Construction and Building Materials 235 (2020) 117289

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Optimisation of fibre reinforcement with a combination strategy and

through the use of self-compacting concrete
M.G. Alberti, A. Enfedaque, J.C. Gálvez, A. Cortez ⇑
Departamento de Ingeniería Civil: Construcción, E.T.S de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, c/Profesor Aranguren, s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain

h i g h l i g h t s

SCC with steel fibres and polyolefin fibres was tested in fresh and hardened state.

SCC uses the concrete flowability in the fresh state to improve fibre orientation.

Steel fibres combined with polyolefin ones improves fresh state concrete behaviour.

Steel fibres combined with polyolefin ones improves the orientation of the fibres.

Concrete mixtures studied met the requirements for using in structural applications.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Both steel and polyolefin fibres have become an attractive alternative to steel bar reinforcement of con-
Received 27 December 2018 crete. Therefore, many research papers that deal with such a type of fibre reinforcement, as well as
Received in revised form 10 October 2019 reports that examine structural applications, have been published. Fibre-reinforced self-compacting con-
Accepted 14 October 2019
crete uses the flowability of concrete in the fresh state to improve fibre orientation, in due course enhanc-
ing fracture behaviour. The residual strengths obtained from fracture tests are important values for
structural design. Other possibilities to improve the residual behaviour are based on the development
Keywords:
of new fibres with improved material properties and shapes that enhance the properties of the fibre–ma-
Self-compacting concrete
Fibre-reinforced concrete
trix system. That can be the case of the so-called 5D fibres or OL. Moreover, each fibre type performs
Polyolefin fibres depending on certain demands imposed for each element. This study proposes the optimisation based
Steel fibres on the combined use of different fibre types. The results show the various advantages that can be
Fracture behaviour obtained with the combination of the fibres; relevant information for future design of structural fibre
reinforced self-compacting concrete is provided.
Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction steel-bar reinforcement of concrete [3]. Additional case studies,

The beginnings of the modern concept of dispersed reinforce-
ment of concrete by adding steel fibres can be considered as the early
1960s [1]. Six decades of research and practical experience with var-
ious types of fibres passed [2]. Fibres made of steel, glass, carbon or
various synthetic fibres have been applied and studied and a large
variety of shapes and surfaces tested [8]. In terms of macro fibres,
such as steel or polyolefin fibres, research has focussed on being
the best structural performance in order to substitute conventional
Abbreviations: SCC, Self-compacting concrete; FRC, Fibre-reinforced concrete;
SFRC, Steel fibre-reinforced concrete; PFRC, Polyolefin fibre-reinforced concrete;
SFR-SCC, Steel fibre-reinforced self-compacting concrete; PFR-SCC, Polyolefin fibre-
reinforced self-compacting concrete.
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jaime.galvez@upm.es (A. Cortez).
which include polyolefin fibre-reinforced concrete (PFRC) have been
published recently [4,5]. However, only few studies have focused on
the optimisation of fibre reinforcement by making full use of the best
performance of several fibre types [6].
The flux of self-compacting concrete (SCC) in steel fibre rein-
forced concrete (SFRC) [7] and PFRC [8–10] has been shown to
increase residual load-bearing capacities in standard flexural ten-
sile tests, mainly due to improvements in fibre orientation Some
studies focused on the search for improvements by means of differ-
ent compaction procedures, mould sizes and formworks or pouring
methods [11–14]. Given the linear relations found [8,15] between
residual strengths and the number of fibres that cross the fracture
surface, models were built to predict the so-called orientation
factor [16–18]. A wide amount of research has used the orientation
factor in order to assess improvements [19]. Conversely, there is a
lack of studies that deals with enhancements and synergies in the

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2019.117289
0950-0618/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 M.G. Alberti et al. / Construction and Building Materials 235 (2020) 117289

orientation factor with a combination of fibres and the use of SCC. Table 1
As shown in Ref. [6], some of the synergies between steel and poly- Grading of the aggregates and their physical properties.

olefin fibres can be explained by the interaction between them in Properties of coarse aggregate and sand
terms of orientation and distribution. % passing
Regarding the influence of the geometry of the fibres on the beha- Grading curve Coarse Fine
viour of FRC, the length–diameter ratio (slenderness) can be consid- Sieve diameter (mm) 4–12 4–8 0–2
ered as one of the most significant parameters since its value largely
16 100 100 100
influences the ductility and toughness of the resulting concrete. The 12.7 99.86 100 100
mechanical characteristics of the fibres, essentially their tensile 8 6.24 94.65 100
strength and elasticity modulus, also play a fundamental role in 4 0 17.35 99.83
the behaviour of FRC. Moreover, the fibre–matrix interactions and 2 0 1.98 97.67
1 0 1.12 82.82
pull-out behaviour [20] can vary significantly with the change of
0.5 0 0.90 39.03
shapes or by application of surface treatments such as in the case 0.25 0 0.54 12.53
of the hooked-end steel fibres or embossed surface of polyolefin 0.125 0 0 2.58
fibres [15]. In addition, the combination of various types of fibres 0.063 0 0 1.54
has been shown to permit the optimisation of fibre reinforcement Bottom 0 0 0

