STEELCRETE SFRC SPECIFICATION

Where Steelcrete SFRC is to be used the following clauses shall be included in the specification 1. The steel fibres are to be made from hard drawn low carbon steel, in accordance to ASTM A820.90 Type 1 and shall have a tensile strength greater than 1000MPa. 2. The fibres shall preferably be collated in such a way that the risk of balling is eliminated. 3. To ensure adequate overlap between fibres to carry the load continuously through the element the spacing(s) shall be greater than 0.45l where: s> (d2l/4v)0.33
Where d= fibre equivalent diameter (mm); l= fibre length (mm); v= fibre volume fraction (0.01 = 80kg/m3 for steel fibres)

TECHNICAL SUPPORT
Firth Industries is able to provide technical support related to most aspects of the use of concrete in construction. This support takes the form of:1. Liaison with the owner, architect, engineer and or contractor to develop a cost effective and technically appropriate High Performance Concrete solution that invariably offers advantages to all parties, 'the win, win, win approach' 2 Presentation to interested parties and formal training courses on the design of Steelcrete. Report preparation that details the design methods and assumptions used for any analysis. Published papers and output from computer models are also available. 3. Guidance on the placing of Steelcrete to provide a high quality finish.
SUGGESTED READING
1. 2. Physical Properties Of Steel Fibres. F.Papworth Cement And Concrete Association Seminar. Fibres in Concrete Sydney 1997. Design of concrete structures. Steel wire fibre reinforced concrete structures with or without ordinary reinforcement. Infrastructuur in Het Leefhilieu Nr4 1995 Department Leefmilieu en Infrastructuur, Ministerie van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap. Steel fibre reinforced concrete for marine applications. PS Mangat, K Gurusamy. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on the behaviour of Offshore Structures, Delft, July 1985 pp 867-879. Steel Fibre Reinforced Concrete. J.Edington. Building Research Establishment. Watford Toughness Measurement on Steel Fibre reinforced Concrete. E.B.D. Hasso, B.I.G. Barr. Our World In Concrete Structures Singapore. Aug 1985 Analytical Model for Tensile Behaviour of Steel Fibre Concrete. T.Y.Lim, P.Paramasivan, S.L.Lee. ACI Materials Journal Vol 84 No4. August 1987 Mechanical Properties of High Strength Fibre Reinforced Concrete. F.F.Wafa and S.A.Ashour. ACI Materials Journal. Sept 1992 Bond Slip Mechanisms of Steel Fibers in Concrete. A.E.Naaman and H.Najm. ACI Materials Journal. Volume 88 No 2. March 1991. Guide for specifying, Proportioning, Mixing, Placing and Finishing Steel Fibre Reinforced Concrete. ACI Materials Journal. Vol 90 No 1. January 1993 Comparative Flexural Performance Evaluation of Steel Fibre Reinforced concrete According to ASTM C1018 Shows Importance of Fibre Parameters. C.D.Johnston. Askarendahl.Materials and Structures 1992 Comparative Toughness Testing of Fibre Reinforced Concrete. L.Chen, S.Mindess, D.R.Morgan, S.P.Shah, C.D.Johnston, M.Pigeon. ACI Salt Lake City Concrete Reinforced with Deformed Steel Fibres. N.Banthia. J.F.Trottier. Vol 92 No2. March 1995. Flexural Fatigue Strength, Endurance Limit and Impact strength of Fibre Reinforced Concretes. V.Ramakrishnan, G.Y.Wu, G.Hosalli. Transportation Research record 1226 The Use Of Steel Fibre Reinforced Concrete In Containment and explosive Resistant Structures. C.H.Henagar. The interaction in Non-nuclear Munitions 1983.

STEEL FIBRE REINFORCED CONCRETE

FIRTH STEELCRETE

Standard Steelcrete Dramix Fibre Types.

TM

Firth Steelcrete with Dramix offers 2 proven alternatives:

3.

4. 5. 6.
For heavy-duty applications with high performance specifcations Firth Steelcrete uses superperformce 80 Dramix fibres.

