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Deflection behavior of concrete beams reinforced with PVA micro-fibers

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DOI: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2010.04.027

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Construction and Building Materials 24 (2010) 2285–2293

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Deflection behavior of concrete beams reinforced with PVA micro-fibers

Sameer Hamoush a, Taher Abu-Lebdeh a,*, Toney Cummins b
a
Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, NC 27411, United States
b
Concrete and Materials Division, US Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg, MS, United States

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

Article history: This paper presents experimental and theoretical investigations on the stress–strain and load–deflection
Received 27 October 2009 behavior of Poly Vinyl Alcohol (PVA) microfiber reinforced concrete composites. The actual stress–strain
Received in revised form 6 March 2010 relationships in both compression and tension were established by performing a series of compression
Accepted 1 April 2010
and tension tests on PVA micro-fibers reinforced concrete specimens. The proposed deflection model
Available online 27 April 2010
was developed by using the well known moment–curvature and conjugate beam methods. Comparisons
with the experimental data indicated that the model can be efficiently used to predict the load–deflection
Keywords:
behavior of the microfiber reinforced concrete beams. Flexural results indicated that the addition of PVA
Deflection
Moment–curvature
micro-fibers significantly increases toughness and ductility.
Stress–strain Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Micro-fibers reinforced concrete
Flexural strength
Strain-softening
Ductility
Toughness index
Load–deflection curve

1. Introduction mance of ECC in pavement overlay system. They observed that

Concrete is a brittle material that has low tensile strength and
low strain capacity. In fact, many deterioration and failures in
the concrete structures are due to the brittle nature of this mate-
rial. However, these disadvantages may be avoided by adding
micro-fibers to the plain concrete. Incorporating micro-fibers pro-
vides a practical means of enhancing the ductility of concrete
materials. The addition of fibers to a brittle concrete matrix sub-
stantially improves its tensile strength and reduces the tendency
of cracking, which leads to enhanced ductility and toughness. Fur-
ther, adding fibers to plain concrete greatly enhance its post-peak
tension-softening behavior under tensile load. The fibers cross the
paths of potential cracks and transmit stress between the fibers
and the matrix through the interfacial bond.
Significant research efforts have gone into attempts to improve
the ductility of concrete materials. Li and Zhang [1] conducted a
study on engineered cementitious composite (ECC), a special type
of high performance fiber reinforced concrete composites (HPFRCC)
with extreme tensile ductility. The ultimate tensile strain capacity
of the ECC material could reach 3–5% (which is several hundred
times that of normal concrete). Li and Zhang [1] presented experi-
mental and theoretical analyses on monotonic and fatigue perfor-
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 336 334 7737; fax: +1 336 334 7126.
E-mail address: taher@ncat.edu (T. Abu-Lebdeh).
both the load carrying ability and deformability of ECC overlay were
significantly higher than that of plain concrete overlaid systems.
The fiber reinforced ECC significantly decreased the relative mi-
cro-cracking failure in pavement overlay systems and increased
the fatigue life of the pavement structure under traffic type loading.
Yang and Li [2] examined the rate dependence in engineered
cementitious composites (ECC) and uncovered the source of the
rate dependence. Their results show strong rate dependence in
PVA–ECC tensile properties, and indicated that both first cracking
strength and ultimate tensile strength increase with increasing
strain rate.
Plain concrete lacks the ability to carry load in the post-peak re-
gime. Addition of microfiber to plain concrete increases ductility
which leads to a significant increase in the material’s toughness
or consuming energy. This is due to the fact that after the brittle
cement matrix fractures, additional energy must be consumed to
pull the fibers out of the fractured paste for the crack to continue
to open. This additional energy consumption enhances toughness.
Kim et al. [3] investigated the post-peak behavior of reinforced
concrete beams and concluded that concrete beams exhibit a soft-
ening response that is gradually decreases with increasing dis-
placements due to a strain softening. Read and Hegemier [4]
examine the effects of strain-softening on the stress wave propaga-
tion in softening material. They found that, for incrementally linear
models, strain-softening occurs when the matrix of tangent