when the best performance of each fibre type can be utilised [6,18]. Surface-dry particle density (kg/m3) 2602 2622 2558
Due to several variations of the shapes, sizes and materials it is Saturated surface-dry particle density (kg/m3) 2615 2626 2584
Water absorption (%) 0.5 0.17 1.01
possible to achieve enhancements in the behaviour of FRC and
meet a wide range of requirements. In addition, it is possible to
find a combination of fibres that can be optimised as a function
Table 2
of the requirements and final usage of FRC. In this study, 3D, 5D, Proportion of aggregates for dry maximum packing density.
OL and polyolefin fibres have been used as a reinforcement of a
self-compacting concrete matrix. Additionally, 5D and OL fibres Aggregate Maximum dry-packing density (%) Empirical adjustment (%)

were combined and the fibre dosage of 70 kg/m3 was kept con- Gravel 24 20
stant. With the same aim, another mixture that combined 5D, OL Grit 16 14
Sand 60 66
and polyolefin fibres in the same volume proportions was manu-
factured by keeping the total volume fraction of the fibres con-
stant. The significance of this research is the assessment of the
gates are those shown in Table 2 after the empirical correction. The humidity of the
fresh- and hardened-state properties of the mixtures with the most aggregates was corrected before the manufacture of the concretes. The mix propor-
advanced steel fibres and two mixtures being reinforced with fibre tioning can be seen in Table 5, as well as the fibres added in each concrete type. For
cocktails. Residual tensile strengths that are the values used for the the manufacture of the concrete, the time schedule followed in the concrete man-
structural design of concrete elements were determined. ufacturing is shown in Table 4, with it being prepared by following the sequence
suggested in references [6,9,10,15]. After 24 h, the specimens were stored in a cli-
2. Materials and methods matic chamber at 20 °C and 95% of humidity until the age of testing.

2.1. Materials 2.3. Experimental program and test methods

A Portland cement type EN 197-1 CEM I 52.5 was used in this study. A mineral
admixture of limestone powder as a micro-aggregate was employed with a specific
gravity and Blaine surface, respectively, of 2700 kg/m3 and 400–450 m2/kg. The cal-
cium carbonate content of the limestone powder was higher than 98%, with less
than 0.05% being retained in the 45 mm sieve.
The concrete mixtures were manufactured with siliceous aggregates composed
of two types of gravel (of 4–8 mm and 4–12 mm) and sand (of 0–2 mm). The grad-
ing of the aggregates and their physical properties are shown in Table 1. The max-
imum aggregate size was 12.7 mm. The proportion for dry maximum packing
density of the aggregates was obtained based on the ASTM C29/29M-09, with the
result for the optimum aggregate skeleton shown in Table 2. These values were
empirically corrected, raising sand proportions up to 66% and compensating the
coarse aggregates, to reach self-compacting properties with 70 kg/m3 with 3D
fibres. In order to achieve the desired self-compacting properties, the Sika admix-
ture ViscoCrete-20HE, which is a polycarboxylate-based superplasticizer, was used.
In this study, steel fibres with tensile strengths in the range of 1160–2600 N/mm2
and aspect ratios of 65–79 were used. The tensile strength declared by the manufac-
turer of polyolefin fibres was 500 N/mm2 and the aspect ratio 66. Three types of steel
fibres and one of polyolefin were used: 5D steel fibres (considered as latest generation
technology because they combine an optimised shape of the hooked end, a great wire
ductility and high-tensile strength fibres), OL fibres (which are characterised by high
performance and by their high tensile strength that make them ideal for optimal duc-
tility) and 3D fibres (the most common fibres mainly because of their great perfor-
mance and the cost savings they offer for the most common applications). The
polyolefin fibres (PF) were 60 mm long, with a surface treatment and embossed sur-
face. The main properties of the fibres can be seen in Table 3.
2.2. Mix proportioning
The SCC used was prepared and previously tested to obtain a medium-strength
concrete that maintained self-compactability properties even after the incorpora-
tion of fibres. For the paste design, the cement required was at least 425 kg/m3 with
1.39% of cement weight of Sika Viscocrete 20HE admixture and a water-to-powder
ratio of 0.446. The limestone powder addition remained at 210 kg/m3, with the
paste representing 38% of the total concrete volume. The proportions of the aggre-
For every concrete type, six cylindrical specimens and four prismatic specimens
of dimensions 150  300 mm (diameter–height) and 600  150  150 mm (length–
height–width), respectively, were cast. The fresh-state properties was determined
for each mixture by means of the slump-flow test by following the standard EN
12350-8 [21].
The properties of the hardened concrete were measured by using the cylindrical
samples. The compressive strength were obtained according to the standard EN
12390-3 [22] at an age of 7 and 28 days. For the tensile strength, the tensile splitting
test was carried out following EN 12390-6 [23] standard. The modulus of elasticity
was also determined, according to the standard EN 12390-13 [24].
The compressive strength was determined at 28 days with three specimens for
each mixture; the tensile strength was assessed through splitting tests on two spec-
imens of each mixture at 28 days. The elastic modulus was obtained through per-
forming the test at 28 days. The results are shown in Table 6, as well as their
coefficient of variation (c.v.). All the tests were carried out by following the afore-
mentioned recommendations.
The fracture behaviour tests were carried out in accordance with EN
14651:2005+A1 [25] through using three prismatic specimens. The tests were per-
formed displacement-controlled. The crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD)
was measured by using a clip-on gauge device. Two more extensometers, linear
variable differential transformer (LVDT) devices, were also placed on each side of
the sample to measure deflection. During the test, time, load, deflection, CMOD
and the machine actuator position were recorded. In the case of the FRC, the upper
bound of the CMOD device was exceeded and the tests were ended at an approxi-
mate deflection of 15 mm. Nonetheless, all the tests were stopped without reaching
the collapse of the sample except for the OL specimens (fibre length was 12 mm).
Three specimens of each concrete were tested under flexural fracture. As suggested
in the published literature, concrete was poured into the moulds from one side to
the other side in a single action [26,9,10].
With the data recorded during the tests, the curve load versus CMOD were plot-
ted. Due to the limited data obtained with the CMOD device, the load-CMOD curves
were represented only up to an opening crack mouth displacement of 5 mm as spec-
ified in the standard EN 14651:2005+A7 [25]. The limit of the test was set at 12.5 mm
deflection in order to obtain the fracture energy. It is worth noting that the especially
meticulous manufacturing process (of key importance in this study), in addition to
 M.G. Alberti et al. / Construction and Building Materials 235 (2020) 117289 3

