During the last 15 years, the structural

use of steel bres as the only principal

reinforcing in concrete has been
developed and widely used.
S
uch novel techniques, where steel bres completely
replace all traditional reinforcing bars and fabric, have
been used repeatedly in the following applications involv-
ing plane structural members:
Pile-supported industrial slabs where the ground does
not provide any bearing capacity (TAB-Structural
with span-to-depth ratios of up to 22).
Ground-bearing general rafts as general foundations
under condominiums, schools, hospitals, ofce tow-
ers, clad-rack warehouses, shopping malls and tanks
(TAB-Raft).
Cast in-situ free suspended elevated slabs in residen-
tial and commercial applications (TAB-Slab, span-to-
depth ratio of up to 35).
Second phase layers on top of concrete planks and
void formers.
Composite oors on steel decking (TAB-deck with up
to two hour re rating).
Retaining walls.
Bridge slabs.
The steel-bre-only reinforced concrete in these appli-
cations, with dosage rates of 30100kg/m
3
depending on
the application and type of bre used, is able to resist the
moments, negative and positive, together with the shear,
shrinkage and punching stresses, so that all reinforcing
steel is omitted. Continuity and starter bars are generally
needed, as in traditional concrete.
The site conditions require the steel-bre-reinforced
concrete to be fully pumpable and owing in such a way
that it does not require any mechanical vibration.
Matrix saturation
An essential feature is the need to saturate the concrete
matrix with steel bres in such a way that the steel bre
spacing in all directions is equal to at least the maximum
aggregate size. The bre length should be 2.5 to 3 times the
size of aggregate so that the bre can overlap and bridge
fully all large aggregate particles.
The 3D-bre spacing, s, is a function of the bre diame-
ter, d, and dosage rate, V
m
, as follows:
s = 122 d/V
m
For example:
50kg/m
3
of TABIX+1/60, s =122 1/50 = 17.25mm
100kg/m
3
of TABIX1.3/50, s = 122 1.3/100 =
15.86mm.
The correct steel bres for these structural uses are of
round cross-section (BS EN 14889-1, Group I
(1)
), strong,
ductile, rather stiff (ie, difcult to bend between three n-
gers of your hand) and should provide an anchoring shape
so that they offer high pull-out loading. Undulated TABIX,
HE hooked ends and Twincone (conical button ends),
which provide total anchorage are the shapes that are most
commonly used in our structural applications.
Examples of pull-out loadings of individual steel bres
are as follows:
1mm/60mm (L/d = 60),1500MPa, TABIX+ 800N
1mm/50mm (L/d =50), 1500MPa, HE+ 600N
1mm/54mm (L/d =54), 1000MPa, Twincone 700N
1.3mm/50mm (L/d = 38), 900MPa, TABIX13/50 800N
Stiff bres that do not bend easily also create less fric-
tion inside the plastic concrete matrix, so that there is less
slump loss. Consequently, a stiffer bre has less tendency
to show at the surface of the concrete.
To achieve the workability that is needed on the job site,
the larger 1.3mm-diameter bres are generally used, up to
the very high dosage rates of 80 and 100kg/m
3
, while the
1mm-diameter bres are limited to a dosage rate of
50kg/m
3
.
Smaller-diameter bres are not used although they sat-
urate the concrete at lower dosage rates, as low as 25kg/m
3
for a 0.60mm diameter bre. Their very low pull-out load
(125N) together with a loss of workability at higher
dosages, makes it extremely difcult to use them.
Mix design
Selecting the correct mix design is essential to ensure that
the concrete can be satisfactorily transported, pumped
(using a minimum 125mm-diameter line), placed and n-
ished. Hence the purchase order of concrete shall include
at least the following:
the mix design together with the aggregate grading
the cement content and the maximum water/cement
ratio of no more than 0.55 (preferably 0.50); a super-
plasticiser is needed to supply a owing concrete
the slump prior to any addition of superplasticiser and
the strength class.
The aggregate grading should be continuous, with
20mm maximum aggregate size together with an increased
content of 12mm maximum size to ensure that the steel
bres can t between the aggregate particles. The
gravel/sand ratio should be 0.9:1.0, with at least 475
500kg/m
3
nes smaller than 200 (including 320350kg/m
3
of cementitious material).
CONCRETE SEPTEMBER 2007 23
FIBRES
Structural steel-bre-reinforced
concrete construction
XAVIER DESTRE, ARCELOR MITTAL
Figure 1 left: Installation
of a TAB-Structural pile-
supported ground oor
slab in a Bauhaus
warehouse in Ingelsta,
Sweden. The slab is
300mm-thick requiring
45kg/m
3
dosage rate of
TABIX+1/60 over a pile
grid of 3.5m 3.5m to
allow for a uniformly
distributed load of
50kN/m
2
. Fibre blast
machines were on-site
to introduce the steel
bres into the concrete,
which was laid at a rate
of 500m
2
to 1650m
2
per
day.
Figure 2: TAB-Raft used
as a general foundation
(4000m
2
) slab under an
ofce building in
Couillet, Belgium. This
raft is 400mm-thick
requiring 50kg/m
3
HE+1/50 bres using a
concrete pump. Column
starter bars were tied
onto steel fabric.
(
P
h
o
t
o
s
:
A
r
c
e
l
o
r