0950-0618/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2010.04.027
 Author's personal copy
2286 S. Hamoush et al. / Construction and Building Materials 24 (2010) 2285–2293
stiffness ceases to positive-definite. Yin and Zhai [5] concluded that
softening curves can be obtained from the entire load-deformation
curves in a tensile loading test, and a relation curve for the soften-
ing can be formed in terms of the broadness of the crack and the
applied stress. Iyengar et al. [6] presented a method for computing
the ultimate moment of reinforced concrete beam sections with
circular spiral binder confinements in compression. Vebo and Ghali
[7] used analytical methods to derive the moment–curvature rela-
tionship for slab elements reinforced with top and bottom steel
with load ranges up to ultimate strength.
The present study performs an experimental program and the-
oretical analysis on the behavior of concrete reinforced with PVA
micro-fibers. The purpose of the testing program is to establish
stress–strain and moment–curvature behavior and to establish a
method to evaluate the deflection of concrete beams reinforced
with micro-fibers. Twelve concrete cylinders and twelve concrete
discs were tested in compression and tension, respectively. Eight
microfiber reinforced concrete beams, two of which were rein-
forced with steel rebars, were tested in four points bending. A
numerical code was also created to determine the inelastic mo-
ment curvature. The established moment–curvature plots were
used to evaluate the deflection a long a beam using a new mathe-
matical method. Properties of micro-fibers reinforced concrete
element such as compressive strength, flexural strength, load–
deflection, first crack toughness, strain-softening behavior, and
ductility were determined.
2. Experimental investigation
2.1. Description of the experimental program
To provide a better understanding of the performance of con-
crete reinforced with micro-fibers, this research performs an
experimental program with focus on the deflection and stress–
strain behavior of the material. The specimens were mixed, cured,
and tested in accordance with the American Society for Testing and
Materials (ASTM) standards. A total of twelve 150300 mm (6 in. -
12 in.) cylinders and twelve 38  150 mm (1.5 in.  6 in.) discs
were tested in compression and tension, respectively. Eight micro-
fiber reinforced concrete beams were tested in four points bending
for flexural and deflection. Six beams had a dimension of
102  102  356 mm (4 in.  4 in.  14 in.) and reinforced with
PVA micro-fibers only, and two beams 133  140  1830 mm
(51=4 in.  5½ in.  72 in.) were reinforced with 2U12 and 2U16
steel rebar in addition to micro-fibers. The same mix design was
used for all specimens (beams, compression and tension speci-
mens). Specimens were tested in closed-loop controlled MTS test-
ing machine, with a 245-kN (55-kip) load cell, and displacement
rate of 0.033 mm/min (0.0013 in/min). The two larger beams
(133  140  1830 mm) were tested on MTS testing machine, with
a 110-kip (489-kN) load cell and a linear variable displacement
transducer (LVDT) monitored loading head. The loading system
and LVDT were connected in a closed-loop manner. Properties such
as compressive strength, static modulus, flexural strength, mo-
ment–curvature, load–deflection behavior, first crack toughness,
post-crack behavior, strain-softening behavior, and ductility were
determined.
2.2. Materials
Specimens for compression, tension, and flexural tests were