Table 3
Properties of the fibres.

FIBRE TYPE 5D OL 3D PF
Shape Double hooked-end Straight Hooked-end Straight/embossed surface
Density 7850 g/dm3 7850 g/ dm3 7850 g/ dm3 910 g/ dm3
Length 60 mm 13 mm 30 mm 60 mm
Equivalent diameter 0.90 mm 0.20 mm 0.38 mm 0.90 mm
Tensile strength 2300 N/mm2 2600 N/mm2 1160 N/mm2 500 N/mm2
Elasticity modulus 210000 N/mm2 210000 N/mm2 210000 N/mm2 9000 N/mm2
# Fibres per kg 3132 282,556 3183 27,000

Table 4 3.2. Fracture results

Mixing procedure.

Process Duration of mixing process (s) 3.2.1. Fracture results of mono-fibre FRC
1. Homogenization of aggregates 60
The curves resulting from fracture tests of the mono-fibre mix-
2. Add 1/3 of fibres and mix 30 tures are plotted in Figs. 1–3. Observation reveals that the fracture
3. Add cement and limestone powder 30 behaviour of three specimens tested showed the characteristic
4. Add 1/3 of fibres and mix 30 post-cracking residual load-bearing capacity of FRC [27]. Such beha-
5. Add 75% of the mixing water and mix 30
viour fitted that expected for SFRC, although relevant differences
6. Add 1/3 of the fibres and mix 30
6. Add 25% of the water with superplasticizer 240 could be appreciated among the three types of fibres. Hence, other
7. Rest (superplasticizer acting period) 150 values aside from GF and LPEAK, such as the residual strengths at rel-
8. Final mix 120 evant CMOD values, are analysed in the discussion section. It should
be pointed out that the results showed a very low degree of scatter.
the accuracy of the equipment and measuring devices, permitted the reduction of the The 5D and 3D specimens passed a deflection of 12.5 mm with
scatter. The specimen positioning was carefully performed by means of laser devices. remaining load-bearing capacity. Conversely, the tests with the OL
The notch was machined with a water-cooled low-speed diamond cutting disc. The specimens were stopped after 10 mm of deflection. This made sense,
concrete beams rested on two rigid steel cylinders placed on two ground supports, given the fibre length of 13 mm of the OL fibres. The maximum loads
which allowed free rotation out of the plane of the beam and guaranteed negligible
of 3D and 5D fibres were reached in a hardening post-cracking
friction rolling in the longitudinal direction of the beam. Thus, the results of the frac-
ture tests showed a remarkably low degree of scatter. The latter is also supported by branch, while the OL specimens exhibited a clear turning point after
previous works in Refs. [6,15,10,9]. Several meticulous counts of fibres were made reaching the maximum load. In addition, the maximum load of the
and checked by both calculation and re-counting of the pieces. Thus, the degree of OL specimens was visibly lower than the 3D and 5D specimens.
scatter was remarkably low in laboratory-size specimens.

