BOSFAINSTITUTE

CONCRETE Pty LtdOF AUSTRALIA WESTERN AUSTRALIA CHAPTER 9th May 2017

FIBRES FOR CRACK CONTROL

Dr Tian Sing Ng MIEAust CPEng RPEQ NER

Engineering Manager, Bekaert BOSFA

Research Fellow, Curtin University
National Councillor, Concrete Institute of Australia
Deputy Chair, Engineers Australia Western Sydney

tian@bosfa.com

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BOSFA Pty Ltd

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BOSFA Pty Ltd

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Design
BOSFARules for Steel Fibre Reinforced Concrete
Pty Ltd

National standards on Australian Standard

beam test: New Zealand Standard fib TG 8.3 Design of AS 5100.5 (Draft)
DBV, CUR, NBN, NF,
National Design NZS 3101 adopts RILEM FRC structures contains SFRC for first
UNE, ….
Recommendations SFRC design approach Mode Code time
2006 2009 2014

1980… 1995 2003 2008 2012

Test methods to Dramix® Guideline RILEM TC 162-TDF ACI 318 Building Code EC2 Building Code
determine SFRC Design of concrete Test and design contains definition of Kick-off meeting on
peformance: structures: steel wire fibre methods for steel fibre structural SFRC for shear 30 Oct 2012
JSCE-SF4 (1983), reinforced concrete reinforced concrete reinforcement
ASTM C1018 structures with or without (International group of
ordinary reinforcement Universities)
(Belgian initiative: Bekaert,
Ugent, KULeuven, WTCB)

• Australian Standard AS 5100.5 – 31 Mar 2017

• Australian Standard AS 3600 – 201X

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Presentation outline
BOSFA Pty Ltd

• Overview of Crack Control Approach in Australian Standards

• Overview of Fibre Reinforced Concrete

• AS 5100.5 – 2017 Approach for Crack Control using SFRC

• Crack Processes in Reinforced Concrete

• Effect of Steel Fibres in Reinforced Concrete

• Project Examples

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Types
BOSFAof Pty
Cracks
Ltd

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Current
BOSFAAustralian
Pty Ltd Standards Crack Control Provisions

AS 3600 Cl. 2.3.3.2 (e)

Pre-hardening cracking shall be controlled by appropriate specification
and construction measures……

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Current
BOSFAAustralian
Pty Ltd Standards Crack Control Provisions

Load Induced Tensile &

Flexural Cracking
Reinforcement as per
Concrete mix design & AS3600 & AS5100.5
Section 4 Durability • Clause 8.6,
• Clause 9.4.1
Shrinkage and temperature crack • Clause 9.4.2
Reinforcement as per • Clause 9.4.4
• Clause 9.4.3 • Clause 9.4.5
• Clause 11.7.2
Jointing system

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ASBOSFA
Provisions – Load Induced Tensile & Flexural Cracking
Pty Ltd

 Deemed to comply steel stresses

 AS 3600 & AS 5100.5 generally based on nominal crack width of 0.3 mm

 AS 3735 generally based on nominal crack width of 0.15 mm

Australian Standard Allowable Steel Stress fs (MPa) for Different Applications

Papworth & Bamforth, 2009

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ASBOSFA
Provisions - Shrinkage and temperature cracking
Pty Ltd

 Deemed to comply steel ratios

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ASBOSFA
Provisions - Shrinkage and temperature cracking
Pty Ltd

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ASBOSFA
Provisions - Shrinkage and temperature cracking
Pty Ltd

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SLS CrackPty
BOSFA Design
Ltd

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SLS CrackPty
BOSFA Design
Ltd

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SLS CrackPty
BOSFA Design
Ltd

CIA Z7/6 also provides guidance for estimating crack width.

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SLS CrackPty
BOSFA Design
Ltd

Functionality

Watertightness
Durability
etc…

Appearance

Owner
requirement etc…

Crack width

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SLS CrackPty
BOSFA Design
Ltd

Crack width – Key to Durability

Cover to reinforcement:
prolong carbonation process and chloride diffusion

Crack width:
prevent direct ingress of chloride and CO2 at the reinforcement level

Watertightness Crack Width

 Fine cracks, less than 0.2 mm, will heal and seal themselves as water penetrates
through the crack.
 Calcium hydroxide salts are dissolved from the cement matrix and, on contact with
carbon dioxide, crystals of calcium carbonate will be deposited in the cracks.
 This forms autogenous healing and effectively sealing the cracks.