made from concrete with micro-fibers, concrete–limestone aggre-
gate, concrete–staylite aggregate and concrete–granite aggregate
combinations. For the specimens that were made from concrete
with micro-fibers, 3% of type III cement was substituted for the
Table 1
Properties of PVA structural micro-fibers.
Material Polyvinyl alcohol
Configuration Chopped fiber, resin-bundled chopped monofilament
fiber
Color White or yellowish white
Specific gravity 1.3
Lengths 1= 3
4 in. (6 mm), 1/3 in. (8 mm), ½ in. (12 mm), =4 in.
(18 mm)
Tensile strengths 160,000 psi (1100 MPa) – 203,000 psi (1400 MPa)
Chemical Non-reactive
stability
Absorption Minimal
micro-fibers. The concrete mix design consists of w/c ratio = 0.45
and cement-course aggregate-fine aggregate ratio of 1:2:3. Speci-
mens were cured in a lime saturated water tank for 28 days at
room temperature (23 ± 2 °C) and relative humidity of 100%. Poly
Vinyl Alcohol micro-fibers (Table 1) were used in this
investigation.
2.3. Specimens
As mentioned above, displacement-controlled tests with a dis-
placement rate of 0.033 mm/min (0.0013 in./min) were adminis-
tered for all compression, tension and flexural tests. Two MTS
strain gauges with 102 mm (4 in.) gage length were attached to
each side of the concrete compression cylinders, and four strain
gages with 38 mm (1.5 in.) gage length were attached to the tension
disc specimens (two on each side). For the flexural test specimens,
two Linear Voltage Displacements Transducers (LVDT) were used in
addition to the strain gauges that were placed at the top-center (be-
tween the load heads) and at the bottom-center of the beam as
shown in Fig. 1a and b. High early strength adhesive (LOC-TITE)
was applied to attach strain gauges to the concrete specimens.
3. Analytical investigation
In order to analyze a reinforced concrete beam up to the failure
load, it is necessary to develop a realistic relationship between mo-
ment and curvature. In the present study, a new model is intro-
duced to develop the moment–curvature relationship and to
predict the deflection at any point along a beam element. This
model is based on the stress–strain relationships generated for
the specimens prescribed earlier. It uses a theoretical stress–strain
relationship, as highlighted by Desayi and Krishman [8] and mod-
ified by the authors to include the effect of PVA micro-fibers. The
theoretical stress–strain equations were implemented based on
the testing results of this research.
Further, the moment–curvature relationship was used to char-
acterize the non-linearity of the concrete material in the strain-
softening region. Strain-softening is considered to occur just before
the ultimate failure and here where the effect of adding micro-fi-
bers becomes even more important. This is because micro-fibers
influence the toughness of concrete in the post-peak region after
the concrete has failed and the fibers are the only mechanism left
to consume additional energy. In the compression zone, the addi-
tion of micro-fibers increases the ductility in the deformation
phase after reaching the maximum stress, while in the tensile zone,
the micro-fibers bridge opening cracks and thus influences the
post-crack behavior.
3.1. Mathematical model
The proposed Eqs. (1)–(5) which govern the stress–strain
behavior of micro-fibers reinforced concrete element are function
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S. Hamoush et al. / Construction and Building Materials 24 (2010) 2285–2293 2287

