Construction and Building Materials 83 (2015) 150–158

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Construction and Building Materials

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Effect of steel and synthetic fibers on shear strength of RC beams without

shear stirrups
Dipti Ranjan Sahoo ⇑, Kaushik Maran, Avdhesh Kumar
Dept. of Civil Engineering, Indian Inst. of Tech. Delhi, New Delhi 110016, India

h i g h l i g h t s

 Polypropylene fiber reinforced concrete beams exhibited reduced shear strength.

 Combined fiber reinforced concrete beams exhibited multiple shear cracks.
 A minimum of 0.5% of steel and polypropylene fibers can replace the stirrups.
 Both steel and polypropylene fibers of 1% can improve the shear strength.

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

Article history: This study presents the influence of the type and volume fraction of fibers in the concrete mix on the
Received 16 November 2014 shear strength of RC beams. One RC (control) and six fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) beam specimens
Received in revised form 24 February 2015 are tested under the gradually increasing monotonic loading. Both high-modulus (steel) and low-modu-
Accepted 4 March 2015
lus (polypropylene) fibers of either 0.5% and 1% volume fraction in concrete are used in FRC specimens.
Available online 17 March 2015
Shear stirrups are completely eliminated in the half-span of the FRC specimens. A better post-peak resid-
ual strength response is noticed in case of all FRC beam specimens due to multiple cracking associated
Keywords:
with the fiber bridging action. The main parameters investigated are shear strength, failure mechanism
Failure mechanism
Fiber reinforced concrete
and displacement ductility. In the absence of shear stirrups, the peak shear resistance and mid-span dis-
Mechanical testing placement of the FRC specimen 1% of polypropylene fibers only reached about 70% and 50% of
Polypropylene fibers corresponding values for the RC specimen. The FRC specimens with combined steel and polypropylene
Shear strength fibers of minimum volume fraction of 0.5% in the concrete reached the same shear strength as RC speci-
Steel fibers men in the absence of shear stirrups. However, the shear resistance and deformability values are
improved by 20% and 40%, respectively, when the polypropylene fibers of 1% of volume fraction were
added to the concrete in addition to the steel fiber of 1% fiber content. Further, multiple cracks of smaller
crack width are noticed at the failure stage of the CFRC specimens indicating the better fiber bridging
action of combined metallic and nonmetallic fibers.
Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) has been widely used in indus-
trial pavements and non-structural elements, such as, pipes, cul-
verts, tunnels, and precast elements [1–3]. The addition of
randomly oriented discontinuous fibers in cementitous materials
reduces the level of micro-cracking and enhances the toughness,
ductility and post-cracking tensile resistance of concrete members
[4–6]. The strengthening effect of fibers in the concrete matrix is
achieved primarily due to the bridging effect of fibers at the crack
interfaces. The primary failure mechanisms of fibers in the
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 1126591203.
E-mail address: drsahoo@civil.iitd.ac.in (D.R. Sahoo).
concrete matrix are fiber pullout, fiber rupture, and fiber debond-
ing [7]. The properties of fibers play an important role in determin-
ing the predominant mechanism of failure as well as on the
macroscopic behavior of the cracked FRC members [8,9]. While
the small-sized (micro) steel fibers in the concrete mix enhances
the compressive and splitting tensile strengths, the large-sized
(macro) fibers, on the other hand, yield the opposite mechanical
effects [10–12]. Different fibers used in the structural concrete
applications can be broadly divided into two categories, namely,
high-modulus (metallic) and low-modulus (non-metallic). Steel
and polypropylene are extensively used as the metallic and non-
metallic fibers in the FRC applications, respectively [13].
Polypropylene fibers in the concrete mix provide the advantages
of higher durability [14], reducing the shrinkage of concrete [15–