M
i
t
t
a
l
.
)
CONCRETE 17 32 SEPT 07 29/8/07 9:44 am Page 23
Steel bre mixing
Using the above-listed bres, various methods are possi-
ble. In the UK, very few concrete plants can mix the bres
into the central mixer. Most often the bres are therefore
introduced at a rate of 1 minute per cubic metre into the
ready-mixed concrete truck revolving at maximum speed
by using blast machines or being loaded onto mobile con-
veyor belts or the aggregate belts used to load the ready-
mixed trucks.
TABIX+1/60 and Twincone are blown into the ready-
mixed truck using proprietary blast machines pro-
vided by Arcelor Mittal UK and other services
companies.
HE+1/50 and TABIX1.3/50 steel bres can be intro-
duced using a conveyor belt.
TABIX1.3/50 can also be loaded in the truck mixer
prior to dumping any of the constituent materials into
it.
Design criterion
Basically, there is almost always a steel-bre-only rein-
forced concrete solution for plane elements when, working
under unfactored-service loadings together with their own
weight, the concrete stresses in exure and shear are less
than 5N/mm
2
and 1.5N/mm
2
respectively, the latter calcu-
lated at mid-depth with a 45 angle of distribution of
stresses. Currently, steel bres do not replace the principal
reinforcing bars in beams and columns.
For suspended slabs and rafts, the above design rules
are derived from no less than ve full-scale tests (including
several re tests) conducted using the TAB-Deck system
(steel bres used in composite metal deck construction)
together with 15 years experience in numerous countries in
Europe and the Americas involving several million cubic
metres of concrete. As outlined in Concrete Society
Technical Report 63, Guidance for the design of steel-
bre-reinforced concrete
(2)
, Arcelor Mittals methods are
part of the design assisted by testing route.
Advantages
There are numerous advantages resulting from the use of a
pre-reinforced concrete that is readily and easily placed or
pumped into the forms:
higher-quality concrete elements as there are no more
mistakes related to the installation of steel and no
unexpected variations in the effective depth
design and technical assistance by Arcelor Mittal
appointed structural engineers
reduced and controlled concrete shrinkage
slabs and rafts with at softs, without drop panels
anti-progressive-collapse reinforcement as in North
American Standards is included in all TAB-Slabs,
ensuring that no catastrophic collapse occurs if a col-
umn fails
TAB-Slabs are at slabs and do not need any beams
or pedestals and so are quite easy to cast on-site when
non-rectangular oors are required, resulting in
greater design freedom
material savings due to a reduction in thickness in
most cases is feasible
material savings due to the replacement of two layers
of reinforcement and stirrups as they are completely
omitted
labour savings as cutting, bending and placing of steel
are no longer needed
labour savings during installation as the concrete is
self-levelling and does not need poker vibration; it is
easily consolidated in the formwork
the concrete has a more professional appearance as it
is completely smooth against smooth formwork
project schedules benet as the critical path task of
installing and tying traditional reinforcement is omit-
ted; it is commonplace to see several weeks saved on
large projects
crane savings as there is no handling of steel
better job site management as there is no need to store
and handle cut and bent steel reinforcement
better personnel safety; none of the risks attributable
to traditional steel
a better environment with less crane noise, cutting
and bending of steel and no noise from concrete
vibrators
the concrete is easily pumped. I
SEPTEMBER 2007 CONCRETE
FIBRES
24
References:
1. BRITISH STANDARDS INSTITUTION. BS EN 14889-1:
Fibres for concrete. Steel bres. Denitions,
specications and conformity. BSI, 2006.
2. CONCRETE SOCIETY. Guidance for the design of steel-
bre-reinforced concrete, Technical Report 63. The
Concrete Society, Camberley, 2007.
Figure 7: A 150mm-thick TAB-Deck composite oor on
steel decking with 30kg/m
3
HE1/50 steel bres at a
building site in Thanet, UK.
Figure 6: A completed building in Talinn, Estonia, which
had ve 230mm-thick TAB-Slab oors with a 7.5m span
and the raft foundation, all with a bre dosage of
80kg/m
3
.
Figure 3 and 4: TAB-
Raft was used for the
350mm-thick, 2000m
2
ground slab underneath
a condominium
building. Figure 3
shows the installation
of 80kg/m
3
TABIX1.3/50 including
the column footing
thickening. The raft
surface is mirror
nished, as shown in
Figure 4, in order to
comply with the
requirements for a
parking garage.
Figure 5: A typical
installation of a TAB-
Slab steel-bre-only
free suspended
elevated slab 180mm-
thick, using 100kg/m
3
TABIX1.3/50. Anti-
progressive-collapse
reinforcement is
provided from column
to column.
CONCRETE 17 32 SEPT 07 29/8/07 9:45 am Page 24