3. Results
3.1. Fresh-state and mechanical properties
Table 6 summarises the fresh-state test results of all the con-
crete mixtures. Most of the results were within the most common
standards which set a slump-flow spread from 550 mm to 850 mm,
a time for the slump-flow patty to reach 500 mm of diameter lower
than 8 s. Conversely, the diameter of the patty in the 3D mixture
remained at 470 mm. The fresh-state results were considered ade-
quate, although some details should be highlighted in order to dif-
ferentiate the behaviour or the four fibre types in the same matrix
before hardening.
3.2.2. Fracture results of 5D-OL specimens
The fracture curves for the concrete reinforced with steel
hooked-end fibres and OL fibres (5D-OL) are shown in Fig. 4. The
shape of these curves, load-CMOD, showed a post-cracking short
softening stage down to values around 60% of the peak load where
the curve stayed almost steady up to an approximate CMOD value
of 1.8 mm. The first unloading process caused, whether due to the
failure of the fibre anchorage or to the failure of the fibre itself, was
pronounced and followed by a small load recovery. Indeed, a stag-
gered shape appeared.
The three tested specimens behaved similarly and there was no
remarkable dispersion among them, as may be seen in Fig. 4.

Table 5
Mix proportioning.

Concrete mixture
Material 5D OL 5D-OL 3D 5D-OL-PF
Water 199 kg/m3 199 kg/m3 199 kg/m3 199 kg/m3 199 kg/m3
3 3 3 3
Cement 425 kg/m 425 kg/m 425 kg/m 425 kg/m 425 kg/m3
Limestone filler 210 kg/m3 210 kg/m3 210 kg/m3 210 kg/m3 210 kg/m3
Sand 947 kg/m3 947 kg/m3 947 kg/m3 947 kg/m3 947 kg/m3
Gravel 292 kg/m3 292 kg/m3 292 kg/m3 292 kg/m3 292 kg/m3
Finer gravel 194 kg/m3 194 kg/m3 194 kg/m3 194 kg/m3 194 kg/m3
Superplasticizer 5.91 kg/m3 5.91 kg/m3 5.91 kg/m3 5.91 kg/m3 5.91 kg/m3
5D fibres 0.890 % – % 0.445 % – % 0.297 %
70 kg/m3 – kg/m3 35 kg/m3 – kg/m3 23,3 kg/m3
3D fibres – % – % – % 0.890 % – %
– kg/m3 – kg/m3 – kg/m3 70 kg/m3 – kg/m3
OL fibres – % 0.890 % 0.445 % – % 0.297 %
– kg/m3 70 kg/m3 35 kg/m3 – kg/m3 23.3 kg/m3
Polyolefin fibres – % – % % – % 0.297 %
– kg/m3 – kg/m3 kg/m3 – kg/m3 3.2 kg/m3
4 M.G. Alberti et al. / Construction and Building Materials 235 (2020) 117289

Table 6
Test results for assessment of fresh concrete and mechanical properties.

Reinforcement Mixture Slump-flow test fcm E fct

df (mm) t500 (s) (MPa) c.v. (GPa) c.v. (MPa) c.v.
Plain SCC 660 3 59.7 0.02 34.2 0.01 4.69 0.02
Mono-fibre 3D 470 – 63.1 0.04 32.7 0.02 7.96 0.04
5D 660 3 63.8 0.02 33.9 0.02 7.69 0.09
OL 520 3 66.9 0.05 32.8 0.01 7.15 0.03
Combined 5D-OL 585 3 64.7 0.02 40.7 0.03 8.05 0.01
5D-OL-PF 670 2 66.3 0.03 29.5 0.01 7.95 0.01

Fig. 3. Fracture curves for three specimens with 5D fibres: Load-CMOD curve.

Fig. 1. Fracture curves for three specimens with 3D fibres: Load-CMOD curve.
3.2.3. Fracture results of 5D-OL-PF specimens
The fracture curves of the mixture with the combination of
three types of fibres, 5D-OL-PF, are shown in Fig. 5. The low degree
of scattering also merits mention. Moreover, in this case, the
results shown in Fig. 5 must be highlighted, given the fact that
for the range of crack openings used in conventional structures
the fracture behaviour showed a quasi-bilinear behaviour. That is
to say, the residual load-bearing capacity of the material was at
very close values from 0.05 mm (limit of proportionality) at crack
openings of 5 mm. This can be observed from Fig. 5.

