Construction and Building Materials 126 (2016) 253–262

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Construction and Building Materials

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

Flexural behaviour of steel fibre-reinforced concrete under cyclic loading

Bensaid Boulekbache a,⇑, Mostefa Hamrat a, Mohamed Chemrouk b, Sofiane Amziane c
a
Laboratory of Materials Sciences and Environment, University Hassiba Benbouali, Chlef, Algeria
b
University of Sciences and Technology Houari Boumediene, Algiers, Algeria
c
Clermont University, Institut Pascal, Polytech’Clermont-Ferrand, Aubière, France

h i g h l i g h t s

The flexural behaviour of fibre reinforced concrete under cyclic loading was studied.

The fibres orientation depends mainly upon the workability properties of the concrete mixture.

The use of steel fibres in concrete improved the flexural tensile strength and the ductility.

The fibre content and the aspect ratio have an important influence on the reversibility of FRC.

The cumulative energy of FRC increases with the fibres content.

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

Article history: This paper presents the results of cyclic loading tests on fibre-reinforced concrete (FRC). The main objective
Received 20 July 2016 of this research is to evaluate simultaneously the influence of the workability, the steel fibres and the com-
Received in revised form 9 September 2016 pressive strength on the flexural behaviour of FRC under cyclic loading. Prismatic concrete specimens hav-
Accepted 12 September 2016
ing dimensions of 150  150  700 mm were fabricated with concrete of various workability and different
Available online 19 September 2016
compressive strengths (30, 60 and 80 MPa) and reinforced with hooked end steel fibres of aspects ratios of
65 and 80 at contents of 0.5 and 1%. A four-point bending test with notched specimens was conducted using
Keywords:
Digital Image Correlation technique. The orientation of the fibres, failure modes, hysteresis loops, flexural
Concrete
Workability
strength, local analysis, cumulative energy and ductility of FRC beams are presented and analyzed. The
Steel fibre experimental results show that the cyclic flexural behaviour of FRC flexural strength and ductility of
Orientation fibre-reinforced concrete are significantly improved by the fibre content, the aspect ratio, the fibres orien-
Cyclic loading tation and the concrete strength. The increase in flexural strength reaches 242%. The workability of concrete
Flexural strength plays an important role on the orientation and distribution of the fibres in the matrix.
Ductility Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
With the continuous advances in materials’ technology, the
performance of concrete is being continuously improved and its
compressive strength exceeding well 60 MPa, making it widely
used in industry throughout the world. However, with the increase
of its compressive strength, the concrete becomes more brittle, less
ductile and hence liable to sudden failures. To improve its ability to
absorb energy and deformation before failure, and behave as a
ductile material, steel fibres are added to the concrete forming
fibre-reinforced concrete. The steel fibres also improve the tensile
strength, considered as the main weakness in the structural prop-
erties of concrete, and enhance its flexural behaviour [1,2]. By
bridging across a crack, fibres take up partially the tension force
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: bboulekbache@yahoo.fr (B. Boulekbache).
and hence cracked concrete does loose completely its tensile
strength after cracking [3,4].
The extent of the improvement in ductility and tensile strength
is, however, influenced by several parameters such as the type,
shape, aspect ratio, volume and distribution of fibres [5–11].
Furthermore, the geometry and the quantity of the fibres used
influence directly the workability of the fresh concrete [12,13].
A residual tensile strength still remains in fibre concrete after
cracking, contrary to unreinforced concrete. The importance of this
residual tensile strength depends on the efficiency of the fibres in
terms of bonding, anchorage and on their content in the concrete-
fibres mixture. The stability of any concrete structure during an
earthquake is heavily governed by its ductility. The survival of the
structure against a seismic loading depends on the capacity for dis-
posal of the cumulative energy. Park and Paulay [14] have showed
that crack occurrence is necessary for the energy dissipation.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2016.09.035
0950-0618/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
254 B. Boulekbache et al. / Construction and Building Materials 126 (2016) 253–262