7. 8. 9. 10 .

Glued steel fibres with an l/d ratio of 65 are easy to mix and use and give a markedly better quality steel fibre concrete. These fibres can be supplied in two lengths; 60mm and 35mm Dramix l/d 65 is compromise between the

ideal These glued fibres offer the best in terms of:

11. 12. 13. 14.

Firth Industries Limited Private bag 99904, Newmarket, Auckland

Scancem Materials Pty Ltd supply Dramix steel fibres to Firth Industries Ltd. Dramix is a Bekaert Registered Trade Mark

Firth Industries Limited is an ISO 9001 certified supplier Information in this brochure has been jointly prepared by Firth Industries and Scancem Materials. It cannot be reproduced or copied for any purpose without the written permission of Firth. While the information and /or specification contained herin is, to the best of our knowledge true and accurate, no warranty is given or implied in connection with any recommendation or suggestion, made by us or our representatives, agents or distributors as the conditions of use and any labour involved are beyond our control. Consult your nearest Firth office for further information.

you can with concrete

F R E E FA X : 0 8 0 0 8 0 0 5 3 0 E M A I L : f i r t h @ f c l c i s . c o . n z

you can with concrete

FIRTH STEELCRETE
INTRODUCTION
Firth Steelcrete uses Dramix steel fibres as its reinforcement for industrial floors and pavements, shotcrete and precast applications. Firth Steelcrete is, and behaves like a homogeneous composite material (fig 1). The function of the fibres is to lock the coarse aggregate together and prevent the propagation and opening of micro cracks. Tensile forces are transferred across the crack by the fibres resulting in lower stress concentrations at the crack-end, thus inhibiting crack growth (fig 2).

Fig 1. Photo of fresh Steelcrete concrete. Inset; X-ray photo of the fibres in concrete matrix showing random distribution and orientation.

Fig 2. Fibres carry the load across cracks reducing the stress concentration at the crack tip. This limits crack propagation relative to plain or mesh reinforced concrete

Fig 13. Steelcrete pipes produced by Hume Industries.

Fig 3. Rock slope stabilisation using Firth Steelcrete Shotcrete and grouted rock bolts with mesh for punching shear support.

Fig 14. Slope stabilisation; part of major rehabilitation works of a central NI hydro dam. Firth Steelcrete shotcrete using Dramix 65/35 fibres exceeded specified toughness requirements.

Cover photo: Team New Zealands boat store floor - downtown Auckland. Firth Steelcrete was used to provide a crack-free, tough, durable working surface at large joint spacing.

THE HOMOGENEOUS COMPOSITE OFFERS: High Ductility

Ductility is a measure of the post crack strength. These results for 50kg/m3 show Dramix performance is comparable to mesh and outperforms fibres, some fibres by 3x (ref Clements (1994)
1800 Energy Absorption (Joules) Energy Absorption (Joules) 1600 1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 662 Mesh 666 Mesh Dramix Xorex EE18 EE25 Chairwire E25HT Harex Horle Plain 0

BENEFITS OF STEELCRETE Compared To Mesh

Eliminates spalling of concrete due to steel corrosion. Fibre reinforcement is supplied in concrete by Firth, using quality assured mixes and materials. Eliminates concern that mesh may not be placed at the right location in the pavement Saves the cost of placing mesh Increases construction speed Reduces edge and joint damage.

Excellent Crack Distribution

Dramix steel fibres carry the load across cracks leading to excellent crack distribution and minimal crack width at low dosage of fibres.
Orthogonal Ring test

Compared To Other Steel Fibres

Economical solutions at low dosages using high performance Dramix fibres Excellent surface finish by using a low dosage of the highest performance fibre Various fibre geometries available to suit different applications (large aggregate floor mix or small aggregate shotcrete mix) Simple addition using degradable bags. Collated Dramix fibres eliminate balling at moderate to high dosages.