4. Discussion

4.1. Fresh state behaviour

The result of 3D mixture in the slump-flow test was below

Fig. 2. Fracture curves for three specimens with OL fibres: Load-CMOD curve.
500 mm which is the lower threshold to consider this concrete
type as SCC. This showed that this type of fibres were those with
higher influence in the self-compacting properties of the concrete.
However, the concrete produced was of analogous characteristics
in hardened state allowing the rest of assessments as can be seen
in Table 6. The rest of the concrete types showed a good self-
compacting behaviour with the tests performed. It is worth noting
that the reduction of the slump-flow spread was inversely propor-
tional to the fibre length. The results of the slump-flow test showed
that medium contents of polyolefin fibres had less influence on the
self-compacting properties of concretes than steel fibres.
 M.G. Alberti et al. / Construction and Building Materials 235 (2020) 117289
Fig. 4. Fracture curves for three specimens with 5D-OL fibres: Load-CMOD curve.
Fig. 5. Fracture curves for three specimens with 5D-OL-PF fibres: Load-CMOD
curve.
The results, provided in Table 6, showed that the presence of steel
fibres affects the workability of SCC, especially 3D and OL fibres. In
the case of the OL fibres, it is worth noting that the length of the
fibres (13 mm) did not comply with the recommendation that
the size of the fibres be at least twice the maximum size of the
coarse aggregate and might have caused an inhomogeneous distri-
bution of the fibres [28,32–34]. It should also be highlighted that
5D showed a remarkable performance in this regard, even compa-
rable with polyolefin fibres which exhibited an outstanding beha-
viour in the fresh state as found in previous references such as
[15,10,28]. It is also worth mentioning that the presence of OL
fibres strongly reduced the workability and produced the appear-
5
ance of fibre hedgehogs in the mixture. Besides the size of the
fibres (13 mm) and given that OL fibres are not glued it is difficult
to make a homogeneous distribution of them during the mixing.
Conversely, the presence of polyolefin fibres allowed a better
distribution of the fibres, as can be seen from the results shown
in Table 6, Figs. 6 and 7. The distribution of 5D-OL-PF fibres was
homogeneous with no signs of segregation, with the impact of
the addition of fibres being remarkably limited and the diameter
of the patty analogous to that of plain concrete. In such a sense,
the absence of mechanical anchorage, the lower bending stiffness
[18] and the lower aspect ratio [35] can partially explain these
improvements when adding polyolefin fibres.
4.2. Mechanical properties
With the results of Table 6, various conclusions can be drawn.
For a better understanding, Fig. 8 has been prepared. Previous pub-
lished research has shown that the presence of fibres does not sig-
nificantly influence the compressive strength of FRC [15].
Conversely, high volumes of fibres can adversely affect the com-
pressive strength. However, although the fibre content used
(0.89%) can be considered medium, all the mixtures exceeded the
reference strength (Fig. 8).
With regard to the elasticity modulus, the results showed no
clear trend, though some minor differences were obtained argu-
ably due to a worse compaction. The average results of modulus
of elasticity, presented in Table 6 and Fig. 8, showed that the 5D-
OL fibre combination influenced the elasticity modulus to a higher
extent compared to the other mixtures with values of up to 40 GPa.
The remaining mixtures were in the composition similar and with
slightly lower modulus of elasticity than the plain concrete. This
decrease was more evident in the mixture 5D-OL-PF, probably
due to the presence of PF.
The average indirect tensile strength of each concrete mixture is
also presented in Table 6. The values, ranged from 7.15 MPa to
8.05 MPa. It merits mention that the concrete reinforced with OL
fibres reached the highest compressive strengths and, conversely,
the values of indirect tensile strength were the lowest ones among
the mixtures with fibres. As in the indirect tensile test only maxi-
mum tensile strength is determined, this result of OL specimens
could expected by seeing the flexural tests. In them, the maximum
load reached by OL specimens was lower than 3D or 5D specimens
(see Fig. 10). This could be explained given that the hooks supplied
a mechanical anchorage that could have been acting from the very
first deformations. However, in the compressive strength test, the
use of small straight fibres can provide strength in second-order
effects without any counter-effect in the concrete compaction.
The increase in tensile strength compared with plain concrete ran-
ged, respectively, between 52% and 72% in OL and the combination
5D-OL mixtures.
4.3. Fracture tests discussion
As expected, the fracture tests showed a significant increment
of the fracture energy and toughness for all the FRC mixtures when
compared with plain SCC. It was also observed that the contribu-
tion of the fibres should not only be compared with a peak load
with a value that is on an almost fully elastic branch, but also with
post-cracking parameters such as those described in the standards
[25,29]. Moreover, since the fibres used have such different fea-
tures and types of anchoring mechanisms, the results expected
may show their contrast in post-cracking behaviour. In that regard,
the comparison of some additional parameters may provide more
useful information.
Accordingly, it was considered appropriate to perform a fibre-
counting exercise in addition to the comparison of the mean values
6 M.G. Alberti et al. / Construction and Building Materials 235 (2020) 117289
Fig. 6. Visual aspect of the slump-flow patty of each type of concrete.
Fig. 7. Slump-flow spread results.
for the different mixtures and the analysis of the reference values
of the standard EN 14651 [12] and the recommendation RILEM
TC162 TDF [15].
4.3.1. Mean fracture values comparison
In order to compare the fracture energy at small deformations of
the plain self-compacting concrete with the fibre-reinforced
concrete mixtures, the fracture energy with a deflection of 0.5 mm
was obtained. In comparing results among the various amounts of
fibres added, the fracture energy up to 2.5 mm of deflection was
Fig. 8. Comparison of the mechanical properties: (a) compressive strength; (b) modulus of elasticity; (c) splitting tensile strength.
calculated. This deflection corresponds to the deformation that is
used in ultimate limit states (ULS). In Fig. 9, fracture energy mean
values for 0.5 and 2.5 mm and 12.5 mm (complete test) deflections
are summarised.
Fig. 9(a) shows the improvement in fracture energy in the first
half millimetre of deflection. At such deformation, the energy
absorbed was already significantly higher than that of plain con-
crete, showing the good performance of all the concrete with fibres
even for small deformations. As plain concrete failure took place at
about that deformation, the more deformation was considered the
higher were the increments of fracture energy found when FRC
was compared with plain concrete, as can be seen in Fig. 9(b)
and (c). The good performance of 3D fibres can also be noticed,
as well as the enhancements generated by the combination of
fibres. It is worth remembering that all the FRC mixtures had the
same fibre dosage in terms of volume. In Fig. 9, the energy