Table 1
Properties of steel fibres used.
Type 1
Length lf (mm) 35
Diameter df (mm) 0.55
Aspect ratio (lf/df) 65
Tensile strength (MPa) 1100
Shape
On the other hand, the orientation of fibres is the key parameter
that affects most the flexural behaviour of FRC and is significantly
improved when the fibres are oriented in the direction of the ten-
sile stresses; a larger number of fibres parallel to the direction of
the tensile stresses is required to achieve optimum benefits from
the fibres [2,5–9]. The efficiency of fibres in the concrete depends
on the number of effective fibres oriented in the direction of the
principal stress [15]. The effectiveness of FRC is found to decrease
by 70% for randomly oriented fibres with regard to totally aligned
fibres, since with a larger number of fibres crossing the failure
plane, more fibre pull-out resistance would be activated, leading
to an improved flexural strength [2,16].
However, the orientation of the fibres depends on a number of
parameters, essentially the amount and geometry of fibres, the
workability of concrete, the casting method, the means of pouring
and compacting, the formwork geometry and the fine to coarse
aggregate ratio [1,2,7–10].
A higher content of fibres during mixing increases the interac-
tion of fibres with aggregates, which in turn causes the effect of
balling and affects negatively the workability of the concrete mix-
ture. The workability and the compaction method affect the move-
ment of fibres during the casting of specimens; a too high
workability allows for a better orientation of the fibres. Specimen
size indirectly affects the orientation of fibres since the latters
are forced to align along moulded surfaces [2,12,13,17].
Most research has been conducted on the flexural response of
FRC under monotonic loading, but few of them have investigated
the cyclic behaviour. The objective of the present work is to inves-
tigate experimentally the flexural behaviour of FRC under cyclic
loading and the effect of some other parameters of the material
with different levels of workability, matrix strength, fibre volume
fractions and aspect ratios.
2. Experimental work
2.1. Materials and fabrication of the test specimens
The cement used was a CEM I 52.5 N with a specific surface of
3520 cm2/g. Standard silica fume and limestone filler was used as
mineral additives; their specific surface was 230,000 cm2/g and
3970 cm2/g respectively. The silica fume was used in proportion
Type 2 of 10% by weight of cement for high strength concrete. The
60 Super-plasticizer was a polycarboxylate-based admixture.
0.75 Two types of hooked-end steel fibres with two aspect ratios (65
80 and 80) have been used. Two fibres dosages 0.5% and 1% by volume
1100 of concrete were made along with a concrete without fibres for ref-
erence. Table 1 shows the characteristics of the steel fibres used.
Three mixtures of concretes were performed: an ordinary con-
crete (OC), a self-compacting concrete (SCC) and a high strength
concrete (HSC). The mix proportions are given in Table 2. For each
mix, three prismatic specimens 150  150  700 mm on a span of
600 mm were performed for the flexural test and three concrete
cylinders (110  220 mm) were tested to measure the compressive
strength. The bottom side of each specimen was notched with
10 mm depth and 2 mm width.
Compaction was achieved by means of a vibrating table for
ordinary and high strength concretes. After 24 h, the specimens
were removed from the moulds and stored in a moist room at a
temperature of 22 °C and 95 % relative humidity until the day of
testing. All the tests were carried out at 28 days of age.
The magnitude of the residual strength beyond cracking is
provided by fibres bridging the crack and hence it is important that
the fresh concrete allows for a uniform distribution and a better
orientation of the fibres. A too much stiff concrete results in a poor
distribution of fibres which are not properly enveloped by concrete
and blocked in clusters in the presence of higher coarse aggregate.
This justifies the use of higher paste content by using higher quan-
tity of limestone filler and limiting the coarse aggregates [3,12,13].
2.2. Flexural test setup
The four-point bending tests were conducted on a 250-kN
servo-hydraulic universal testing machine. The testing machine
has the capability to control test using load and displacement con-
trol. All the beams are subjected to repeated loading up to failure.
The deflection of the beam specimens is measured at mid-span
using LVDT. The beams were supported by two roller bearings,
one of which was fixed and the other was free to move horizon-
tally. A uniform/random speckle pattern is applied on one face of
the specimen Fig. 1.
The loading procedure involved two load steps, namely, a
displacement-controlled step and a load-controlled step. For
loading and reloading, the tests were carried out under
displacement-controlled conditions at a constant rate of 0.2 mm/
min. For unloading, the tests were carried under load-controlled
conditions at a constant rate 6 kN/min until a near zero load level.
The cyclic flexural testing involved unloading to deflection levels of
0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 mm. Fig. 2 shows the loading procedure.
A Digital Image Correlation technique obtained by a digital
recording camera was used to detect the first crack and to follow
the cracking process until failure.

