Composite Structures 86 (2008) 39

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Composite Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compstruct

Fibre reinforced cement-based (FRC) composites after over 40 years of development in building and civil engineering
Andrzej M. Brandt
Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
Fibres have been used since Biblical times to strengthen brittle matrices; for example straw and horsehair was mixed with clay to form bricks and oors. In modern technology, steel bres were for the rst time proposed as dispersed reinforcement for concrete by Romualdi in his two papers in 1963 and 1964. Since that time, the concept of dispersed bres in cement-based materials has developed considerably: hundreds of books and papers, many dissertations, and also applications in building and civil engineering structures all over the world. After over forty years, it is interesting to review the present state of knowledge and technology of FRC. The balance of achievements and shortcomings is certainly positive. Our knowledge, based on theoretical solutions and experimental ndings, is rich and quite large. Test methods that are transferred from the so called high-strength composites are very effective. However, practical applications are not so numerous as it was initially expected with developments not exactly in the foreseen directions. In this paper the main elds of application of FRC composites are examined and future perspectives discussed. After a brief review of various kinds of bres and applied techniques, some attention is paid to computation methods and composite materials design approaches. Large practical application of FRC in construction is mostly hampered by insufcient development of relevant standards, based on performance concepts. It should also be admitted that the cost of bre reinforcement and related technological operations is certainly an obstacle for use of FRC in ordinary structures. On the other hand, in successful applications in demanding structures very special requirements are satised; probably future developments will go in this direction. 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Available online 12 March 2008 Keywords: Fibres Cement-based matrix Fibre reinforced concretes (FRC) High performance concretes (HPC)

1. Introduction Concrete is by far the most important building material and its consumption is increasing in all countries and regions in our globe. The reasons are multiple: its components are available everywhere and relatively inexpensive, its production may be relatively simple, its application covers large variety of building and civil infrastructure works. Moreover, since around 30 years, its development has gone in new directions: high performance concretes (HPC). This new kind of building materials is dened as a concrete in which certain characteristics are developed for a particular application and environment; these characteristics are not only strength, but improved durability, increased resistance to various external agents, high rate of hardening, better aspect, etc. The only disadvantage of concrete is its brittleness, i.e. relatively low tensile strength and poor resistance to crack opening and propagation. In the development of concrete-like materials the reinforcement with dispersed bres plays an important role.

E-mail address: abrandt@ippt.gov.pl 0263-8223/$ - see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.compstruct.2008.03.006

Since Biblical times, approximately 3500 years ago, brittle building materials, e.g. clay sun baked bricks, were reinforced with horse-hair, straw and other vegetable bres. The concept of bre reinforcement was developed in modern times and brittle cement-based paste was reinforced with asbestos bres when in about 1900 the so called Hatschek technology was invented for production of plates for roong, pipes, etc. Later, glassbres were proposed for reinforcement of cement paste and mortar by Biryukovichs [1]. The ordinary E-glassbres are not resistant and durable in highly alkaline Portland cement paste and the alkali-resistant (AR) glassbres with addition of zircon oxide ZrO2 were invented by Majumdar and Ryder [2]. Important inuences of the development of steel bre reinforced cements (SFRC) are papers published by Romualdi and his co-authors [3,4] for the rst times on this subject. It is not surprising that in such an excellent material as concrete, after many recent improvements of additions and admixtures, with considerable development of technology in precast factories and in situ, and with exploitation of highly sophisticated test methods, the application of dispersed bre reinforcement results after three decades in a large variety of excellent building

A.M. Brandt / Composite Structures 86 (2008) 39

materials for different purposes bre reinforced cements and concretes (FRC). The aim of the paper is to describe the present state of knowledge and technology of FRC and to discuss main directions of their application. The attention is concentrated on structural concretes for high-rise buildings, long-span bridges, highway and aireld pavements, and many other kinds of outstanding structures. For obvious reasons, ordinary concretes without bres but of improved quality are used for low performance structures and non-structural elements.

