown in Fig. 9, to define
orientation of a single fibre.
The components of p in three directions give the
orientation state of a single fibre in reference directions
px0 sin h0 cos /0
py0 sin h0 sin /0
pz0 cos h0
Since w (p) is a density function, the following
normalization condition is valid.
Zp Z2p I
wh0 ; /0 sin h0 dh0 d/0 wdp 1 4
h0 0 /
The orientation distribution function, w (p), is known
as a complete and general method to obtain the fibre
orientation state; however, it is mentioned by various
researchers [26, 28, 29] that the practical use of
the function is cumbersome and needs intensive
120 Materials and Structures (2011) 44:109128

(a)

30mm

81m m 60m m

3m m

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 (c)
40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51
52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66
67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81

82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96
97 98 99 100 101 102 1 03 104 1 05 10 6 107 108
109 110 111 112 113 114 1 15 116 1 17 11 8 119 120
121 122 123 124 125 126 1 27 128 1 29 13 0 131 132

(b)

Fig. 9 Specimen fracture surface after grinding and polishing (a); chessboard schematic for representative micrographs (b) and
example of a micrograph (c)

z orientation state. The calculations of orientation

tensors are straightforward, and they give concise
information about the fibre orientation density. Ori-
p entation tensors are obtained from moments of the
orientation distribution function. Non-even moments
are zero due to the symmetry of the function and
generally second order tensors are used to define
y orientation density.
P 0 0
p i p j n Fn
x aij P i; j x; y; z 5
Fn
Fig. 10 Description of the orientation state of a single fibre, In Eq. 5, aij stands for the components of the
in-plane (/0 ) and out-of-plane (h0 ) angles
orientation tensor, pi0 and pj0 represent components of
calculations. Therefore, Advani and Tucker [28] the unit vector p, F stands for the weighting function,
proposed the use of orientation tensors instead of and the subscript n shows the number of fibres. The
orientation distribution functions to describe the weighting function (F) is used to account for the effect
Materials and Structures (2011) 44:109128 121

of fibre orientation on the probability of being inter-
cepted by the cross-section under consideration. It is
clear that the probability of intercepting a fibre which is
aligned vertical to the cutting plane is much higher
compared to a fibre aligned parallel to the section. To
obtain an unbiased estimate of fibre orientation, every
component should be weighted as described in Eq. 6
[27], where L stands for fibre length and h0 represents
the out-of-plane angle. h0 c is the cutoff angle that can be
described as the angle above which a fibre has a useful
projected height of fibre diameter d.
1 the flow also appears from the calculated values of
Fn for h0 \h0c
L cosh0n
 
l 0 0 0 1 d
Fn for h [ hc and hc cos 6 It is furthermore worth remarking that the number of
d L
Global fibre orientation angles (h, /) have to be
determined from calculated fibre orientation angles (h0 ,
/0 ) considering the fact that measured angles depend
on the direction of the sectioning plane. The relation-
ship between h0 , /0 and the global fibre orientation
angles h, / is given in Table 8 in Appendix A, as
suggested by Rawal et al. [30].
5.2 Analysis of results: fibre counting
and orientation factor
Results of fibre counting on the fracture cross
sections of the four examined specimens are summa-
rized in Table 6: the orientation factor a, calculated
from the specific number of fibres through the well
known formula by Soroushian and Lee [31], clearly
show how effectively the fibres can be aligned along
the casting flow direction of fresh concrete. The
influence of the casting geometry on the direction of
the orientation factor, substantially confirming the
rough predictions on the supposed flow lines (Fig. 2).
fibres, as counted on the different layers along the
specimen depth, highlights that a certain, not negli-
gible, downward settlement of fibres has occurred.
This on one hand justifies the worst performance of
specimens tested upright to casting and, on the other
hand, has promoted a dedicated investigation to
suitably modify the mix composition in order to
reasonably overcome this drawback [13].