Table 2
Mix proportions of concretes (kg/m3).

Mixture OC FROC SCC FRSCC HSC FRHSC

Cement (C) 275 275 425 425 425 425
Silica fume (SF) – – – – 42.5 42.5
Limestone filler (LF) 90 90 200 200 90 90
Gravel 4/10 910 900 825 814 825 814
Sand 0/4 830 820 750 740 750 740
Water (W) 178 178 192 192 161 161
Super-plasticizer (%C) – 0.70 1.20 1.70 1.00 1.60
Steel fibres – 39; 78 – 39; 78 – 39; 78
W/P* 0.49 0.49 0.32 0.32 0.30 0.30

Notations used: FROC: Fibre Reinforced Ordinary Concrete; FRSCC: Fibre Reinforced Self-Compacting Concrete; FRHSC: Fibre Reinforced High Strength Concrete.
*
P (Powder) = C + SF + LF.
 B. Boulekbache et al. / Construction and Building Materials 126 (2016) 253–262 255

orientation factor a is calculated as proposed by Soroushian [18].

It is defined as the ratio of the number of fibres counted (N) in a
given cross-section and the theoretical number (Nth) with only
Speckle the fibres perpendicular to the given cross-section:

N Af
Specimen a¼ ¼N ð1Þ
Nth V f Ac
Camera
lenses where:
Ac is the transverse section of notched beam;
Af is the section of a fibre;
Digital camera
Vf is the volume fraction of fibres
"ARAMIS"
The orientation factor for all mixtures is represented in Fig. 4.
Fig. 1. Testing setup. For fluid concretes (SCC and OC), the fibres have a preferred orien-
tation with values of orientation factors varying from 0.42 to 0.52
for FROC and 0.54 to 0.62 for FRSCC, expressing a uniform distribu-
tion, which enables an enhanced level of friction between matrix
Deflection (mm)