2. Matrices and bres Cement-based matrices have developed considerably during last 40 years. The main components are still Portland cement and coarse and ne aggregate of different origin, and there are several other components: superplasticizers, admixtures and microllers. Also proportions between these components have changed. There are many kinds of Portland cements that may be selected for particular purposes. The national and international companies may furnish cements that are characterized by high or low strength, high-early strength or low heat of hydration, high sulfate resistance, low content of C3A, and large variety of blended cements, i.e. with addition up to 70% by weight of y ash and ground blast furnace slag. The next groups of concrete components are additions and admixtures that create special properties of fresh mix and hardened concrete; these are superplasticizers, air-entraining agents, microllers and secondary cementing materials: y ash, natural pozzolans, rice husk ash, metakaolin, etc. In fact, often binary, ternary or quarternary concretes are distinguished, i.e. based on compositions of different binders. As aggregate, not only crushed stone and natural gravel with sand are used, but also various articial materials, carefully selected and inserted into fresh mix in well determined proportions. In concrete, many kinds of waste materials are used, including recycled aggregate, in order to decrease cost and to satisfy increasing demands of sustainability and ecology. As a result, concretes and particularly concretes that have to satisfy special requirements, became rather complicated materials and are tailor-made to provide the precise properties necessary for a particular project. The design of such a concrete is based on deep knowledge and substantial experience; with the same concerns regarding the selected applications of technology. At all stages high competence of the personnel is needed. In general, modern concretes are more brittle than those in the rst half of 20th century, with higher rates of strength and higher heat of hydration, and often less durable, i.e. less resistant against intensive corrosive attacks from environment if not specially designed. As remedies, there are special kinds of concretes called high performance concretes, described hereafter, frequently with application of dispersed reinforcement in different forms. The main role of short dispersed bres is to control the crack opening and propagation. Basic groups of bres applied for structural concretes and classied according to their material are Brandt [5]: steel bres of different shapes and dimensions, also microbres; glassbres, in cement matrices used only as alkali-resistant (AR) bres; synthetic bres made with different materials: polypropylene, polyethylene and polyolen, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), etc.; carbon, pitch and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) bres. Natural vegetable bres are not suitable for high performance structural concrete, but are applied in ordinary concretes. Asbestos bres are completely abandoned in construction because of their

detrimental inuence on human health and are replaced by other kinds of bres, e.g. polymeric. Certainly the most important for structural concrete are steel bres; a few examples are shown in Fig. 1; hooks at the ends and various modications of shape improve bre-matrix bond and increase efciency of the bres. The inuence of the bres on cracking of cement-based matrix is explained in Fig. 2: thanks to the bres, large single cracks are replaced with dense systems of microcracks, which may be acceptable from both safety and durability viewpoints. The role of bres is clear from the data presented in Table 1. Numbers of bres distributed in one cube centimetre are shown for a few examples of bres and their volume fractions. Only bre volume up to 3% is considered, because higher volumes require special techniques that are described below. Fine bres control opening and propagation of microcracks as they are densely dispersed in cement matrix. Longer bres up to 50 or 80 mm control larger cracks and contribute to increase the nal strength of FRC, as it is shown in Figs. 3 and 4. With the increase of bre volume and efciency, their inuence on behaviour of a SFRC element modies completely its behaviour under load, as it is described in Fig. 5 with strainstress diagrams. The conventional SFRC element is characterized by initial linear increase of stress and after the 1st crack opening there is a slow decrease, the so called softening branch. In contrast, where the reinforcement is sufcient, after the 1st crack there is a strain hardening stage, which accompanies multiple cracking and considerable amount of energy is absorbed that is proportional to the area under the curve. The softening branch follows that stage. In Fig. 5 the main difference between conventional FRC and high performance bre reinforced cement composites (HPFRCC) is dened. The effects of bre reinforcement on the behaviour of an element under bending are discussed in Fig. 6, and it is shown how such beam may be designed for a particular purpose. Beside steel bres, also high tenacity PVA bres, either monolament or brillated polypropylene, with lengths varying from 10 to

Fig. 1. Examples of deformed steel bres, after Sujivorakul and Naaman [6].

Fig. 2. Crack pattern in reinforced concrete (RC) and bre reinforced concrete (FRC) elements subjected to tension.