(a) Concrete beams reinforced with microfibers

(b) Concrete beams reinforced with microfibers plus steel rebars

Fig. 1. Flexural beam specimens. (a) Concrete beams reinforced with micro-fibers. (b) Concrete beams reinforced with micro-fibers plus steel rebars.

of the concrete peak stress, strains at peak stress, and the ultimate 1. Select concrete compressive strain in the extreme compression
strain. The model was derived using a quadratic and linear regres- fiber and assume neutral axis depth (see strain diagram in
sion for the average stress–strain values for the specimens in com- Fig. 2).
pression and a linear regression relationship for all tension 2. The steel tensile strains (if any) are determined by similar trian-
specimens. gles of the strain diagram (Fig. 2). Steel tensile stresses are then
In Tension, determined from the stress–strain relationships of the steel
rebars.
r ¼ ft ðec =e0 Þ; for 0 < ec < e0 ð1Þ 3. The tensile forces in the steel rebars (if any) are determined
 
ec  e0 from the steel stress and the area of steel.
r ¼ ft  0:14f t ; for e0 < ec < 0:0096 ð2Þ
0:0096  e0 4. For the selected strain and neutral axis depth, determine con-
crete extreme tensile strain from the strain diagram (Fig. 2).
where ft ¼ peak tensile stress; e0 ¼ tensile strain at peak stress; The concrete tensile stress is then found from Eqs. (1)–(3). Com-
and ec is the concrete strain at the point to be considered. pressive stress is determined from Eqs. (4) and (5).
  5. Concrete tensile force is determined by multiplying the tension
ec  0:0096
r ¼ 0:86f t  0:68f t ; for 0:0096 < ec < etu ð3Þ area of the stress diagram (Fig. 2) by the width of the concrete’s
etu  0:0096
cross-section. The centroid of the tension area represents the
where etu ¼ 0:0217 (maximum tensile strain) location of the concrete’s tensile force. Both, the area and its
In Compression, centroid were found using numerical integration.
" # 6. The concrete compressive force is determined by multiplying
ec =eo the area of the compression part of the stress diagram (Fig. 2)
r¼ 2fc0 ; for 0 < ec < eo ð4Þ
1 þ ½ec =eo 2 by the width of the concrete’s cross-section. The centroid of
  the compression area represents the location of the concrete’s
e e
r ¼ fc0  0:187fc0 c o ; for eo < ec < ecu ð5Þ compressive force.
ecu  eo
7. If the compressive and tensile forces are not equal, adjust the
where fc0 is the concrete compressive strength, eo ¼ strain at neutral axis depth and repeat steps 2–6. It should be noted that
peak stress, ecu is the maximum compressive strain, and ec is the the calculations are lengthy and hence, the iterative approach
concrete strain at a given point. may be used.
Eqs. (1)–(5) were used to determine the concrete compressive 8. After the neutral axis depth that satisfies force equilibrium is
and tensile forces. The model enforced force and moment equilib- found, the internal forces and neutral axis depth are then used
rium at each strain increment through an iterative approach. The to determine the moment (M) and curvature (U) corresponding
ultimate strains of 0.00256 for concrete section reinforced with to the selected strain (step 1). The moment (M) is the sum of the
microfiber and 0.0041 for concrete reinforced with microfiber plus moments of the compressive and tensile forces about the neu-
steel rebars were chosen. However, the model is capable of adopt- tral axis, and the curvature is calculated by dividing the selected
ing higher values for the ultimate strain if desired. A FORTRAN pro- strain value by its corresponding neutral axis depth (x).
gram was written to execute the procedures as shown below. The 9. Repeat steps 1–8 for a range of concrete compressive strain, and
program uses iterative approach and numerical integration. plot the entire stress–strain and moment–curvature curves.
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2288 S. Hamoush et al. / Construction and Building Materials 24 (2010) 2285–2293

Iteration at Initial Strain Capacity of 0.0005

Iteration at Mid Strain Capacity of 0.001

Iteration at Ultimate Strain Capacity of 0.00256

Fig. 2. Iteration at 0.0005, 0.001, and ultimate strain capacity.