Displacement control
and fibres. However, for stiff concrete (FRHSC), the orientation
Load control factor varied from 0.35 to 0.42, meaning that the fibres are badly
Until failure dispersed and oriented in the mixture. It has been reported early
that the orientation strongly depends on the workability of the
concrete [8–10].
5
4 3.3. Flexural tensile strength
3
2 3.3.1. Ultimate flexural tensile strength
The ultimate flexural tensile strength was determined from the
1
failure load on notched beams, according to following equation:
0.5
0.2 Pu L
fu ¼ 2
ðMPaÞ ð2Þ
0 bðh  a0 Þ
Time
where Pu is a maximum load; L, b and h are the span, width and
Fig. 2. Cyclic loading procedure. depth of the beam; a0 is the notch depth (L = 60 cm, b = 15 cm,
h = 15 cm, a0 = 1 cm).
The results concerning the average values of the measured
3. Test results and discussions cracking strength (fcr), the ultimate flexural strength (fu) and the
percent increase in ultimate strength of FRC specimens are sum-
3.1. Concrete properties marized in Table 4. The results show that all specimens provided
higher flexural tensile strength than those of their respective plain
Table 3 presented the results of the fresh mix properties of the concrete.
concretes tested. With the addition of fibres, the workability rate of The flexural tensile strength gain was higher for self-
FRC decreases slightly. For SCC, the mixture showed a good compacting concretes with higher percentages of fibre volume
homogeneity. and larger fibre aspect ratio. The enhanced performance of fibres
The 28-day mean strength of plain concrete was 29, 61 and in concrete with high strength levels is attributed to the improved
82 MPa for OC, SCC and HSC respectively. The incorporation of steel bond characteristics between the fibre and the matrix and the well
fibres has slightly reduced the compression strength by around 7%, oriented fibres in the direction of the tensile stresses created by
6%, and 10% for FROC, FRSCC and FRHSC respectively for a fibre vol- flexure [9,19,20]. For FRSCC80-1, the increase was 242% in compar-
ume fraction of 1 % as indicated by many researchers [3,7,9]. ison with the plain concrete. For FRHSC80-1, the increase was 174%
in comparison with the plain concrete.
3.2. Fibres orientation The aspect ratio of fibres has a slight effect on the flexural ten-
sile strength. A maximum of 30% was found between the improve-
In order to asses the fibre-alignment in hardened concrete; a ment in strength of a fibre with an aspect ratio 65 and 80.
manual fibre-counting method at the fractured cross-section after However, the first crack strength is not affected by the presence
bending tests was used. The number of fibres is the total sum of the of fibres. Records of increases ranging from 25 % to 33 % for a fibre
pulled-out fibres which appear on the two sides (Fig. 3). An volume fraction of 1 % were obtained. The aspect ratio has a slight

Table 3
Properties of fresh concretes.

OC FROC 65-0.5 FROC 65-1 SCC FRSCC 65-0.5 FRSCC 65-1 HSC FRHSC 65-0.5 FRHSC 65-1
FROC 80-0.5 FROC 80-1 FRSCC 80-0.5 FRSCC 80-1 FRHSC 80-0.5 FRHSC 80-1
Slump (cm) 24 21 20 – - – 16 13 12
Slump flow (cm) – – – 70 65 63 – – –

FROC xx-xx: The first number is the aspect ratio of the fibres (65 or 80).
The number after hyphen is the dosage of the fibres (0.5 or 1%).
256 B. Boulekbache et al. / Construction and Building Materials 126 (2016) 253–262

Fig. 3. Fibre distribution in a fractured cross-section for the process of fibre counting.

1 3.3.2. Hysteresis loops

FRHSC FROC FRSCC
Fig. 5 shows typical cyclic Load-deflection curves for the flexu-
Orientation factor

0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0 average slope of the unloading and reloading curves is inversely
65-0.5 65-1 80-0.5
Type of concrete
Fig. 4. Orientation factors for the different concretes tested.
effect on the first crack; the results revealed an increase about 9% in
the cracking strength for an increase of aspect ratio from 65 to 80.
The gradual increase in strength when the fresh concrete was
workable, hence allowing the spread of the fibres homogeneously,
shows the efficiency of steel fibres in improving the flexural beha-
viour of concrete. They restrain the development and widening of
the cracks by taking themselves part of the tensile force. The fibres
that cross the cracking take up the residual strength and deform at
the anchored ends which straighten gradually as the load is
increased beyond cracking. They end up by eventually pulling
out at failure.
ral test. For high strengths concrete (FRHSC), there is a sudden drop
in the load-carrying capacity after the occurrence of peak load
(Fig. 5(c)). However, for efficient FRC (FROC and FRSCC), the sudden
release of energy will be compensate by an effective bridging of
fibres (Fig. 5(a) and (b)).
The unloading and reloading curves for all concretes tested do
not coincide and are not parallel to the initial loading curve. The
80-1
proportional of the residual displacement. This implies that there
is definite stiffness degradation for the entire displacement range
of load-deflection curve.
Residual strains are defined as the strains corresponding to a
near-zero load level on the unloading stress-strain path. The envel-
ope unloading strains and residual strains can be obtained by the
load type of cycles to envelope curve. The observed changes in
the shape of the stress-strain curves with increasing plastic strains
suggest a relationship between the residual strain and unloading
strain on the envelope curve. The increase in the envelope unload-
ing strains causes roughly the same increase in the accumulated
residual strain.
The results show that the material becomes elastically until the
first peak load. The load should be stabilized before increasing
again with an raise displacement. Eventually, because crack