A.M. Brandt / Composite Structures 86 (2008) 39 Table 1 Micro-reinforcement of concretes and mortars, Brandt [7] Types of bres Dimensions of a (examples) single bre Volume of a single bre Asbestos bres PAN carbon bres Pitch carbon bres PVA bres U 0.1 lm 4 mm 3.14 108 mm3 U 6 lm 3 mm 8.5 105 mm3 U 14.5 lm 3 mm 0.000495 mm3 U 24 lm 7 mm 0.00317 mm3 10,100 1580 49 1.33 0.20 20,200 3160 94 2.65 0.40 40,400 6320 189 5.31 0.796 60,600 9480 283 7.96 1.19 59,000 118,000 236,000 354,000 Number of single bres in a 1 cm3 0.5% 1.0% 2.0% 3.0%

1.59 108 3.18 108 6.36 108 9.55 108

Steel U 0.15 mm 6 mm microbres 0.106 mm3 Steel bres U 0.4 30 mm 3.77 mm3 U 0.8 50 mm 25.13 mm3

Fig. 3. Structures of long and short bres controlling the crack propagation; after Betterman et al. [8].

80 mm and diameters for 0.51.5 mm are used in high volumes (0.52.0%) to enhance the strength and toughness, and also impact and fatigue strength of structural concrete elements. Low-modulus polypropylene bres have two different applications. They are used in small amount (up to 1.0 kg/m3) to control the so called shrinkage cracking of young concrete in few rst hours of setting. In that initial period, the Youngs modulus of young concrete is similar to that of these bres, Ramakrishnan et al. [11]. Polypropylene bres are also dispersed in concrete walls in apartment buildings, because in case of re and high temperature they melt and create channels that may relieve internal pressure and help to delay the destruction of concrete. 3. Special kinds of high performance bre concretes (HPFC) The engineered cementitious composites (ECC) or reactive powder concrete (RPC) are the general names of special concretes, in which very high performance is achieved even with relatively low amount (about 25 vol.%) of short random synthetic bres and specially composed matrices with high amount of Portland cement and other complementary binders and superplasticizers. As examples, the patented products Ductal and BSI may be mentioned. Ultra-high-strength (UHS) concrete was developed in France in early 1990s with the possibility to obtain compressive

strength up to 800 MPa and tensile strength of up to 100 MPa. There is no coarse aggregate, and the maximum aggregate particle size is 0.3 mm. To improve ductility the steel bres are added of about 5 vol.%, including microbres <3 mm long; other components are silica fume, ground quartz, superplasticizer, and high amount of Portland cement (up to 1000 kg/m3). This material is commercialized under name of Ductal by Lafarge (France) and with compressive strength of 100200 MPa is used for concrete bridge structures as well as for producing thin precast elements. The stressdisplacement curves for ordinary concrete and Ductal element under bending are compared in Fig. 7. A similar kind of concrete is BSI, a self-setting, bre reinforced concrete that uses premixed dry components which can be adjusted for specic applications, and is proposed by the company Eiffage Construction (France). BSI does not require heat treatment or vibration, and it can be poured into a mould to create modular structures. After 28 days it has a direct tensile strength of 810 MPa, achieved by using bres in the mix, and the characteristic compressive strength is 150 MPa. Because the concrete has no longer to cover passive reinforcements, it is possible to construct BSI structural elements that are less than an inch thick. Self compacting concrete (SCC) or self levelling concrete (SLC) can ow on its own without additional vibration and no detrimental effects of segregation or bleeding occur. High content of ne grain aggregate (below 0.125 mm), high cement content and thanks to the appropriate combination of water and superplasticizer high slump values up to 270 mm are obtained. The SCC passes without difculties through densely distributed reinforcing bars. The ductility is improved with an addition of microbres. The SLC are particularly useful in execution of industrial oors where no additional work for levelling is needed. In these high performance concretes the hybrid reinforcement is composed of different sizes of steel bres, which contribute to different mechanical properties: control of microcracks, increase of tensile strength, improvement of ductility, etc. The addition of ne microbres has a signicant inuence on the compressive strength, but the tensile strength is only slightly affected. Longer steel bres bring other mechanical effects higher strength and improved toughness. There are synergistic effects in the hybrid bres system. Silica fume (SF) is an active pozzolana that leads to an increased strength, and it is frequently used to replace 510% of Portland cement to obtain a high performance composite. Improved density and reduction of permeability to water and related detrimental agents is important when longterm durability of concrete structures is required that are exposed to climatic inuences and various chemical attacks. SF is used as a prevention against alkali aggregate reaction (AAR), reduces carbonation and chloride ions intrusion, and controls delayed ettringite formation (DEF). Instead of SF other microllers are used, e.g. metakaolin. Carbon bre reinforced mortar (CFRM) and carbon bre reinforced concrete (CFRC) are attractive composites due to their high exural strength and toughness and low drying shrinkage, in addition to its electrical properties such as voltage-sensitive effect. Application of relatively low-cost pitch carbon bres is adequate for bridges and other civil engineering structures and also for cladding for buildings, Kucharska and Brandt [13]. In the regions with corrosive inuence of marine atmosphere and strong winds (e.g. in Japan) CFRC is used in bridge structural elements for better durability than is would be possible using steel bres. SIFCON (slurry inltrated bre concrete) is a strong composite in which a very high volume of steel bres is used by special technology. Fibres are pre-placed in a mould and the bre system obtained is inltrated by cement slurry. Fibre volume may reach 812%, sometimes even higher, and bres 100200 mm long may be used. The cement slurry is lled with ne sand,