Table 6 Details of fibre

Spec-ID Layers Area No. of Fibres/cm2 % fibres/cm2 Af
a = nfibres V
counting from micrograph f
(cm2) fibres (nfibres)
analysis and fibre
orientation factors on A-L2 Top 7.2 130 17.9 9.0 0.282
fracture cross section of
selected specimens Top-int. 12.3 692 56.1 28.0 0.885
Bottom-int. 12.3 823 66.8 33.3 1.054
Bottom 13.8 818 59.4 29.7 0.937
Total 45.7 2463 53.9 100 0.850
A-T2 Top 6.7 112 16.7 15.7 0.263
Top-int. 12.7 491 38.7 36.3 0.611
Bottom-int. 12.0 297 24.8 23.2 0.391
Bottom 12.7 336 26.5 24.8 0.418
Total 44.1 1236 28.0 100 0.442
B-L2 Top 5.8 117 20.3 11.6 0.320
Top-int. 12.6 580 46 26.2 0.726
Bottom-int. 13.0 575 44.4 25.3 0.700
Bottom 13.7 887 64.8 36.9 1.022
Total 45 2159 48.0 100 0.757
B-T2 Top 9.4 143 15.2 11.5 0.240
Top-int. 12.1 325 26.9 20.5 0.424
Bottom-int. 13.1 577 43.9 33.4 0.693
Bottom 12.1 548 45.4 34.5 0.716
Total 46.7 1593 34.1 100 0.538
122
5.3 Micrograph analysis
A deeper insight into the orientation of the fibres with
respect to the fracture surface has been obtained
through the micrograph analysis and data processing
described in the previous section. The schematics in
Figs. 11 and 12 and data in Table 7 detail for each
specimen and for each of the examined fracture
surface subsections the computed values of the
orientation density in the x, y and z directions.
The results referring to the whole fracture surface
provide a strong quantitative evidence to what above
said for the orientation of the fibres along the
direction of the flow, also highlighting a remarkable
difference to the geometry of the casting. As it is
plain from the data, in the case of slab A, cast
allowing an almost 1-D flow parallel to the longer
boundaries, the value of the fibre orientation density
in the direction of the flow is more than twice than in
the transverse direction. On the other hand, in the
case of slab B, where the moulds were most likely
filled by a radial spread of the fluid concrete, a ratio
close to 1.5 between the fibre orientation density in
the two directions of the plane was computed,
coherently with the flow lines hypothesized in Fig. 2.
It is likewise evident, by looking at the results in
each single cell as well as at the averages and related
scattering (Table 7) computed over each single layer,
that results are less dispersed and more coherent with
the global tendency, as above illustrated, in the
bottom layers, close to the mould bottom surface,
whereas they tend to become larger dispersed when
approaching to the free surface of the castings. This
can be explained by considering the transition from a
shear flow, close to the moulds, towards an exten-
sional flow, close to the free surfaces, the former
being much more effective than the latter in driving
and orienting the fibres along its direction [32].
6 Correlation between mechanical properties
and fibre orientation
The correlation between the orientation of the fibres,
evaluated as above, and the mechanical properties of
the composite has been finally quantitatively assessed.
A remarkable dependence is observed of the toughness
properties of the material at different levels of crack
Materials and Structures (2011) 44:109128
Fig. 11 Fibre orientation densities in specimens cut from slab c
Acast parallel to the long side: schematic of the analyzed
specimen position and reference system (a); results from
micrograph analysis for fracture surfaces of specimens L2 (b)
and T2 (c)
opening on the fibre orientation density vertical to the
fracture surface (Fig. 13).
This provides solid experimental evidence to the
idea that the fresh state properties of the material and
the casting process can be effectively tailored to orient
the fibres along the direction of the tensile stresses.
When applied within the structural element in service,
this yields superior material and structural perfor-
mance. Minimum values of the orientation factors
could hence be specified in order to achieve the
required mechanical performance; the casting and
manufacturing process could also be suitably designed
to obtain the optimized orientation through the aid of
computational fluid dynamics modelling of fresh
concrete flow. Non-destructive techniques for fibre
dispersion and orientation monitoring should finally be
used for continuing quality control.
7 Concluding remarks
The present study has shown that the orientation of
steel fibres within a SFRC structural element can be
effectively governed through a well balanced fresh
state performance, as obtainable by virtue of an
appropriate mix composition, and a suitably designed
casting process.
The orientation of the fibres significantly affects,
as expectable, the mechanical performance of the
fibre reinforced cementitious composites. This may
be a discriminating factor to obtain a high mechanical
performance of the material, such as for example
deflection hardening or even reliable strain hardening
behaviour, besides suitable selection of fibre type,
fibre volume fraction, fibrematrix bond and matrix
characteristics.
The procedure for the identification of the stress
strain and/or stresscrack opening laws to be used in
design should be coherent for both deflection soften-
ing and deflection hardening behaviour, which may
pertain to the same material as a function of fibre
orientation. In this paper the procedure recommended
by Italian guidelines for conventional SFRCs has
been adapted to deflection hardening behaviour
Materials and Structures (2011) 44:109128 123