Table 4
Compressive strength and flexural tensile strength of concretes tested.

Orientation factor Compressive strength fc (MPa) first crack strength fcr (MPa) Ultimate flexural tensile strength fu (MPa) Increase in fu (%)
OC – 29.3 – 2.33 –
FROC 65-0.5 0.45 27.0 2.41 3.54 52
FROC 65-1 0.42 28.4 2.90 5.49 136
FROC 80-0.5 0.49 28.3 2.64 4.38 88
FROC 80-1 0.52 28.5 2.94 5.82 150
SCC – 61.3 – 2.30 –
FRSCC 65-0.5 0.57 57.1 2.84 3.80 65
FRSCC 65-1 0.54 53.6 3.08 7.04 206
FRSCC 80-0.5 0.62 56.7 3.04 5.67 98
FRSCC 80-1 0.59 54.6 3.24 7.86 242
HSC – 82.6 – 2.85 –
FRHSC 65-0.5 0.37 79.1 2.98 4.24 49
FRHSC 65-1 0.35 78.8 3.56 7.22 153
FRHSC 80-0.5 0.42 73.9 3.03 5.39 89
FRHSC 80-1 0.38 72.2 3.58 7.82 174
 B. Boulekbache et al. / Construction and Building Materials 126 (2016) 253–262 257

60 60
FROC FROC
50 50

Load (kN)
40 40
Load (kN)

30 30

20 20 FROC 80-1
FROC 65-1

10 10 FROC 80-0.5
FROC 65-0.5
0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Deflection (mm) (a) Deflection (mm)

60 60
FRSCC FRSCC
50 50

Load (kN)
Load (kN)

40 40
FRSCC 80-1
30 30
FRSCC 65-1
20 20
FRSCC 80-0.5
10 10
FRSCC 65-0.5
0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Deflection (mm) (b) Deflection (mm)

60 60
FRHSC FRHSC
50 50

40 40
Load (kN)

Load (kN)

30 30 FRHSC 80-1

20 20
FRHSC 65-1
10 10
FRHSC 80-0.5
FRHSC 65-0.5
0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Deflection (mm) Deflection (mm)
(c)
Fig. 5. Cyclic load-deflection curves of the tested specimens.

propagation is restrained by fibres, a second and higher peak load
is reached.
The hysteresis responses of all specimens are shown in Fig. 5. It
can be seen that the specimen was in elastic range at the beginning
of loading, the area surrounded by hysteresis loops was very small.
With the increase of load, the specimens went into the elastic–plas-
tic range, the cracks were developed, and the damage of specimens
was gradually accumulated while the stiffness was decreasing. As a
result, the area surrounded by hysteresis loops increased succes-
sively. The presence of such a hysteresis indicates that significant
energy dissipation takes place during the loading–unloading pro-
cess [21]. Beyond peak load, the residual deformation became
important and hysteresis curves appeared pinch, hence the energy
dissipation of specimen decreased during this stage.
3.4. Cyclic behaviour of FRC
3.4.1. Local analysis
From the experimental load-deflection curves which include
several loops load-unload, a local analysis is performed in order
to study the influence of the anchor on the reversibility of beha-
viour of FRC.
The irreversibility of the movement is used to define the elas-
tic limit conventionally. Rupture of paste-aggregate bond is the
first permanent deformation; micro-cracks at the connections
begin to grow, thus leading to the macroscopic permanent defor-
mations in addition to elastic deformation level. At higher stres-
ses, the micro-cracks propagate aligning in the direction of
tensile stress.
The flexural behaviour under cyclic loading is evaluated with
studied of two parameters: The degree of reversibility (R) and
the cyclic modulus Ecyc. The degree of reversibility (R) is defined
as the ratio of the reversible displacement (dr) and the total dis-
placement (dt) of the hysteresis loop (R = dr/dt) [22]. The reversible
movement is the distance between the x-axis the major axis of the
loop and load discharge arrow at the discharge. The cyclic modulus
Ecyc may be determined by the slope of the line connecting the two
points reversing the strain direction, the initial tangent modulus E0
corresponds to the slope at the beginning of load-deflection curve
as show in Fig. 6.
258 B. Boulekbache et al. / Construction and Building Materials 126 (2016) 253–262