A.M. Brandt / Composite Structures 86 (2008) 39

Fig. 4. Structure of short and long bres controlling microcracks and its inuence on the stress crack opening curve, after Rossi [9].

Fig. 5. Comparison of typical stressstrain response in tension of HPFRCC with conventional FRCC, after Naaman [10].

A.M. Brandt / Composite Structures 86 (2008) 39

Fig. 6. Typical load-deection response curves of bre reinforced cement composites, after Naaman [10].

Flexural toughness of FRC is traditionally estimated according to ASTM C 1018 [14]. For that aim, standard test on a beam under bending is necessary, and after the load-deection curve (Fig. 8), the so called exural toughness indices I5, I10, I30, . . . may be calculated. The results allow estimating quantitatively the load-deection curve how do the bres inuence the descending branch of the curve. There are several objections as to the precision of the indices, but this approach is universally applied; it serves also to compare different bres or mixture compositions as to their efciency. In structural elements, where it is essential to verify the tensile stress, a few procedures are applied to determine the so called equivalent strength feq, in which input from the bres is included. For example, according to Japanese Standard [15], the equivalent strength is calculated from the bending test of a beam and it is equal:
Fig. 7. Comparison of the stressdisplacement curves of beams made with ordinary concrete and Ductal, after Behloul [12].

feq T b

L dL=150 bh

micro-aggregate and special additives like y ash and silica fume. The high uidity (low viscosity) of the slurry is necessary for adequate penetration of the dense bre systems in a mould. Very high-strength and resistance against local impacts and penetration of projectiles characterize the elements made with SIFCON. When instead of single bres the woven or plaited mats are used, then the name SIMCON (slurry inltrated mat concrete) is used. The main applications of both materials are heavy-duty pavements, anti-terrorist shields, walls in bank treasuries, etc., where additional cost of materials and special technology are acceptable. 4. Design and composition of FRC For various applications of FRC where strength is not necessarily veried, the composite material is designed using test results and experience. The effect of reinforcement is proportional to the volume and efciency of the bres. Because bres are an important part of the cost, the bre volume in ordinary applications (industrial oors, pavements, etc.) is usually limited to 0.5% or even lower. The difculties in a correct distribution of bres also increase with their volume and this aspect should be always considered.

where Tb work of bending calculated after the area under the load-deection curve up to the deection dL/150 = L/150, b and h are width and depth of the beam, L is its span. Similar formulae are proposed in RILEM Recommendation [16] as a result of a few year work of the Technical Committee TC 162-TDF led by L. Vandewalle. The lack of a universally accepted approach to the calculation and strength verication of SFRC and respective standards is one of the major obstacles in large development of this material in structural design. For steel bres, as well as for other bres (glassbres, carbon bres, etc.), there are several experimental methods proposed and used by different contractors and bre producers.