absorbed by the concrete formulations at different deflection val-
ues can be noted. It can be observed that the combination of steel
fibres optimises their behaviour by absorbing more energy for the
same deflection.
The shapes of the characteristic curves shown in Figs. 1–5 fixed
two significant values extracted for an improved data analysis of
the peak-load stages. If the figures are observed in detail, it can
be seen that the maximum loads are reached in the test beyond
the linear deformations. Furthermore, the standards establish the
value of the load at the limit of proportionality (LLOP) as the maxi-
mum recorded up to 0.05 mm of deflection. This will be the first
point considered. Having said that, the values of LLOP and the values
of the maximum load in the whole test (LMAX), which will be the
second point considered, are summarised in Table 7 (as well as
the deformations at which they took place). These values are of sig-
nificance when the structural design is performed, considering that
the maximum load-carrying capacity of the material is located in
the first post-cracking branch. In the case of the 3D, 5D and 5D-
OL mixtures, at this point significantly higher deformations and
increments in loads (greater than 60%) were noticed.
 M.G. Alberti et al. / Construction and Building Materials 235 (2020) 117289
Fig. 9. Specific fracture energy: (a) for a deflection of 0.5 mm; (b) for a deflection of 2.5 mm; (c) for a deflection of 10 mm.
Figs. 1–5 show interesting considerations. The specimens with
3D fibres exhibited a remarkably stable behaviour with the highest
peak loads and a significant residual load-bearing capacity of up to
5 mm of CMOD (as can be seen in Fig. 1). With regard to the OL
fibres (Fig. 2), it was observed that the specimens exhibited a lower
degree of scattering and slightly lower peak loads than 5D speci-
mens (see Fig. 3). If the behaviour of 5D and OL are compared,
and by using the fibres separately or simultaneously (see Figs. 1,
2 and 4) in equal proportions, it was observed that the combination
optimised the behaviour and reached higher peak loads and higher
residual load-bearing capacity at the same crack opening. More-
over, they showed larger deflections before failure in the case of
the OL specimens. This also leads to higher fracture energy. This
combination allowed residual loads of 10 kN at 13 mm of deflec-
tion. It should be mentioned that such a load had not been reached
by any of these two fibres used separately.
Fig. 5 shows the results of the combination of three types of
fibres: 5D, OL and polyolefin fibres (5D-OL-PF). As could have been
expected, this combination of fibres was insignificant regarding the
influence on the loads at the limit of proportionality. It has to be
underlined that in this case such a load was different from the peak
load. If the figures are examined in more detail, a very short
unloading branch can be noticed after the matrix cracked as is a
typical behaviour of PFRC [8,28]. Hence, a reloading branch fol-
lowed after such slight softening behaviour and the maximum
loads occurred at CMOD values of approximately 1.5 mm. This
value is considerably higher than that obtained in any of the other
concrete types of this study and showed remarkable performance
of this combination with a near-bilinear behaviour. Moreover,
the residual loads at a CMOD of 5 mm for this type of concrete
were approximately 20 kN. That was a similar value compared
with those obtained with 5D and 5D-OL specimens. It should also
be highlighted that most of the load-CMOD curves showed higher
residual strengths than the strength at the limit of proportionality.
This stable residual branch might be considered an optimum beha-
viour for structural design up to the typical deformations that
might appear in concrete elements.
In order to obtain a better comparison of the fracture behaviour,
Fig. 10 was plotted. As the figure denotes, FRC with the same fibre
content exhibited a different behaviour for fibre monotype mix-
tures. Given the fact that the fibre dosage was a constant, mainly
fibre lengths and anchorage type influenced the behaviour, as seen
in Fig. 10(a). Regarding the fibre combinations, both average curves
5D-OL and 5D-OL-PF are compared in Fig. 10(b). While hardening
was visible in the combination of 5D and OL fibres, the mixture
5D-OL-PF behaved in a bilinear mode that could imply positive
advantages for structural design with improved reliability.
7
Together with the good performance in fresh state, such mechani-
cal behaviour highlights that this triple combination of materials
and sizes is well suited for future applications.
For a further analysis of the combination 5D-OL, Fig. 11 shows a
comparison of the average curves of 5D-OL fibres and the resulting
curve of adding 50% of the average curve of reinforced concrete
with 5D fibres plus 50% of the average curve of concrete reinforced
with OL fibres. This analysis showed that the individual results
added were remarkably lower, leading to the conclusion that sig-
nificant synergies in the 5D-OL combination may have appeared.
4.3.2. Fracture surface analyses
The residual load-bearing capacity of a notched specimen is
strongly related to the number of fibres and their distribution in
the fracture surface. After the first branch of the post-cracking soft-
ening curve, that depending on the fibre type can behave with
hardening or softening trends, the fibres are capable of absorbing
the energy released in the fracture process and the specimen can
bear higher loads again. In this study, all of them had some hard-
ening branch (as can be concluded by observing Table 7). The dis-
tribution of the fibres is a result of the casting procedure, certain
wall effects or the orientation of the fibres along the flow of the
fresh concrete [10,12,19]. For high deformations, almost the whole
cross-section is in tension and concrete is already almost fully
cracked. Therefore, the total number of fibres could be correlated
with residual strengths. These high deformations would corre-
spond to ultimate limit state (ULS) design. An analysis of the frac-
ture surface could not only explain the variation of the results, but
also indicate the influence of the relative position of the fibres on
the fracture behaviour of the materials. Consequently, the fracture
surface of every specimen was analysed.
All sections were pointedly flat. In the case of the steel hooked-
end fibres, the majority were only on one side of the fracture sur-
faces located and showed an anchorage failure. However, most of
polyolefin fibres were broken with one fragment of fibre on each
side of the fractured piece. Only a few were pulled out. Fig. 12
shows the fracture surfaces of one specimen of each FRC mixture
after the fracture test. As can be seen, they showed an effective dis-
tribution of fibres. The total number of fibres, as well as the orien-
tation factor (h), are shown in Table 8. The table provides the
average values of the orientation factor and the coefficient of vari-
ation. In order to compute the orientation factor, a counting exer-
cise was completed and the formulations of the models used [18].
It was observed that the orientation factor of the 5D and polyolefin
fibres was higher compared to the others when included in a self-
compacting matrix. In addition, it can be concluded that the orien-
tation factor increased with the combinations, with (in the case of
8 M.G. Alberti et al. / Construction and Building Materials 235 (2020) 117289

