Indian Journal of Engineering & Materials Sciences

Vol. 14, October 2007, pp. 352-357

Fatigue of high-strength fibre-reinforced concrete

Atef Badr*
School of Built Environment and Engineering, University of Bolton, UK

Received 21 November 2006; accepted 28 September 2007

This paper reports the results of an experimental research that has been conducted to investigate the fatigue behaviour of
high-strength fibre-reinforced concrete (HS-FRC), produced using silica fume (SF) and reinforced with steel fibre. Silica
fume is an essential ingredient for the production of high strength concrete (HSC). It modifies the microstructure of the
cement paste and produces high-strength concrete with desirable performance characteristics. However, modifying the
microstructure of the cement paste could impair the ability of concrete to resist dynamic loading, a property that can be
restored using steel fibre reinforcement. Five different mixes were investigated. The control mix was produced without fibre
or silica fume. The other four mixes were reinforced with 1% (by volume) steel fibre. The effect of silica fume was
investigated using three different replacement percentages at 5, 10 and 15 % by weight.
The results suggested that the effect of steel fibre on the flexural fatigue strength was more significant than the effect of
silica fume. The fatigue strength of mixes containing silica fume was slightly higher than that of the Portland cement HS-
FRC. The reduction in flexural fatigue strength, due to increasing the number of loading cycles from 100,000 to 1,000,000,
was negligible compared to the damage produced by the first 100,000 cycles. This outcome could have important technical
and economical implications, as it would be sufficient to perform fatigue tests up to 100,000 cycles to rank several concrete
mixes.

The development of new technologies in the material
science provided the construction industry with a real
opportunity to enhance the quality and efficiency of
constructions by utilising advanced construction
materials such as high strength concrete (HSC), fibre
reinforced concrete (FRC) and high performance
concrete (HPC). Silica fume has become a common
ingredient in the production of these materials, and in
particular the production of HSC. In well-designed
concrete mixes, the replacement of a certain amount
of the ordinary Portland cement with silica fume
modifies the microstructure of the cementitious paste
and produces concrete with desirable characteristics
such as high strength and high performance with
regard to durability1-5. However, it is often reported
that silica modified concrete has a tendency to exhibit
increased brittleness6-8. This mode of brittleness
manifests itself in the form of reduction of desirable
properties such as fatigue strength of concrete. The
use of fibre reinforcement, however, provides an
energy absorption capability as well as a load bearing
capacity after cracking, which leads to enhanced
___________
*E-mail: atefbadr@hotmail.com
static, impact and fatigue resistance9-14. Thus, the
brittleness of high strength concrete can readily be
controlled by the improved ductility provided by the
addition of fibres11,12,15. The dynamic mechanical
properties of concrete have received less interest than
the static properties, in spite of the fact that dynamic
loading conditions are commonly encountered in
structures16. Among the most common applications
for HS-FRC are pavements such as in highways,
bridge decks and runways in airports17,18. The fatigue
behaviour is one of the most important performance
criteria of pavements, as they encounter high cyclic
loading during their service life. An experimental
study has been carried out to investigate the fatigue of
HSC containing silica fume and reinforced with steel
fibres.
Experimental Programme
The objectives of this investigation were achieved
by studying five mixes. The control mix was
produced without fibre or silica fume. The effect of
the fibre was evaluated by studying an identical mix
reinforced with 1% (by volume) steel fibre. The effect
of silica fume was investigated at three cement
 BADR: FATIGUE OF HIGH-STRENGTH FIBRE-REINFORCED CONCRETE 353