rigid anchoring makes the material more flexible with more pull-
out hooks.
Load (kN)

3.4.2. Cumulative energy

E0
δr
δt
Fig. 6. Cyclic parameters.
The degrees of reversibility versus the normalized deflection
(deflection d at a given load/deflection dmax at the peak load) for
all mixtures are shown in Fig. 7. The degree of reversibility is
higher for fibre volume of 1%. The aspect ratio has also an
important influence on the degree of reversibility; the aspect ratio
is greater as the degree of reversibility is important.
The local analysis at the anchors is used to study their rigidity,
their influence on the reversibility of behaviour and behavioural
consequences versus cyclic loading. The anchoring of the fibre
stands up hook in the mass of the matrix, which contributes to
improved rigidity. On sections of rupture, almost all brackets have
been adjusted, indicating an optimum power dissipation. During
unloading, the anchors do not return to their original position
and breaks, making the material less rigid and resulting in
substantial reversible displacements. The results show that a very
Ecyc Figs. 8 and 9 show the cumulative energy versus the deflection.
This energy represents the area under the cyclic load-deflection
curve corresponding to deflections 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 mm. This energy
is higher for FRSCC compared to FROC and FRHSC. For self-
compacting concrete, the fibres are dispersed homogeneously
due to its better workability, resulting in an enhanced flexural
tensile strength. It can also be seen that for the small deflections,
Deflection (mm)
all configurations are similar and disperse for large deflections.
Thus, the energy cumulated for 1 % of fibres is greater than that
for 0.5 % of fibres for the two aspect ratios (Fig. 8).
In the field post-peak, hooks result in significant cumulative
energy by their slip. All the curves show that the fibres are inactive
at first and come into action after the specimens start bending. The
rupture of the fibre should be avoided to enhance the rigidity of the
material.
As shown in Fig. 9, the increase in fibre content results in
consistent increase of the cumulative energy. However, the aspect
ratio of fibres has a slight influence on the cumulative energy.
3.4.3. Cyclic modulus
The evolution of the cyclic modulus reflects the state of the
material damage for a given strain. Fig. 10 describes the evolution
of the normalized cyclic modulus (Ecyc/E0) with the normalized
deflection. It shows that, both in the pre-peak phase and in the
post-peak phase, a less rapid decrease in the Ecyc/E0 with the
increase of the volume of fibres occurs. For damaged material,
the use of fibres leads to the introduction of the ‘‘progressive

1.0 1.0
0.9 FRSCC 65-0.5 0.9 FRSCC 65-1
Degree of reversibiliy

Degree of reversibiliy

0.8 FRHSC 65-0.5 0.8

FRHSC 65-1
0.7 0.7
FROC 65-0.5 FROC 65-1
0.6 0.6
0.5 0.5
0.4 0.4
0.3 0.3
0.2 0.2
0.1 0.1
0.0 0.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Normalized deflection δ/δ fmax Normalized deflection δ/ δ fmax

1.0 1.0
0.9 FRSCC 80-0.5 0.9 FRSCC 80-1
Degree of reversibiliy
Degree of reversibiliy

0.8 FRHSC 80-0.5 0.8 FRHSC 80-1

0.7 FROC 80-0.5 0.7 FROC 80-1
0.6 0.6
0.5 0.5
0.4 0.4
0.3 0.3
0.2 0.2
0.1 0.1
0.0 0.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Normalized deflection δ/δ fmax Normalized deflection δ/δ fmax

Fig. 7. Degree of reversibility of the different configurations.

