SHEAR PERFORMANCE OF STEEL FIBRE ... - SCNZ Magazine

Shear stress (MPa)Shear stress (MPa)Shear stress (MPa)Shear stress (MPa)Figure 3. Photograph of the tests.Results and DiscussionThe typical stress-crack width displacement and stress-crack slip displacement for C35 and C60 SFRCshear specimens are shown in Figure 4 and Figure 5, respectively. Each curve is an average of three curvesobtained from shear tests on three shear specimens. Plain concrete specimens showed, as expected, asudden and brittle failure at a very low shear strain. The shear stress-displacement response is linear up tothe peak stress (i.e. cracking shear stress) and instantaneously the capacity to carry load beyond that pointis lost. On the other hand, failure in SFRC specimens is ductile. In C35 SFRC shear specimens with 20 and40 kg/m 3 of steel fibres, and in C60 SFRC shear specimens with 20 kg/m 3 of steel fibres the response up tothe cracking shear stress was followed by a gradually decreasing post-peak response. The cracking shearstress was the peak shear stress in these specimens (Figure 6). In C60 SFRC specimens with 40, 60, and80 kg/m 3 of steel fibres, and in C35 SFRC specimens with 60 and 80 kg/m 3 of steel fibres, however, there isan increase in post-peak load carrying capacity. In these specimens, as shown in Figure 6, the ultimateshear stress is higher than the cracking shear stress.1086480 kg/m 320 kg/m 3 40 kg/m 360 kg/m 3C35 Series1086480 kg/m 3C35 Series200 kg/m 3 00 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3Crack width (mm)(a) Shear stress-crack width displacement240 kg/m 3 60 kg/m 320 kg/m 30 kg/m 30 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3Crack slip (mm)(b) Shear stress-crack slip displacementFigure 4. C35 SFRC shear test curves.121086420kg/m 380 kg/m 360 kg/m 3C60 Series1210864C60 Series80 kg/m 360 kg/m 320 kg/m 3200 kg/m40 kg/m 30 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3Crack width (mm)(a) Shear stress-crack width displacement200 kg/m 3 40 kg/m 30 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3Crack slip (mm)(b) Shear stress-crack slip displacementFigure 5. C60 SFRC shear test curves.Ultimate shear stress and cracking shear stress of the plain concrete and SFRC specimens, along with thecompressive strength at 28days and on the shear test day are presented in Table 3. A plot of the test resultsis also shown in Figure 6. It can be seen that addition of steel fibres increased the cracking shear stress inSFRC specimens by 30%, compared to the plain concrete samples (designated with a ‘W’ in Table 3, and