Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete: Special Concrete

What is Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete

By mixing an appropriate amount of steel fibers into ordinary cement concrete, a special concrete that can be both cast and sprayed is formed. This type of concrete is called steel fiber reinforced concrete. Due to a large number of very fine steel fibers uniformly distributed within the concrete, the contact area between the steel fibers and the concrete significantly increases, and the strength of the concrete in all directions is enhanced. This greatly improves various performance attributes of the concrete, making steel fiber reinforced concrete a new composite material.

Advantages of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete

High Strength

The application of steel fiber reinforced concrete technology in engineering construction has very prominent advantages. Due to the high hardness and strength of steel fiber reinforced concrete, the laying thickness during construction is only half of that of ordinary materials, and it can ensure the flatness of the project. In ordinary building engineering, to improve the tensile and impact resistance of the project and ensure its quality, construction units often need to set horizontal and vertical joints in the pavement, which increases the complexity of the construction process. However, using steel fiber reinforced concrete eliminates the need for vertical joints while still addressing this issue and ensuring the quality and safety of the construction project.

Strong Bending, Tensile, Shear, and Impact Resistance, Strong Fatigue Performance

Steel fiber reinforced concrete increases tensile strength by 25% to 50%, bending strength by 40% to 80%, and shear strength by 50% to 100%; its impact resistance and compression toughness can be improved by 2 to 7 times, and impact bending, tensile toughness can be increased several to dozens of times. Due to its high tensile, bending, and shear strength, steel fiber reinforced concrete can withstand significant deformations of surrounding rock and soil while maintaining good integrity  and can be used for machine bases subjected to dynamic loads, frame nodes of seismic structures, and other parts. In using steel fiber reinforced concrete construction technology, to effectively improve the tensile and impact resistance and ensure the quality of the construction project, the steel fibers should be arranged in a disordered, irregular distribution.

Long Service Life

Steel fiber reinforced concrete has good crack resistance, integrity, and low shrinkage rate, thereby significantly improving its waterproof, impermeability, freeze-thaw resistance, heat resistance, abrasion resistance, cavitation resistance, and corrosion resistance. Compared to ordinary concrete, this material can greatly ensure the quality of construction and extend its service life.  It can be used for projects like basement waterproofing.

In conclusion, compared to ordinary cement concrete, steel fiber reinforced concrete shows significant improvements and enhancements in tensile strength, bending strength, wear resistance, impact resistance, fatigue resistance, crack resistance, blast resistance, and toughness. Steel fiber reinforced concrete has been used in civil engineering projects such as roads, airport runways, bridge decks, pavements, and tunnel linings, especially in scenarios where thin sections or irregularly shaped sections are required, and reinforcement bars are not easily configured.