 B. Boulekbache et al. / Construction and Building Materials 126 (2016) 253–262 259

Cumulative energy (kN.mm)

200 200

Cumulative energy (kN.mm)

Vf = 0.5 %, Lf/df = 65 Vf = 0.5 %, Lf/df = 80

160 160

FRSCC
120 FRSCC 120
FRHSC
FRHSC
FROC FROC
80 80

40 40

0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Deflection (mm) Deflection (mm)
Cumulative energy (kN.mm)

200 200

Cumulative energy (kN.mm)

Vf = 1 %, Lf/df = 65 Vf = 1 %, Lf/df = 80 FRSCC
FRSCC
FRHSC FRHSC
160 160
FROC
FROC
120 120

80 80

40 40

0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Deflection (mm) Deflection (mm)

Fig. 8. Effect of type of concrete on the cumulative energy.

200 200
Cumulative energy (kN.mm)

Cumulative energy (kN.mm)

180 FROC 180 FRSCC FRSCC 80-1

FRSCC 65-1
160 160
FROC 80-1
140 140
FROC 65-1 FRSCC 80-0.5
120 120
FROC 80-0.5 FRSCC 65-0.5
100 100
80 FROC 65-0.5 80
60 60
40 40
20 20
0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Deflection (mm) Deflection (mm)

200
Cumulative energy (kN.mm)

180 FRHSC
FRHSC 80-1
160
FRHSC 65-1
140
120 FRHSC 80-0.5
100
FRHSC 65-0.5
80
60
40
20
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Deflection (mm)

Fig. 9. Effect of fibres on the cumulative energy.

damage” concept in the sense that it can be used as a regulator of for self compacting concrete (Fig. 10.). Indeed, in this phase, the
damage progression rate in FRC. post-peak behaviour depends on the percentage of fibres which
It was observed that the fibres prevent the development itself strongly influences the mode of failure and crack
of permanent deformations in the post-peak field, in particular propagation.
260 B. Boulekbache et al. / Construction and Building Materials 126 (2016) 253–262

1.0
1.0
0.9 FRSCC 80-1
0.9 FROC 80-1
0.8 FRSCC 65-1
0.8 FROC 65-1
0.7 FRSCC 80-0.5
0.7 FROC 80-0.5
0.6 FRSCC 65-0.5
FROC 65-0.5

Ecyc/E0
Ecyc/E0

0.6
0.5 0.5
0.4 0.4
0.3 0.3
0.2 0.2
0.1 0.1
0.0 0.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Normalized deflection δ/δ fmax Normalized deflection δ/δ fmax

1.0
0.9 FRHSC 80-1

0.8 FRHSC 65-1

0.7 FRHSC 80-0.5

0.6 FRHSC 65-0.5

Ecyc/E0

0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Normalized deflection δ/δ fmax

Fig. 10. Evolution of the cyclic modulus according to the normalized deflection.

Table 5
Ductility indexes of FRC.