(a) z

y T2 L2
x G3L3T
XZ
Casting
YZ

0,156 0,168

0,616 0,634

0,229 0,198
SLAB A
(b)
x 0.198
L2 y 0.634
z 0.168

0.018 0.050 0.089 0.307 0.005

0.955 0.878 0.911 0.566 0.836
0.027 0.072 0.000 0.126 0.159

TOP

0.104 0.257 0.105 0.451

TOP
0.810 0.610 0.771 0.369
0.086 0.133 INTERM. 0.124 0.180

0.120 0.166 0.074 BOTTOM 0.329 0.301

0.676 0.626 0.690 0.255 0.437
0.204 0.209 0.237 INTERM. 0.417 0.261

0.429 0.123 0.190 0.106

0.542 0.766 BOTTOM 0.559 0.742
0.029 0.111 0.251 0.151

(c)
x 0.229
T2 y 0.616
z 0.156
0.221 0.328 0.116
0.681 0.566 0.856
Empty 0.098 0.105 0.027
TOP

0.573 0.247 TOP 0.672 0.167

0.381 0.561 0.224 0.435
0.045 0.192 INTERM. 0.103 0.398

0.239 0.201 0.224 0.156

0.668 0.751 0.511 BOTTOM 0.755
0.094 0.048 0.264 INTERM. 0.129

0.159 0.276 0.100 0.191

0.805 0.684 BOTTOM 0.781 0.677
0.063 0.040 0.120 0.132
124 Materials and Structures (2011) 44:109128

(a) Casting
L2
T2 XZ

YZ

0,072 0,046

0,379 0,348

0,549 0,606
SLAB B
(b)
x 0.549
L2
G3S1P y 0.379
z 0.072
x=0.214 0.546 0.282 0.444 0.277
y=0.744 0.293 0.708 0.424 0.526
z=0.043 0.162 0.010 0.132 0.196

TOP

0.668 0.593 TOP 0.404 0.459

0.260 0.353 0.550 0.444
0.071 0.054 INTERM. 0.045 0.098

0.661 0.550 0.767 BOTTOM 0.514 0.508

0.262 0.371 0.178 0.417 0.401
0.076 0.079 0.055 INTERM. 0.069 0.091

0.553
0.717 0.612 0.537
0.225 0.343 BOTTOM 0.379
0.360
0.068
0.058 0.044 0.103

(c)
x 0.606
T2
G3S1T y 0.348
z 0.046

x 0.952 0.880 0.448

y 0.028 0.090 0.339 Empty
z 0.020 0.030 Empty
0.213
TOP

0.825 0.840 0.634 0.829

0.113 0.118
TOP 0.346 0.125
0.061 0.042 INTERM. 0.019 0.046

0.702 0.657 0.541 0.630 0.381

BOTTOM
0.264 0.292 0.442 0.340 0.542
0.034 0.051 0.016 INTERM. 0.031 0.077

0.381 0.521 0.458 0.398

0.546 0.448 BOTTOM 0.507 0.541
0.073 0.031 0.034 0.060
 Materials and Structures (2011) 44:109128 125