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Steel Fibre
BOSFA PtyReinforced
Ltd Concrete (SFRC)

Overview of
Fibre Reinforced Concrete

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How Does
BOSFA FRC
Pty LtdWork?

Fibres – like all reinforcement – become effective AFTER cracking develops

 Fibres provide POST-CRACKING (RESIDUAL) tensile strength

 Fibres control crack
 Fibres do not prevent formation of crack

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Fibres
BOSFAin Pty
Concrete
Ltd

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How Does
BOSFA FRC
Pty LtdWork – Analogy

Plain Concrete

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How Does
BOSFA FRC
Pty LtdWork – Analogy

Fibre Reinforced Concrete

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How Does
BOSFA FRC
Pty LtdWork – Analogy

Fibre Reinforced Concrete

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How Does
BOSFA FRC
Pty LtdWork – Analogy
All concrete shrinks & will likely to crack…

Fibre Model
Constitutive Reinforced
usedConcrete
for FRC (steel, synthetic) Design

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How Do Fibre
BOSFA Works – Analogy
Pty Ltd

Synthetic Fibres - Very wide

crack before fibre becoming
engaged and effective

Synthetic fibres – Low Young’s

modulus

Fibre Reinforced Concrete

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Performance of SFRC
BOSFA Pty Ltd
Not all fibres perform similarly.
Different fibre different performance

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Performance of SFRC
BOSFA Pty Ltd
Not all fibres perform similarly.
Different fibre different performance

 Bond strength of fibres

o Type of anchorage/fibres type
o Fibre strength;
o Elastic modulus (stretch-ability); and
o Concrete strength

 Distribution & orientation of steel fibres

 Fibre dosage (amount of fibres in the concrete mix)

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Steel Fibre
BOSFA PtyReinforced
Ltd Concrete (SFRC)

Establishing performance

Direct tensile test

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Steel Fibre
BOSFA PtyReinforced
Ltd Concrete (SFRC)

Establishing performance

Notched three point bending test

EN 14651

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Steel Fibre
BOSFA PtyReinforced
Ltd Concrete (SFRC)

Establishing properties Notched three point bending test

• Tensile Strength ≠ FR value obtained from test result

• DR AS5100.5 (2014)

• fib Model Code 2010 (2013)

fR,1 fR,2 fR,3 fR,4

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Steel Fibre
BOSFA PtyReinforced
Ltd Concrete (SFRC)

Establishing SLS properties

Notched three point bending test
• Tensile Strength ≠ FR value obtained from test result

• AS5100.5 Strength Property

for SLS Design

• fib Model Code 2010 (2013)

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Steel Fibre
BOSFA PtyReinforced
Ltd Concrete (SFRC)

AS 5100.5 – 2017 Approach for

Crack Control using
Steel Fibre Reinforced Concrete

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SFRC – SLS
BOSFA PtyDesign
Ltd
AS 5100.5 – 2017 Deemed to comply requirement to obtain controlled crack formation

Eqn 16.4.5.3 (1)

What don‘t we know?

 Crack width.

Without knowing crack width, we cannot design for durability

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SFRC – SLS
BOSFA PtyDesign
Ltd
AS 5100.5 – 2017 Deemed to comply requirement to obtain controlled crack formation

Eqn 16.4.5.3 (1)

What do we know on SFRC?

 Most SFRC’s are strain softening.
 ft of uncracked SFRC section > ft of cracked SFRC section.
 Cracked section is the weakest section.
 It is not possible to determine accurately if and where the concrete section
will crack again.
 It is not possible to determine the crack width for strain softening SFRC.