replacement levels of 5, 10 and 15% on weight-to-
weight basis.
Materials
Ordinary Portland cement (OPC), conforming to
BS 12: 1996, was used in this study. Silica fume with
silicon oxide of more than 90% was used as a cement
replacement material. The coarse aggregate was
natural gravel of 10 mm nominal maximum size. The
fine aggregate was quartzite sand, with grading
conforms to zone M of BS 882, 1992. A
superplasticiser based on naphthalene sulphonates
polymer was added to the concrete mix to enhance its
workability. Corrugated steel fibre (Fig. 1) with
nominal length of 50 mm and nominal diameter of 1
mm was used.
Mix proportions
Trial mixes were optimised, experimentally, to
accommodate the fibre reinforcement and
compromise between high strength and acceptable
workability. The optimised mix proportions were 1:
1.9: 2.1: 0.42 (cement: sand: coarse aggregate: water)
with a nominal cementious content of 440 kg/m3.
These ratios were kept constant for all mixes.
However, the addition of fibre and silica fume
changed the workability of the fresh concrete as
measured by the slump test (BS 1881: Part 102, 1983
and its AMD 6090: 1989). A slump value of between
30 and 50 mm was maintained for all mixes by
varying the dosage of the superplasticiser. The
proportions of the various mixes are presented in
Fig. 1—Steel fibre used in this study
Table 1—Details of mix proportions/m3
Table 1. The term “OPC-000” was used to identify
the control Portland cement mix without fibre
reinforcement. The term “OPC-FRC” was used for a
mix identical to the control but reinforced with 1%
(by volume) steel fibre. The rest of the mixes were
silica fume fibre-reinforced concrete and were
identified based on the replacement level. For
example SF5-FRC is for a fibre-reinforced mix with
5% of the Portland cement replaced with silica fume
(by weight).
Mixing and production of specimens
The mixing of concrete was done in a rotary drum
concrete mixer. The aggregates and the cementitious
material were initially mixed dry for one minute,
before adding about half of the mixing water. After
two minutes of mixing, the remaining mixing water
and superplasticiser (if any) were added. Mixing was
continued for another three minutes, before adding the
steel fibres. The fibres were sprinkled into the drum
by hand. Mixing was continued for further three
minutes to achieve uniform distribution of the fibre.
Prisms (500×100×100 mm) were produced for
static flexural strength and flexural fatigue tests.
Cubes (100 mm) were sampled for compressive
strength tests. Each layer was compacted properly
using a vibrating table. The specimens were covered
with wet hessian and polyethylene sheets overnight.
The specimens were then de-moulded after 24 h and
cured in a curing water basin for 7 days. The water
temperature was monitored continuously and the
average temperature was 20±3°C. After the initial
7-day wet curing, all specimens were transferred to an
environmental chamber maintained at 20±2°C and
40±5% relative humidity, until the desired testing age.
Test Procedures
Compressive strength
The compressive strength for all mixes was
determined at the age of 28 days as a means of quality
control. Another set of specimens was tested at the
age of 91 days. The compressive strength of the
hardened concrete cubes was determined according to