b Fig. 12 Fibre orientation densities in specimens cut from slab Table 7 continued
Bcast parallel to the short side: schematic of the analyzed
specimen position and reference system (a); results from Specimen Layer Average Coefficient
micrograph analysis for fracture surfaces of specimens L2 (b) of variation
and T2 (c)
Top-intermediate
X 0.531 0.12
Y 0.402 0.12
Table 7 Results of micrograph analysis of specimen fracture
surfaces: average values and coefficient of variations of ori- Z 0.067 0.02
entation numbers in x, y, z directions Bottom-intermediate
X 0.600 0.11
Specimen Layer Average Coefficient
of variation Y 0.326 0.10
Z 0.074 0.01
A-L2 Top
Bottom
X 0.094 0.12
X 0.605 0.08
Y 0.829 0.15
Y 0.327 0.07
Z 0.077 0.07
Z 0.068 0.02
Top-intermediate
B-T2 Top
X 0.229 0.16
X 0.760 0.27
Y 0.640 0.20
Y 0.152 0.16
Z 0.131 0.04
Z 0.088 0.11
Bottom-intermediate
Top-intermediate
X 0.198 0.11
X 0.782 0.10
Y 0.647 0.19
Y 0.176 0.11
Z 0.266 0.09
Z 0.042 0.02
Bottom
Bottom-intermediate
X 0.212 0.15
X 0.582 0.13
Y 0.652 0.12
Y 0.376 0.11
Z 0.135 0.09
Z 0.042 0.02
A-T2 Top
Bottom
X 0.222 0.11
X 0.440 0.06
Y 0.701 0.15
Y 0.510 0.05
Z 0.077 0.04
Z 0.050 0.02
Top-intermediate
X 0.415 0.24
Y 0.400 0.14 through suitable offset with respect to the peak of
Z 0.184 0.15 the relevant crack opening ranges for the calculation
Bottom-intermediate of post-cracking equivalent strengths. The check of
X 0.205 0.04 the reliability of the proposed identification proce-
Y 0.671 0.11 dure is on going.
Z 0.134 0.09 All what above said converges towards the defi-
Bottom nition of a holistic design approach, which tailors
X 0.182 0.07 both the material composition and the casting process
Y 0.737 0.07 to the anticipated structural performance. This would
Z 0.089 0.04 require the orientation of fibres to match as close as
B-L2 Top possible with the direction of the principal tensile
X 0.353 0.14 stress within the structural element when in service,
Y 0.539 0.19
so to achieve a more efficient structural use of the
Z 0.127 0.06
material. In this way a desirable closer correspon-
dence between the shape of an element and the
126
Fig. 13 Correlation between mechanical performance of the
fibre reinforced cementitious composite (post-cracking equiv-
alent stresses) and fibre orientation parameters
function it performs in a structure assembly could be
pursued in the design. A suitably balanced fresh-state
performance of the fibre reinforced cementitious
composite would allow to mould the shape of an
element and, thanks to a tailored casting process, to
orient the fibres along the direction of the principal
tensile stresses resulting from its structural function.
This work has been also instrumental at highlight-
ing some open questions which, in the authors
opinion, still hold and deserve further investigation at
both the theoretical and applied research level, as
hereafter pointed out:
Materials and Structures (2011) 44:109128
quality control procedures for fresh state : due the
peculiarity of the material test methods currently
applied for plain SCC, also employed in the
present study, may not be immediately applicable
and an effort in defining the most suitable tests as
well as towards some standardization should be
done. This requires robustness tests on the field,
on construction sites and in precast factories, to
also assess the robustness of the mix-design
methodologies and validate the proposed test
methods;
monitoring of fibre dispersion related issues: image
analysis, as herein performed for a pilot study and a
limited number of specimens, is an extremely time
consuming and labour intensive method. Fast and
reliable non-destructive techniques have been
developed and assessed at the lab-specimen scale
and their transfer into full-scale structural
applications has been addressed. An effort from
the industry is required to check the suitability of
the different techniques developed so far, with
reference to a broader range of case studies, so to
effectively implement them into quality control
procedures of material suppliers and (precast)
structural element manufacturers;
quality control procedures for hardened state
performance: they actually represent another key
issue for structural design since material proper-
ties relevant to it need to be experimentally
identified. Also in this case the peculiarity of the
material and of the designed structural applica-
tions have to be considered form case to case:
specimens should be designed, cast and tested so
to mimic the manufacturing process and the
structural function of the element when in service,
mainly as far as the dispersion and orientation of
fibres is concerned. Modelling of fresh concrete
flow can provide reliable tools to design the
casting process for optimum fibre dispersion and
orientation. It is furthermore important to account
for the anisotropy of the material, due to flow-
induced fibre-orientation, both in design and
experimental identification of material properties.
Acknowledgements Cooperation between Politecnico di
Milano and Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey, was made
possible by the support of the regional Council of Lombardia,
Project Code PD08BVARI01 which is gratefully acknowledged.
Work on micrograph image analysis done at Bogazici
Materials and Structures (2011) 44:109128 127