For illustration purpose, the strain, stress, and force distributions adopted and shown in Fig. 5. Calculating the moment at a point on
for concrete strain of 0.0005, 0.001, and at ultimate are shown in the conjugate beam, the deflection (D) may be expressed as:
Fig. 2. The distributions were then used to develop a moment–curva-
X
n
ture relationship for a typical concrete section reinforced by Di ¼ h
2 00
ðiyi Þ ð6Þ
micro-fibers and micro-fibers plus rebars. Figs. 3 and 4 show the mo- i¼1
ment–curvature relationship for specimens reinforced with microfi-
ber and specimens with micro-fibers plus steel rebars, respectively. where Di is the deflection at any section along the beam, h is the
In order to derive a mathematical model to calculate the deflec- length of each segment, i is the number of segments and y00i is the
tion of the beam, a classical method, Conjugate Beam Method, was curvature at each section.
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S. Hamoush et al. / Construction and Building Materials 24 (2010) 2285–2293
Fig. 3. Proposed moment–curvature relationship for specimens. Reinforced with
micro-fibers.
Fig. 4. Proposed moment–curvature relationship for specimens. Reinforced with
micro-fibers plus steel rebars (2 # 4  2U12; 2 # 5  2U16).
Fig. 5. Conjugate beam method to calculate deflection.
4. Experimental results and discussion
4.1. Stress–strain relationship
Compression and tension tests yielded results that were used to
construct stress–strain curves for all four combinations of the con-
crete specimens. For each combination, the average of three cylin-
ders in compression and the average of three discs in tension were
determined and plotted as shown in Figs. 6 and 7, respectively. The
stress–strain variation of plain concrete submitted to axial com-
pression (Fig. 6) shows hardly any strain-softening response as
the descending branch after the peak stress is almost vertical. Sud-
2289
Fig. 6. Average stress–strain of concrete under compression.
Fig. 7. Average stress–strain of concrete under tension.
den failure occurs when the peak stress is reached in plain concrete
due to increase in the brittleness. Further, adding PVA micro-fibers
to a plain concrete matrix has little effect on the pre-cracking
behavior; it substantially enhances the post-cracking response.
From the compression stress–strain relationship in Fig. 6, it is evi-
dent that specimens made from limestone as course aggregate and
micro-fibers as reinforcing component exhibited the ability to car-
ry higher strain level, as well as strain-softening behavior beyond
their peak stress level. Results of the peak stress (fc) and its corre-
sponding strain (eo), ultimate strain (eu), and Young’s modulus (E)
are listed in Table 2.
Fig. 7 shows the indirect tensile stress-average strain relation-
ship. The average strain values were determined from the data col-
lected from both sides of the tested discs. Three discs of each
combination were tested and the resulted averages are plotted. Re-
sults indicated that when concrete is in tension, the stress–strain
relationship is linear up to the tensile strength, then dropping
abruptly to failure. This indicates that cracks begin to form and
even after cracking, the concrete can still resist tensile stresses in
parts between adjacent cracks. On the hand, the measured tensile
stress–strain relation of the microfiber reinforced concrete speci-
mens show remarkable strain capacity (over 0.65%) and peak
crack-bridging stress of about 3.79 MPa (550 psi). Further, the test
results show that the microfiber reinforced concrete specimens
were able to accommodate the highest strain value among all
tested specimens. The high strain capacity is attributed to multiple
cracking, which is represented by fine cracks perpendicular to the
loading axis. However, the distribution of the multiple cracking
was not great enough to cause larger strain-hardening. This is
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2290 S. Hamoush et al. / Construction and Building Materials 24 (2010) 2285–2293

Table 2
Compression test results.

Specimen Peak stress(fc) MPa (psi) Strain at peak stress (eo) Ultimate strain (eu) Modulus of elasticity (E), GPa (psi)
Concrete + limestone 52.6 (7650) 0.0024 0.0035 31.6 (4.6  106)
Concrete + granite 40 (5800) 0.002 0.002 31.6 (4.6  106)
Concrete + staylite 33 (4800) 0.0015 0.003 24.8 (3.6  106)
Concrete + limestone with micro-fibers 33 (4800) 0.0021 0.0075 59.9 (8.7  106)

(a) Plain Concrete @ 2500 Res. (b) PVA Microfiber Concrete @ 3500 Res.
Fig. 8. Microscope photograph of concrete fracture surface. (a) Plain concrete @ 2500 Res. (b) PVA Microfiber concrete @ 3500 Res.

due to the fact that strong bond of the PVA microfiber with the ce-
ment paste causes the fiber to rupture instead of being pulled out.
It is desirable to have concrete that exhibits strain-hardening
behavior achieved through multiple cracking of the reinforced ma-
trix. However, the strong bond of PVA fibers to the cement paste
matrix tends to limit the multiple cracking effects and hence leads
to lower strain-hardening behavior. To achieve larger strain-hard-
ening, coated PVA fiber is needed. Such fiber should have the bal-
ance between energy dissipation potential (i.e. enough fiber
bonding so that pullout energy is not trivial) and fiber rupture pro-
tection (i.e. individual fiber load is never greater than the nominal
fiber strength). This can be controlled through the amount fiber
coating applied to the surface.
microfiber reinforce concrete specimens (Fig. 10b). This ductile
behavior and hence, the measured high strain capacity is due to
the fact that micro-fibers stretch more than concrete under load-
ing. The composite system of concrete reinforced with microfiber
is assumed to work as if it were un-reinforced until it reaches its
‘‘first crack strength.” It is from this point that the reinforcing fibers
take over and hold the concrete together. Further, the uniform dis-
tribution of the micro-fibers can increase the ductility of the com-
posite. This is because, if enough micro-fibers can be distributed
into the cement paste to cross any growing microcrack, the addi-
tional energy must be consumed in breaking or pulling the fibers,
hence, leads to higher failure load and add toughness to the
material.