Mix OPC, kg SF, kg Sand, kg Gravel, kg W/C, ratio Fibre, % SP, kg Slump, mm

OPC-000 440 - 836 924 0.42 - 0.00 30

OPC-FRC 440 - 836 924 0.42 1.0 3.52 30
SF5-FRC 419 21 836 924 0.42 1.0 4.00 40
SF10-FRC 398 42 836 924 0.42 1.0 4.40 30
SF15-FRC 377 63 836 924 0.42 1.0 4.84 35
354 INDIAN J. ENG. MATER. SCI., OCTOBER 2007
BS 1881: Part 116: 1983. The tests were carried out
using a digital automatic testing machine of a 3000
kN capacity.
Static flexural strength
The static flexural test for each mix was carried out
to establish the maximum stress levels for the fatigue
tests. The static flexural strength was determined in
accordance with BS 1881: Part 118: 1983. Five
prisms from each mix were tested using third points
loading on a 300 mm span. The average of these five
tests was taken as the static flexural strength "fsf" of
the mix.
Flexural fatigue strength
All fatigue tests were carried out using a closed-lop
Electrohydrolic Universal Testing Machine. The
third-points loading configuration used for
determining the static flexural strength was also used
in the flexural fatigue strength tests. The fatigue testes
were conducted at various stress level "S", which
relates the maximum fatigue stress "fmax" to the
corresponding static flexural strength "fsf" (Thus,
S = fmax / fsf). The stress level "S" ranged from 0.65 to
0.90. The fatigue tests were carried out by applying
constant amplitude sinusoidal non-reversal loads at a
constant frequency of 20 cycles per second (20 Hz).
Galloway and Raithby19 showed that the frequency of
loading had no effect on fatigue performance over the
range 4-20 Hz and suggested that 20 Hz to be adopted
as a standard test frequency for fatigue testing of
cement bound materials. In all cases the minimum
load was kept at 0.5 kN to hold the specimen in place
and avoid disruption in the loading system. The
fatigue strength is recorded as the number of cycles to
failure of the specimen at a given stress level.
Results and Discussion
Compressive strength
The results of the 28-day and 91-day compression
tests are given in Table 2, where each value represents
Table 2—Compressive and static flexural strength results
Mix Compressive strength Static flexural strength
MPa MPa
28 days 91 days 91 days
OPC-000 60.47 71.68 5.42
OPC-FRC 68.67 80.25 6.59
SF5-FRC 73.93 84.54 6.96
SF10-FRC 75.59 87.83 7.43
SF15-FRC 76.98 88.46 7.67
the average of three specimens with a maximum
variation of 5%. It can be seen that all mixes had
strengths greater than 60 MPa at 28 days and,
therefore, can be safely classified as high-strength
concrete.
The effect of the steel fibre can be detected by
comparing the compressive strength results of the
control mix (OPC-000) without fibre and mix OPC-
FRC (with fibre). The addition of 1% (by volume)
steel fibres resulted in higher strength. The 28-day
compressive strength of the OPC-FRC mix was
higher than that of the plain concrete OPC-000 mix by
14%. The corresponding value at 91 days was 12%.
The increase in compressive strength as a result of
steel fibre reinforcement is in agreement with the
reported literature20.
The effect of silica fume on the compressive
strength of the fibre-reinforced mixes can be seen
from Table 2. Compared to the OPC-FRC mix, higher
strength was obtained from the mixes containing
silica fume (SF5-FRC, SF10-FRC and SF15-FRC).
The higher the replacement level the higher was the
strength. However, the improvement due to increasing
the replacement level from 10% to 15% was not as
clear as the improvement obtained due to increasing
the replacement level from 0 to 5% or from 5% to
10%.
Static flexural strength
At the age of at 91 days, the static flexural strength
"fsf" of each mix was determined as the ultimate static
flexural stress (modulus of rupture). The results are
given in Table 2, where each value represents the
average of five specimens.
The effect of steel fibre and silica fume on the
static flexural strength was similar to their effects on
compressive strength. However, the increase in the
flexural strength was more noticeable. The steel fibre
increased the static flexural strength by about 22%,
whereas the corresponding increase in the
compressive strength was 12%. These results suggest
that fibres are more effective under flexural loads than
under compression loads. This is in agreement with
other researchers21. Under flexural loading, fibres
bridge cracks and arrest their propagation, whereas
under compression the mode of failure does not
induce a significant contribution from the fibres.
Likewise, silica fume increased the static flexural
strength by about 12% (on average) compared to an
increase of 8% in the case of compressive strength.
 BADR: FATIGUE OF HIGH-STRENGTH FIBRE-REINFORCED CONCRETE
Flexural fatigue strength
The results of the fatigue tests are shown in Fig. 2.
It shows the data points of the maximum flexural
stress versus the logarithm of the number of cycles to
failure for each tested prism. For every individual mix
the relationship was best described by a linear trend
obtained by the least squares best fit. The linear
relationship between fatigue stress and the logarithm
of the number of cycles is commonly reported in the
literature20,22,23.
It can be seen that steel fibre and silica fume
increased the flexural fatigue strength. The increase
due to the use of steel fibre was clearer than the effect
silica fume. Comparing the fibre reinforced mixes, it
can be seen that all mixes containing silica fume