Table 7
Load at the limit of proportionality and maximum load.

Mixture CMOD LOP LLOP CMOD MAX LMAX

(mm) (kN) (mm) (kN)
5D 0.05 17.172 1.01 30.809
OL 0.05 22.666 0.12 25.829
3D 0.05 25.615 1.12 42.175
5D-OL 0.05 21.906 1.24 35.157
5D-OL-PF 0.05 20.775 1.59 25.277

5D fibres) being a more significant increment in the case of the

combination with OL fibres.

4.3.3. Analysis of the reference values of standards and

recommendations
In order to address the fitting of the FRC types analysed in some
of the most used standards and recommendations, such as EN-
14651 [25] and the RILEM TC-162 TDF [29], some reference values
were extracted from the fracture tests and certain assumptions
considered. The linear stress distribution assumed makes it possi-
ble to determine the stress in the limit of proportionality (fLOP), as
well as the stress in the CMOD values of 0.5 mm (fR1), 1.5 mm (fR2),
2.5 mm (fR3) and 3.5 mm (fR4). The results extracted are shown in
Table 9, as well as their standard deviation. In order to obtain Fig. 11. Comparison of individual contributions of 5D and OL fibres with the
combination of them in the 5D-OL mixture.
the stresses through using the load values obtained in the tests,
the following expression in the standard and RILEM was employed:

3 Fj  L their maximum values of strength at a 2.5 mm CMOD (fR3). This

f ct;j ¼
2 b  h2sp
with L = 500 mm; hsp = 125 mm and b = 150 mm.
The post-cracking strength obtained from the fracture tests and
the evolution of the strengths with crack opening are represented
for the four values of stress (fR1, fR2, fR3 and fR4) are listed in Table 9.
As fR1 is higher than 40% of fLOP and fR3 is higher than 20% of fLOP
the structural use of all the mixtures would be allowed by the main
structural concrete standards such as EHE-08 and Model Code
2010 [30,31]. If the shapes of the SFRC fracture curves are consid-
ered, the use of stress values related with CMOD 2.5 mm (fR3)
would be critical, given that they are related to deformations in
ULS. Apart from OL, the rest of the mono-fibre-type mixtures had
their maximum values closer to a CMOD of 1.5 mm (fR2) while
the combinations, 5D-OL and 5D-OL-PF, remained very close to
ð1Þ helps to consider most of the capacity of the composite material
in the structural design and avoid simultaneously any problem of
brittleness. It should also be noted that the values of fR4 were in
all the cases lower than those of fR3. This loss of strength was not
pronounced in the case of 5D-OL-PF, showing the good perfor-
mance of polyolefin fibres for larger crack openings as previously
seen in Fig. 10 which shows a quasi-bilinear fracture curve.
5. Conclusions
The production of various types of FRSC concrete showed high-
performance behaviour in both fresh and hardened state. The com-
bination of several types of fibres has shown relevant advantages.
In order to promote additional structural applications of FRC, some
new considerations in terms of combination of fibres could help

Fig. 10. Comparison of mean fracture curves: (a) mono-fibre-reinforced concrete types; (b) combined fibre-reinforced concrete types.
 M.G. Alberti et al. / Construction and Building Materials 235 (2020) 117289 9

Fig. 12. Fracture surfaces of the specimens after the fracture test.

Table 8
Orientation factor.

CONCRETE # FIBRES THEORICAL # FIBRES REAL ORIENTATION FACTOR C.V.

3D 1766 – – 516 – – 0.29 – – 0.063 – –
5D 314 – – 166 – – 0.53 – – 0.409 – –
OL – 6374 – – 987 – – 0.15 – – 0.001 –
5D OL – 5D OL – 5D OL – 5D OL –
5D-OL 157 3187 – 97 440 0.62 0.14 – 0.172 0.074 –
5D OL PF 5D OL PF 5D OL PF 5D OL PF
5D-OL-POLY 105 2125 104 55 363 48 0.52 0.17 0.46 0.233 0.062 0.083

Table 9
Bending test results: residual flexural strengths (MPa).

Strength (MPa) fLOP fmax fR1 %fLOP fR2 %fLOP fR3 %fLOP fR4 %fLOP
CMOD (mm) <0.05 0.50 1.50 2.50 3.50
5D 5.5 9.9 8.11 148% 9.34 170% 8.40 153% 7.54 137%
OL 7.3 8.3 7.39 102% 6.02 83% 5.03 69% 4.16 57%
3D 8.2 13.5 13.18 161% 13.35 163% 12.17 148% 10.75 131%
5D-OL 7.0 11.3 9.94 142% 11.06 158% 10.33 147% 9.51 136%
5D-OL-PF 6.6 8.1 7.51 113% 8.08 122% 7.97 120% 7.58 114%

designers to find the best solution from a material point of view for
the structural demands of concrete. With the results and processes
of this paper, the following conclusions can be drawn:

For a volume of fibres equal to 0.89%, the fresh concrete main-
tained self-compacting properties except for the 3D and OL
mixtures. 3D mixture slump-flow was lower than 500 mm
although very good distribution of the fibres were found. OL
mixture showed the appearance of fibre nodules in the mixture.

The combination of steel fibres with polyolefin improves con-
crete behaviour in fresh state if compared with the rest of the FRC.

The compressive strength with 0.89% of fibres in volume was
comparable with SCC.

The tensile strength increased between 50% and 70%, depending
on the fibres used, with the modulus of elasticity showing no
clear trend with a slight descent when using polyolefin fibres.

The shapes of the fracture curves showed a notable reliability.
The variations in the shapes of the curves observed could be
related to the type of fibre used, especially the length, material
and the pull-out mechanism (hooked-end fibres with mechani-
cal anchorage or embossed surfaces such as those of the poly-
olefin fibres).

All the concrete mixtures met the requirements of the stan-
dards, allowing reduction or even elimination of conventional
steel reinforcement in structural applications.

The maximum load value was obtained with the concrete rein-
forced with 3D fibres (around 42 kN).

At crack openings of 5 mm, the combination 5D-OL fibres
showed the highest residual performance.

The combination 5D-OL-PF showed a quasi-bilinear behaviour
with very stable values of residual post-cracking strengths in
the range 0.5–5 mm.

The orientation factor improved with the combination of fibres.

Synergies were identified comparing the use of 5D and OL fibres
separately with the combined fibre cocktail in equal propor-
tions. It was observed that together they optimise their beha-
viour as concrete reinforcement.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support pro-
vided by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness
of Spain by means of the Research Fund Project BIA2016-78742-
C2-2-R.
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