4.3. Flexural behavior of micro-fibers reinforced concrete beams

4.2. Modes of failure

The flexural tests yielded results that were used to produce

All specimens that were not reinforced with micro-fibers exhib-
load–deflection curves of the concrete beams reinforced with mi-
ited brittle failure. These failures started with microcracks in the
cro-fibers and concrete beams reinforced with micro-fibers plus
cement-aggregate interface that then propagated as the load in-
steel rebars. The load–deflection curves were plotted as shown in
creased. The microfiber reinforced specimens, however, exhibited
Figs. 11–13. The test results show a noticeable increase in the
ductile failure. The initial cracks started in the cement matrix,
post-crack energy absorption capacity or toughness (Table 3) due
but they did not propagate as fast as in the case of plain concrete
specimens. This is due to the reinforcing microfiber’s ability to lim-
it cracking from its unique high strength bond with the cementi-
tious materials. Microscopic analysis of concrete fracture surface
(Fig. 8a) shows that microcracks exist at the aggregate-matrix
interface of the plain concrete specimen even before any load has
been applied to the concrete. The formation of such cracks is due
primarily to the strain and stress concentrations resulting from
the incompatibility of the elastic moduli of the aggregate and paste
components. On the other hand, the strong bond between the
bonded fibers and cement paste in the micro-fibers reinforced con-
crete specimen reduces such cracks (Fig. 8b). Fig. 9 shows the duc-
tile failure of the specimens tested in compression and consisting
of limestone aggregate and 3% micro-fibers. The failure of concrete
specimens tested in indirect tension is shown in Fig. 10. It was no-
ticed that the failure in the plain concrete discs was very brittle
and the failure plane was clearly visible to the naked eye
(Fig. 10a). On the other hand, ductile failure was observed on the Fig. 9. Failure of microfiber concrete specimens. Under compression.
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S. Hamoush et al. / Construction and Building Materials 24 (2010) 2285–2293 2291

(a) Plain Concrete Specimen (b) Microfiber Concrete Specimen

Fig. 10. Failure of concrete specimens under tension. (a) Plain concrete specimen. (b) Microfiber concrete specimen.

Fig. 11. Load–deflection relationship for beam specimens reinforced with micro-
fibers.

Fig. 13. Proposed vs. experimental load–deflection curves.

Fig. 12. Proposed load–deflection curve for concrete beams reinforced with micro-
fibers.