University, Istanbul, was funded by Bogazici University section is not needed becuase, only the orientation
Research Fund, Project Code 07HA403. The support of BASF densities in the reference directions (x, y, z) were
Construction Chemicals within a research grant to Politecnico di
Milano is also gratefully acknowledged. needed and these values were not affected by the
symmetry assumption.
2. The probability (of a fibre) of being intercepted
Appendix A by the cross-section under consideration. It is
well known that the probability of intercepting a
See Table 8. fibre which is aligned vertical to the cutting plane
is much higher compared to a fibre aligned
parallel to the section. F function is used to count
Table 8 Calculation of global fibre orientation angles [27] in for this effect.
3. The third ambiguity occurs due to the fibres
Section Local coordinates Vector components
plane on the section plane oriented nearly perpendicular to the sectioning
plane (h0 & 0). That ambiguity can be decreased
XY x0 = x px = sin h0 cos /0
by increasing the magnification of micrographs.
y0 = y py = sin h0 sin /0
In this study, the tendency of fibres being oriented
z0 = z pz = cos h0
in reference directions was needed. There-
XZ x0 = x px px0 sinh0 cos/0
fore, a detailed error analysis was not carried
y0 = -z py pz0 cosh0
z0 = y pz py0 sinh0 sin/0
out, instead orientation analysis was repeated
z
without including the fibres with h0 \ 5 and the
results were compared (Table 9). No drastic
change is seen in the resulting orientation tenden-
cies, when fibres with h0 \ 5 are not included.
y

x
x y Table 9 Orientation density functions calculated for all fibres
and selected fibres
YZ x0 = y px pz0 cosh0
Specimen All fibres included Selected fibres (fibres with
y =z0
py px0 sinh0 cos/0 h0 \ 5 not included)
z0 = x pz py0 sinh0 sin/0
z A-T2
px 0.229 0.199
y
py 0.616 0.639
x pz 0.156 0.162
y
A-L2
z
px 0.198 0.240
x
py 0.634 0.560
pz 0.168 0.200
B-L2
Appendix B
px 0.549 0.519
py 0.379 0.404
Errors and ambiguities involved in measurement
pz 0.072 0.077
1. Two possible values of in plane angle since fibres B-T2
with orientations /0 and /0 ? 180 have identical px 0.606 0.639
cross-sections. For complete 3-D information, at py 0.348 0.312
least 2 orthogonal cross-section of a specimen pz 0.046 0.049
should be analyzed. In this study a second cross-
128
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