Specimens designation FROC FRSCC FRHSC

I20 I30 I50 I100 I20 I30 I50 I100 I20 I30 I50 I100
65-0.5 25 35 69 110 26 39 67 122 17 25 37 60
65-1 29 44 75 146 30 47 77 158 25 38 69 121
80-0.5 25 38 69 130 27 43 71 136 23 31 54 84
80-1 26 44 77 150 31 51 93 182 26 39 62 104

3.4.4. Ductility of concretes
The ductility is the main property which compensates for the
brittle behaviour of concrete. A cracked concrete continues to carry
further increases in loading without worsening the crack width
through the ability of the fibres to restrain cracks and to transfer
stresses from one side of the crack to the other. The failure of the
specimen is ductile since most of the energy is absorbed by the
deformed fibres.
Ductility indexes I20, I30, I50 and I100 which represent the energy
absorbed for different values of deflection, have been calculated
according to ASTM C1018 [23]. The ductility indexes are summa-
rized in Table 5.
The presence of fibres improved significantly the ductility of
FRC. The ductility indexes was higher for workable concrete (FRSCC
and FROC), showing that the dispersion and orientation of the
fibres have a significant effects on the mechanical properties of
concretes [1,2,7,8,24]. The results show that, in case of workable
concrete, the fibres can be dispersed homogeneously without
clumping, resulting in an enhanced toughness of concrete, particu-
larly in self-compacting concrete due to its better workability. The
specimens with higher fibre volume fraction and the larger aspect
ratio were more ductile.
3.4.5. Failure pattern of specimens
The morphology of cracks is carried out by the digital image
camera. The images in Fig. 11 show the progressive cracking pro-
cess of the specimen of fibre-reinforced concrete at the centre of
the beam. Usually, once the tensile strength of the concrete is
reached, a crack initiates at the centre of the notched specimen
and propagates vertically toward the compressive zone. This crack
is still very often the main crack with an opening greater at the
centre, although often other secondary cracks appear from either
side of the first crack. Once the first crack was extended, related
cracks appear (Fig. 11(a) and (b)). The origin of these cracks is
the localization of maximum tensile stresses at the loading regions.
These cracks develop in depth, parallel to the main crack. When
approaching failure, the width of the one crack becomes very
important and then the failure of the beam occurs.
During the inelastic stage between the first cracking and the peak
load, multiple cracks develop as shown in (Fig. 11(a) and (b)).
 B. Boulekbache et al. / Construction and Building Materials 126 (2016) 253–262
FROC 65-1
(a)
FRSCC 65-1
(b)
FRHSC 65-1
(c)
Fig. 11. Morphology of cracking of FRC specimen.
This type of behaviour occurs with more efficient fibres and with
an adequate mix design of the fibre concrete; an optimal perfor-
mance is reached for FROC and FRSCC.
4. Conclusions
In this study, the flexural behaviour of steel fibre-reinforced
concrete under cyclic loading was investigated. From the test
results, the following conclusions can be drawn:
1. The fibres orientation is very sensitive to the workability. For
the self-compacting concrete, which favored fibre alignment
in the flow direction of the fresh concrete, the fibres have a pre-
ferred orientation parallel to the tensile direction, with a value
of 0.62 for the orientation-factor. However, for stiff concrete,
the orientation-factor is found to be lower (0.42).
2. The fibre orientation has a prominent impact on the flexural
behaviour of FRC under cyclic loading.
3. The use of steel fibres in concrete improves the flexural strength.
The fibres are more effective in self compacting concrete, due to
the good bond between the fibres and the matrix of concrete. In
this sense, the increase in the flexural strength was 242%, 174%
and 150% for FRSCC 80-1, FRHSC 80-1 and FROC 80-1 respec-
tively by comparison to plain concrete sample.
4. Under cyclic loading, the fibres content and their aspect ratio
enhance the reversible displacement of FRC in the post-
cracking zone.
5. The cumulative energy of FRC under cyclic loading increases
significantly with the fibres content while the aspect ratio
shows a slight effect.
261
FROC 80-1
FRSCC 80-1
FRHSC 80-1
6. The test results showed that all FRC structural beams under cyc-
lic loading were able to show ample ductility before failure. The
post-peak behaviour is considerably improved, exhibiting a
marked softening of the material, preventing the energy from
being liberated instantaneously in case of failure, but rather
gradually in a soft manner.
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