5. Application of FRC in building and civil engineering structures Steel bres are largely used as dispersed reinforcement of industrial oors and pavements in many countries and this is probably the most important eld of application. There are also several kinds of structural elements where steel bres are used together with steel bars, e.g. structures exposed to impact and fatigue,

A.M. Brandt / Composite Structures 86 (2008) 39

LOAD

A B C I5 = OABE/OAD I10 = OABCF/OAD

D O

E 3

F 5.5
DEFLECTION

Fig. 8. Computation of the exural toughness indices, after ASTM [14]. Fig. 10. Cross-section of prestressed FRC bridge beams without mild reinforcement, Vf = 3%.

solution of a few problems for special structures where high performance is required, e.g. concerning hybrid reinforcement, compatibility between various components, and optimization in material design to determine the best mixture proportions. 7. Conclusions
Fig. 9. Cross-section of the bridge deck in Bourg-ls-Valence (France) made with FRC, Vf = 3%, after Behloul [12].

columns in building in seismic zones, refractory structure, etc. Glassbres are used mostly for external claddings, facade plates and other elements where their strengthening effects are required particular during construction. Natural vegetal bres (cellulose pulp, sizal, bamboo, hemp, ax, jute, ramie bres, etc.) are used in the countries where these bres are easily available, Coutts [17]. Structural elements with vegetal bres are important for construction of inexpensive buildings in developing regions of the world. In last few years, the dispersed steel bres are successfully used in prestressed concrete bridge beams where they replace mild steel reinforcement. In Fig. 9 the cross-section of the bridge deck Bourg-ls-Valence (France) is shown. Ten prestressed beams form the main structure of the bridge. Additional plates are used as the lost shuttering for ordinary concrete cast in situ with ordinary reinforcement and covered with road pavement. The prestressed beams and plates are made with Ductal. Thanks to 3 vol.% of dispersed microbres in Ductal, there are neither stirrups no other mild steel reinforcement needed against shearing and local stresses in the beams and considerable economy was obtained in time and cost of labour. Another example of prestressed concrete beams with 3 vol.% of bres is shown in Fig. 10. This is certainly a new and important direction of future application of bres in structural elements without any other reinforcement. 6. Main directions of development of FRC Extension of application of FRC with development of technology in construction is ensured. Further investigations in a few selected directions are needed, aimed particularly at development of reliable and relatively simple methods of calculation of FRC elements for strength and stiffness and their introduction to the recommendations and standards available for professional engineers; use of modern test methods of FRC in general practice, particularly in civil engineering structures, in view of ensuring the quality control and improving their durability;

The development of various kinds of high performance and ultra-high performance concretes, reinforced with dispersed bres, results in creation of a group of very important building materials. At present, for many outstanding structures or for construction in special conditions, application of FRC is considered as necessary, and this situation will be extended in the future. Successful use of various high performance materials based on cement matrix has a considerable positive inuence on production of ordinary concretes. New components and technologies developed for special purposes are now, at least partly, applied in everyday production in ready-mix-concrete plants. Large variety and better quality of admixtures, improved precision of execution and adequate curing are the bases for ordinary concretes that are becoming inexpensive, strong and ensured improved durability of buildings and civil infrastructure. In general, concrete and particularly concrete with dispersed bre reinforcement is becoming a high-tech material that provides excellent performance but requires competent design and execution. Various experimental and theoretical methods that are successfully applied will certainly be used in further research and development. Acknowledgements This work was supported by Project No. R04 013 01 coordinated by IFTR PAS and sponsored by The Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MniSW), Warsaw, Poland, to which the author is grateful. References
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A.M. Brandt / Composite Structures 86 (2008) 39 [7] Brandt AM. Structural image analysis in investigation of concrete. In: AMAS workshop No. 3, IFTR Warsaw; 2002. p. 14974. [8] Betterman LR, Ouyang C, Shah SP. Fiber-matrix interaction in microber reinforced matrix. Adv Cem Bas Mat 1995;2:5261. [9] Rossi P. Ultra-high-performance ber-reinforced concretes. In: Concrete international, December 1982. p. 4652. [10] Naaman AE. Strain hardening and deection hardening ber reinforced cement composites. In: Reinhardt HW, Naaman AE, editors. Proceedings of the international RILEM workshop High performance ber reinforced cement composites HPFRCC4, Ann Arbor; 2003. p. 95113. [11] Ramakrishnan V, Zellers R, Patnaik AK. Plastic shrinkage reduction potential of a new high tenacity monolament polypropylene ber. In: Malhotra VM, editor. 9th CANMET/ACI international conference on recent advances in concrete technology, 2007, ACI SP-243. p. 4962. [12] Behloul M. HPFRCC eld of applications: Ductal recent experience. In: Reinhardt HW, Naaman AE, editors. Proceedings of the international RILEM

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