Strain softening SFRC is used in combination with conventional reinforcement

for crack width design

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Steel Fibre
BOSFA PtyReinforced
Ltd Concrete (SFRC)

Crack Processes in
Reinforced Concrete

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SLS CrackPty
BOSFA Reinforcement
Ltd Requirements

Every Reinforcement needs to fulfil two basic requirements:

• strong enough:
the cracked sections must always be stronger than the uncracked
section and it must not break

• stiff enough:
the reinforcement must neither yield nor stretch nor creep

• Reinforcements which do not fulfil both requirements are never

suitable to achieve crack control.

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SLS Crack Reinforcement Requirements
How much does it take to tear 1 m² of plain concrete apart?
uncracked cracked

fctm = 3 MPa
Ec = 30,000 MPa

Δec / Fs
1m

1m

differential strain Δec: cracking force Fcr:

Δec = fctm / Ec = 3 MPa / 30,000 MPa Fcr = 3 MPa ∙1 m ∙ 1m = 3 MN
Δec = 0.01 %
This corresponds to 10oC temperature difference
or 0.01 % shrinkage strain.

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 SLS Crack Reinforcement Requirements
How much does it take to keep the forces in equilibrium?
uncracked cracked

fctm = 3 MPa
Ec = 30,000 MPa

Fs, As
1m

100%

1m

plain concrete
This corresponds to force in steel Fs:
6000 mm² reinforcement = 30 x N16mm
Fs = Fcr
and is already stretching the rebars
Fs = 3 MPa ∙1 m ∙ 1m = 3 MN
(ss = fy = 500 MPa)

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SLS Crack Reinforcement Requirements

Concrete is strong but Concrete cannot compensate normal shrinkage or

temperature differences
– will always crack.
– already needs heavy reinforcement to maintain the equilibrium of forces
– needs even more reinforcement for crack control.
Crack Processes

Tensile behaviour of Reinforced Concrete

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Crack Processes of Conventional Reinforced Concrete

Stage 1: Initiation & Formation of Primary Cracks

reinforced
crack concrete
rebar

Δe Δe

es
emax
Strain Diagram
ecr ≤ fc,t / Ec,t

0.0
ls ls ls ls

ec ec: concrete strain

es: steel strain
ls: transmission length
Crack spacing ≥ 2ls
Cracks can still form

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Crack Processes of Conventional Reinforced Concrete
Stage 2: Final State of Cracking
Stage 3: No new cracks. Existing cracks widen. reinforced
crack concrete
rebar

Δe Δe

existing cracks widen

es
emax
esm
ecr ≤ fc,t / Ec,t

0.0
ls ls ls ls ls

ec sr,max only here a new crack would just

ec: concrete strain
es: steel strain be possible
ls: transmission length

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Crack Width: the Very Principle Equation

w k  sr ,max  e  f
sm  e cm 
crack maximum crack average strain
width distance = 2∙ls between two cracks

This principle can be found in the CIA Z7/06 Guidelines, fib Model Code (2010), Eurocode 2

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Steel Fibre
BOSFA PtyReinforced
Ltd Concrete (SFRC)

Effect of Steel Fibres in

Reinforced Concrete

(How steel fibres work in combined reinforcement.)

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Effect of Steel Fibres on Crack Width

Traditional reinforcement:

Δe

combined reinforcement:

Δe

same reinforcement + steel fibres = more but smaller cracks

→ better

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Effect of Steel Fibres on Crack Width

uncracked cracked uncracked cracked

first crack
force in rebar
tensile strength
post crack
rebar
tensile strength

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Effect of Steel Fibres on Crack Width
How much does it take to tear 1 m² of SFRC concrete apart?
uncracked cracked

fctm = 3 MPa
Ec = 30,000 MPa

Δec / Fs
1m

1m

differential strain Δec: cracking force Fcr:

Δec = fctm / Ec = 3 MPa / 30,000 MPa Fcr = 3 MPa ∙1 m ∙ 1m = 3 MN
Δec = 0.01 %
This corresponds to 10oC temperature difference
or 0.01 % shrinkage strain.
SIMILAR TO PLAIN CONCRETE….