to the addition of PVA micro-fibers. The contribution of the micro-
fibers is mostly apparent in the post-cracking response, repre-
sented by an increase in post-cracking ductility, due to the work
associated with pullout of fiber bridging a failure crack. The brittle
failure of the plain concrete beams started with small cracks that
propagated as the load increased to the maximum load. The mi-
cro-fibers reinforced specimens, however, exhibited ductile behav-
ior. After reaching the peak load, these specimens did not shear
apart; however, they continued to carry load to complete failure.
Tension cracks initially formed on the underside of the beam in
the center portion of the span. As load increases, the cracks prop-
agate upward through the cross section, but not as fast as in the
plain concrete specimens. As expected, the micro-fibers reinforced
beams had larger deflections than would be anticipated in plain
concrete beams. Mid span deflections were approximately three
times larger than that of plain concrete beams. Further, the flexural
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2292 S. Hamoush et al. / Construction and Building Materials 24 (2010) 2285–2293
Table 3
Performance parameters of the microfiber, steel reinforcement concrete beams.
Parameter Beam 1 (2U16 Beam 2 (2U12
rebars) rebars)
First cracking strength, MPa 19.65 (2850) 15.58 (2260)
(psi)
Flexural strength (MOR), MPa 31.0 (4500) 22.51 (3265)
(psi)
Deflection at peak stress, mm 18.5 (0.73) 6.4 (0.25)
(in)
Deflection at failure, mm (in) 27.2 (1.07) 10.7 (0.42)
Toughness index 6.27 5.42
test results show that improvements in other properties such as
first cracking strength and peak load are insignificant.
The effect of micro-fibers combined with steel reinforcement on
the flexural behavior of concrete beams was investigated by testing
two 133 mm  140 mm  1830 mm (51=4 in.  5½ in.  72 in.)
beams. The two Microfiber concrete beams were reinforced with
2U16 and 2U12 (2 # 5 and 2 # 4) rebar and were employed with
third-point loading, displacement-controlled test. Tow Linear Volt-
age Displacements Transducers (LVDTs) mounted on both sides of
the center of the beam were used to measure deflection. The flex-
ural behavior of the reinforced concrete beams are shown in
Fig. 13a and b in terms of load–midpoint deflection curves. Examin-
ing the curves, significant ductility can be noted. The ultimate loads
reached were 44 kN (9900 Ib) and 32 kN (7200 Ib), respectively. It is
clear that the response is linear until the first crack has formed at
approximately 28 kN (6300 Ib) for beam 1, and 22.3 kN (5000 Ib)
for beam 2. Classical reinforced concrete theory predicted tensile
reinforcement yielding to commence at approximately 34.7 kN
(7800 Ib) and 26.3 kN (5900 Ib) respectively, which is consistent
with the change in slope of the load–deflection response. The corre-
sponding flexural strength is 31.0 Mpa (4500 psi) and 22.51 Mpa
(3265 psi) respectively. The first cracking strength, flexural
strength (MOR), deflection at peak stress, ultimate deflection at fail-
ure, and toughness index are listed in Table 3. The toughness index
is evaluated by dividing the area under the load–deflection curve
from first cracking to a deflection equal to twice the first cracking
deflection by the area up to first matrix cracking.
4.4. Limitations of this study
Almost all research methods have limitations and this study is
no exception. Although the above flexural experiments provided
descriptions of deflection and pre- and post-crack response of
microfiber reinforced concrete beams, the data were limited to a
macroscopic behavior (response of the structural specimens, or
macroscale level). Interaction between the fiber and cementitious
matrix (mesoscale level) are not considered in this study. However,
the mesoscale descriptions of the fiber/matrix interaction are
needed to better understand the fiber failure modes and the result-
ing impact on macroscopic ductility. In the literature, numerous
works [9–15] have been published which study the fiber–matrix
interfacial behavior and provide linkage of the microstructure to
composite to structural performance level. It is generally agreed
that the pull-out work of fibers bridging one or several cracks pro-
vides the main source of toughness or energy absorption capacity
of fiber reinforced concrete composites, which translates into a
softening load–displacement curve after reaching maximum load.
Therefore, this study accepts the correlation between the energy
absorption during fibers’ pullout and toughness of the microfiber
reinforced concrete beams. In fact, Kim et al. [15] showed that a
strong correlation exists between slip hardening behavior in single
fiber pullout and strain-hardening behavior in tension.
5. Comparison of analytical and experimental results
5.1. Validation of the proposed deflection model
To validate the proposed model, the material properties of the
concrete beam were entered into the FORTRAN code (as described
in Section 3.1) to produce the theoretical moment–curvature rela-
tionship. After the moment–curvature was plotted, the moment
diagram was drawn for each load increments of 2.23 kN
(500 lbs). The beam was then divided into segments to calculate
the deflection at the middle of the beam. The process was repeated