20kg/m3

Compared to Synthetic e.g Polypropylene Fibres

The main reason for using synthetic e.g polypropylene fibres in fresh concrete is to reduce plastic shrinkage cracking at an early age; eg, up to 12 hrs. That is, to provide early age toughness. Steel fibres are added to concrete to provide toughness in the hardened state thus reducing cracking due to long term drying, shrinkage, load and fatigue (fig. 4).
Absorbed Energy (Joules) Fig 4. Performance comparison of Dramix, mesh and synthetic fibres.

Fig 9. Shotcrete panels tested according to EFNARC standards comparing various steel fibres types and mesh. Of the fibre reinforced panels Dramix had the highest performance with toughness comparable to mesh. Dramix panels took the highest load at 130kN at 4mm of deflection.

Fig 10. The restrained shrinkage test for Steelcrete with Dramix shows that fibres effectively bridge cracks and hold them together. With no fibres, the crack grows rapidly.

Exceptional Impact Resistance

Steel fibres provide high impact resistance as the concrete continues to carry load after cracking.
Impact Test Results

High Fatigue Resistance

By preventing crack propagation Dramix steel fibres give high fatigue performance (ref N.V Bekaert S.A. 1996) Fatigue Behaviour of SFRC

Number Of Load Cycles N

Fig 11. Impact test involves supporting a slab on its perimeter rim and repetitively dropping a ball on it from a standard height

Fig 12. The quality and relative performance of the fibre reinforcement determines the magnitude of the reference stress (So; first crack under static load). They also determine the number of cycles (N) as a function of the relative load. Here, Dramix outperforms straight fibres at lower and equivalent dosages.

Fig 5. Challenge Petrol Station with a Firth Steelcrete slab - a high performance, cost effective concrete solution for industry.

Firth Steelcrete is unique in bundling fibres into units of 30-50 to make their inclusion in the mix simple and efficient (fibres are available in degradable bags). Initially the bundles find their way throughout the batch. Once dispersed the bundles are broken down into loose fibres as the water soluble glue dissolves. By eliminating the risk of balling, the fibres can be made with a high aspect ratio (length/diameter) which leads to high ductility at low dosages. Firth Steelcrete Dramix fibres are typically uniform in shape and length. This together with the absolute homogeneity of the concrete mix ensures the physical properties of Steelcrete are very constant. High performance steel fibres should have a high l/d ratio (length/diameter ratio). This can however cause problems particularly with loose fibres upon mixing. Bekaert have overcome this problem of fibre-balling by gluing the fibres into small bundles.
No balling

Firth Steelcretes Dramix fibres have hooked ends that are specifically designed to meet the two vital criteria for achieving the ultimate in ductile (fig 7), or post crack behaviour: the anchorage is sufficiently strong to allow the strength of the fibre to be developed (ie similar to rebar design), along the total length of the fibre. the anchorage pulls through to prevent fibre breakage and brittle failure close to ultimate fibre strength.
Load

Some fibres - locked anchorage leads to broken fibre and brittle failure.

Dramix fibres - anchorage pulls through prior to steel yeilding

All fibres do not have the same performance

Deflection

Load

Deflection

Fig 7. All fibres do not perform the same. Steelcretes Dramix fibres anchorage is designed to balance the capacity of the fibre and fail in a ductile way

Firth Steelcretes Dramix fibres are manufactured by Bekaert, the worlds leader in steel wire. They are made from hard drawn steel wire to ensure high tensile strength (1200MPa) and close tolerances. The gluing of the fibres is unique to the Dramix brand and guarantees quick and easy mixing.

Fig 6. A Firth Steelcrete Concrete Slab for Team NZs Base at the Viaduct Basin - in preparation for the Americas Cup 2000 Challenge. The use of Steelcrete was cost effective and provided easy, rapid installation.

Fig 8. Drystore - Port Taranaki. A large (18,000m2) high quality finish, industrial floor achieved with Firth Steelcrete - a cost effective alternative to conventionally reinforced slab. The end result - a hard, flat durable floor with minimal fibres at the surface.