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 Effect of Steel Fibres on Crack Width
How much does it take to keep the forces in equilibrium?
uncracked cracked

fctm = 3 MPa
Ec = 30,000 MPa
fctR = 1 MPa
Fs, As
1m

100%

1m af

fibre concrete
This corresponds to force in steel Fs:
4000 mm² reinforcement = 20 x N16mm
Fs = Fcr – Ffibers
(ss = fy = 500 MPa)
Fcr = 3 MPa ∙1 m ∙ 1m = 3 MN
only 2/3 of plain concrete…. Ffibers = 1 MPa ∙1 m ∙ 1m = 1 MN
Fs = 3 MN -1 MN = 2 MN

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Effect of Steel Fibres on Crack Width

Stage 1: Initiation & Formation of Primary Cracks combined

crack reinforced
rebar concrete

Δe Δe

es
emax
es + fibres
ecr ≤ fc,t / Ec,t

0.0
ls ls
ls ec + fibres
ec sr,max
ec: concrete strain
es: steel strain
ls: transmission length
effect of fibres: in RED color

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Effect of Steel Fibres on Crack Width
Stage 2: Final State of Cracking
Stage 3: No new cracks. Existing cracks widen. combined
crack reinforced
rebar concrete

Δe Δe

es es + fibers
emax

ecr ≤ fc,t / Ec,t

0.0

ec ec + fibres
ec: concrete strain
es: steel strain
ls: transmission length
effect of fibres: in RED color

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Crack Width: the Very Principle Equation

w k  sr ,max  e  f
sm  e cm 
sr ,max  1  a f  sr ,max( plain)

e f sm  e cm  1  a f  e f sm  e cm plain

100%

af = fctR,s / fctm
af

fibre concrete

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SFRC – Crack
BOSFA Width Design
Pty Ltd
Many design models are available; the following is a model extracted from the German
DafStb guidelines

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SFRC – Crack
BOSFA Width Design
Pty Ltd

Examples

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ASBOSFA
5100.5Pty
– Chapter
Ltd 16 Steel Fibre Reinforced Concrete

Whilst cover to reinforcement is critical….

Combined SFRC + Reinforcement

• Design for Crack Control
• Design for Durability
Note:
This approach may give less accurate results for SFRC reinforced with small
amount of longitudinal reinforcement such as in the case of a very lightly
reinforced thick SFRC section. In such scenario, fracture of the reinforcement
may occur, resulting in a brittle and sudden failure.

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SFRC Crack
BOSFA PtyWidth
Ltd Design Examples

Reinforcing
the future

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SFRC Crack
BOSFA PtyWidth
Ltd Design Examples

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SFRC Crack
BOSFA PtyWidth
Ltd Design Examples

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SFRC Crack
BOSFA PtyWidth
Ltd Design Examples

• 150 - 250 mm thick

• 25 kg/m3 of Dramix 3D 65/35

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SFRC Crack
BOSFA PtyWidth
Ltd Design Examples

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SFRC Crack
BOSFA PtyWidth
Ltd Design Examples

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SFRC Crack
BOSFA PtyWidth
Ltd Design Examples

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SFRC Crack
BOSFA PtyWidth
Ltd Design Examples

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SFRC Crack
BOSFA PtyWidth
Ltd Design Examples

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SFRC Crack
BOSFA PtyWidth
Ltd Design Examples

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SFRC Crack
BOSFA PtyWidth
Ltd Design Examples

Track Slab:
• Dart 1, Ontrack Railways
• Newmarket (New Zealand), 2008
• No top reinforcement for easy drilling
of rail bolts
• concrete
– C40/50
– 40 kg/m³ Dramix®
• slab
– thickness 410 mm
– width 3 m
– Ø32 mm – 150 mm at bottom
• Benefit
– Replace Ø32 – 200 reinforcement top
and bottom & Ø20-200 c/c ligatures /
stirrups

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SFRC Crack
BOSFA PtyWidth
Ltd Design Examples

Raft Foundation & Diaphragm Wall

 Design for Ultimate Limit State
 Design for Serviceability Limit State

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SFRC Crack
BOSFA PtyWidth
Ltd Design Examples

Raft Foundation & Diaphragm Wall

• 600 mm slab thickness
• crack width 0.1mm due to water pressure
• combined reinforcement
o N12mm – 100mm, top + bottom
o 35 kg/m3 Dramix 4D

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BOSFA Pty Ltd

Thank you.

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