until the peak load is reached. The load–deflection relationship was
found and compared with the experimental results for the aver-
ages of all three microfiber specimens and all three concrete with
limestone specimens as shown in Fig. 12. Also, Fig. 13 shows the
comparison between the proposed and experimental load–deflec-
tion relationship for the concrete beams reinforced with micro-fi-
bers plus rebars. Considering the load–deflection curves; concrete
at 30–60% of the peak load contains microcracks that are initiated
at isolated points where the tensile strain concentrations are the
highest. At this load stage, localized cracks are initiated, but they
do not propagate. In the upper half of the pre-peak portion of the
load–deflection curve, the crack system multiplies and propagates.
In this stage, and near the peak load, the progressive failure of con-
crete is primarily caused by cracks through the mortar, these
cracks join bond cracks at the surface of nearby aggregate and form
crack zones of internal damage. It is in this upper region where it is
believed that micro-fibers can contribute to the increase in the
strength of the concrete. If enough micro-fibers can be distributed
into the cement paste to cross any growing microcrack, then addi-
tional energy must be consumed in pulling the fibers. This energy
causes higher failure load and add toughness to the material.
6. Summary and conclusions
Microfiber reinforced concrete is a composite material in which
micro-fibers are incorporated to prevent or control the tensile
cracking, increase ductility, and enhance toughness in the strain-
softening region. To realize the potential of microfiber blends in
a concrete matrix, a concrete containing polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)
micro-fibers was designed and the mechanical performance were
evaluated. The micro-fibers delayed the development of micro-
cracks and so the composite demonstrated greater strength and
crack resistance than a similar matrix of plain concrete. This is ex-
plained by differences in the failure mechanism of the specimens.
Further, the stress–strain variation of plain concrete submitted to
axial compression shows hardly any strain-softening response as
the descending branch after peak stress is almost vertical. Adding
micro-fibers to a plain concrete matrix has little effect on its pre-
cracking behavior but does substantially enhance its post-cracking
response, which leads to a greatly improved ductility and tough-
ness. In the present study an attempt has been made to predict
the load–deflection characteristics of concrete beams reinforced
with micro-fibers utilizing the strain softening effects in the
stress–strain behavior. The developed model consists of two steps.
The first step is to establish a moment curvatures code for any con-
crete section using the actual compressive and tensile stress strain
relationships. The second step is to use the moment curvature code
in a mathematical model that predicts the deflection at any section
along the beam. The actual stress–strains relationships in both
compression and tension were established by performing a series
of compression and tension tests prescribed previously.
To validate the proposed model, concrete beams reinforced
with micro-fibers only, and two concrete beams reinforced with
micro-fibers plus steel rebars were tested in flexure. The mid span
 Author's personal copy
S. Hamoush et al. / Construction and Building Materials 24 (2010) 2285–2293
deflection, the top compression stains and the bottom tensile
stains were measured. The results from the numerical model were
compared with the test results show good agreement.
Based on the testing program and the work performed in this pa-
per, it appears that the addition of micro-fibers to concrete enhances
the ductile property of the materials and prevents the sudden brittle
failure of the material. This suggests the need to update the equa-
tions that the designers are using for calculation in their structural
notes. Moreover, the following conclusions may be drawn:
1. Although, the addition of micro-fibers does not influence the
compressive strength of concrete, it enhances the ductile prop-
erty of the materials, increases toughness, and prevents the
sudden brittle failure of the material.
2. The deflection of microfiber reinforced concrete beams has duc-
tile behavior and also has a post-peak failure point.
3. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fiber is very suitable fiber to be used as
reinforcement of the concrete materials, though the very strong
fiber–matrix bond resulting from high chemical bonding caused
the micro-fibers to rupture instead of being pulled out. Larger
ductility may be achieved by fiber pullout rather than rupture.
It is therefore, recommended to conduct experimental program
using coated PVA microfiber with less interface bond. It is also,
necessary to develop fiber coating technology to control the
fiber–matrix interfacial bonding and produce fiber pullout char-
acteristics which are designed to increase energy dissipation
without causing fiber rupture.
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank the US Army Corps of Engineers
(ERDC) for funding of this research.
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