provided the highest flexural fatigue strength. This
may be attributed to the enhancement of the
properties of the transition zones at the fibre-paste and
aggregate-paste interfaces. Optimum fatigue
behaviour of FRC can be achieved by optimising the
bond properties of aggregate-matrix and fibre-matrix
interfaces24. The inclusion of silica fume in the
cementitious matrix significantly enhance the
interfaces and thus improves the ability of steel fibres
to resist cracking and restrain damage16,25. The results
could suggest that the higher the silica fume content
the higher was the flexural fatigue strength. However,
it is often acknowledged that the static flexural
strength could have a crucial effect on the flexural
fatigue behaviour20,23. In order to eliminate the effect
of the static flexural strength, the results of the
flexural fatigue tests were normalised with respect to
the static flexural strength of each mix. The
normalised values are plotted against the logarithm of
the number of cycles, as shown in Fig. 3. Presenting
the data in this way made the effect of steel fibres
Fig. 2—Fatigue stress versus logarithm of number of cycles
355
very clear. This suggests that some of the
improvement in flexural fatigue strength of the OPC-
FRC mix was masked by the increase of its static
flexural strength compared to the control plain mix
(OPC-000). The figure also revealed a slight increase
(about 5%) in the flexural fatigue for all mixes
containing silica fume regardless of the level of
replacement, as the normalised fatigue stress for all
mixes containing silica fume were almost identical.
Thus it could be suggested that, in terms of fatigue
behaviour, the optimum silica fume replacement level
is 5%. However, it could be argued that the increase
due to the use of silica fume was very small and
should be ignored. Nevertheless, the increase was
noticed in all mixes containing silica fume for the
entire range of loading cycles and, therefore, this
observation should be considered as a trend.
The linear equations for the trends obtained by the
least square best fit for every individual mix were
used to isolate the effect of each parameter (steel fibre
and/or silica fume) at 100,000 and 1,000,000 cycles.
The results are presented in the bar chart given in
Fig. 4. It can be seen that the effect of each parameter
on the flexural fatigue strength was more or less
similar to the effect on static flexural strength.
However, this figure revealed an interesting
observation. For all mixes, the reduction in flexural
strength due to increasing the number of cycles from
100,000 to 1,000,000 is negligible compared to the
damage that have been already done by the first
100,000 cycles. An attempt to explain this observation
can be made in the light of the mechanism of fatigue
failure in concrete as suggested by Gopalaratnam and
Cherian17. They suggested that in the first stage of
fatigue failure, fatigue damage is accumulated in the
concrete matrix resulting in rapid cracking and
Fig. 3—Normalised fatigue stress versus logarithm of number
of cycles
356 INDIAN J. ENG. MATER. SCI., OCTOBER 2007
Fig. 4—Effect of fibre and silica fume at different number of cycles
deflection with increasing the number of fatigue
cycles. The second stage is characterised by little or
no growth in cracks and deflections due to stable and
steady damage process. Therefore the results obtained
in this study suggests that the first 100,000 cycles can
be considered as the end limit of the first stage of the
failure mechanism, whereas the second stage can be
correlated to the number of cycles between 100,000
and 1,000,000. This outcome, if confirmed, could
have important technical and economical
implications. As a result, it might be sufficient to
perform fatigue tests up to 100,000 cycles to rank or
compare several concrete mixes. However, further
research is needed to confirm this finding.
Conclusions
For the concrete mixes, materials and testing
methods used in this research, the following
conclusions may be drawn:
(i) Steel fibre and silica fume contributed more to
the flexural strength than compressive strength.
Steel fibre increased the static flexural strength
by about 22%, which is almost double the
corresponding increase in the compressive
strength. Similarly, silica fume increased the
static flexural strength by about 12% compared
to an increase of 8 % in the case of compressive
strength.
(ii) The effect of steel fibre on the flexural fatigue
strength was similar to its effect on the static
flexural strength. The fibre enhanced the flexural
fatigue behaviour significantly. The effect of the
fibre on the flexural fatigue strength was clearer
than the effect of silica fume.
(iii) In the presence of steel fibres, silica fume
slightly improved the flexural fatigue behaviour.
For all replacement levels, the flexural fatigue
strength of mixes containing silica fume was
slightly higher than that of the OPC fibre
reinforced concrete. The increase was observed
in all mixes containing silica fume for the entire
range of loading cycles.
(iv) The reduction in the flexural fatigue strength,
due to increasing the number of loading cycles
from 100,000 to 1,000,000, was negligible
compared to the damage produced by the first
100,000 cycles. Thus it might be sufficient to
perform fatigue tests up to 100,000 cycles to
rank several concrete mixes.
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