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2015.03.010
0950-0618/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 D.R. Sahoo et al. / Construction and Building Materials 83 (2015) 150–158
17], and reducing the spalling effect in high-strength concrete sub-
jected to elevated temperatures [18]. These fibers are particularly
effective in controlling the propagation of micro cracks in concrete
because of the lower stiffness, high aspect ratios, and increased
number of fibers at a given volume fraction.
Usually, plain concrete fails in a brittle manner at the occur-
rence of cracking. The addition of steel fibers help the concrete to
carry stresses well beyond the cracking, thus maintaining the
structural integrity. The effectiveness of steel fiber reinforced con-
crete (SFRC) in improving various mechanical properties of con-
crete largely depends on the fiber dosage, fiber aspect ratio,
amount of longitudinal steel, tensile strength of fibers, and con-
crete compressive strength. It has been recognized that the
strength and ductility of concrete is partially improved by addition
of only single type (steel or polypropylene) of fiber. Combining dif-
ferent types of fibers to optimize the mechanical performance of
concrete has been acknowledged [6], which resulted in combined
(hybrid) fiber reinforced concrete (CFRC). The effect of quantity
of each type of fiber on the mechanical properties of CFRC has been
studied previously [11,13]. However, limited studies have been
carried out to study the behavior of RC beams with combined fibers
in the concrete mix in the presence of conventional longitudinal
and transverse reinforcements.
Therefore, for the purpose of exploring the load resisting capac-
ity and failure behavior of RC beams with the inclusion of com-
bined fibers in concrete mix, an experimental program have been
conducted in this study. Seven full-scale beam specimens are
tested under monotonically increasing loading for the various
combinations of both steel and polypropylene fibers of varied vol-
ume fractions. The conventional transverse stirrups in the RC beam
have been completely eliminated in the fiber reinforced concrete
regions of FRC specimens. The main objectives of this study are
(i) to investigate the shear strength, failure mechanism, and ductil-
ity of FRC beams with combined fibers; (ii) to evaluate the
mechanical properties of FRC with both steel and polypropylene
fibers; and (iii) to find out whether there is an optimum fiber con-
tent for CFRC in order to replace the shear stirrups in the RC beams.
The goal is to improve the lateral strength and ductility of RC
beams by combining the fiber bridging characteristics in the con-
crete with minimum requirements of transverse stirrups.
2. Review of past research
Past studies [11,13,19–21] have shown that the tensile and
compressive strengths, flexural properties, toughness, and fracture
behavior of concrete can be also improved by adding polypropy-
lene fibers into the concrete mix. While the compressive strength
of concrete is less affected by the addition of steel fibers, the split-
ting tensile strength of concrete can be enhanced by 10–50%
depending on the fiber aspect ratio and volume fraction [22]. In
addition, the ultimate and residual flexural strengths, ductility,
flexural toughness, and fracture properties of concrete members
can be enhanced due to the addition of steel fibers in the concrete
mix [23–30]. In the recent years, there has been a growing interest
in the construction industry to use the fiber reinforcement to
reduce the complexity in the reinforcement detailing in the RC
members. Extensive studies (e.g., [31–34]) have concluded that
the shear strength and ductility of RC members can be significantly
enhanced by using adequate amount of steel fibers in the concrete
matrix. In addition, FRC helped in changing the failure mechanism
from brittle to ductile due to stress redistribution and multiple
cracking phenomena. The contribution of steel fibers in enhancing
the shear strength of RC members has been recognized in ACI 318-
08 [35] that recommends the use of a minimum volume fraction of
0.75% (60 kg/m3) of deformed steel fibers as a partial replace-
ment to the shear stirrups in RC flexural members.
151
Steel fibers of high volume fraction in the concrete mix have
potential disadvantages in terms of the poor workability and the
increased cost. Further, the stiffer steel fibers may result in voids
and honeycombs in concrete during placing because of improper
consolidation at low workability levels. By using both metallic
and non-metallic fibers in the concrete mix, the properties of fresh
concrete such as, better workability and reduced early-age crack-
ing and of hardened concrete such as, better strength, ductility
and toughness can be improved at a reduced overall cost [6,13].
Both low and high modulus fibers help in arresting the micro-
and macro-cracks in concrete, respectively. The addition of both
steel and polypropylene fibers to the concrete improved the tensile
strength [36], flexural strength and toughness [9,37–39] of con-
crete members while reducing the crack propagation as compared
to those with the addition of single type of fiber. A significant post-
yield strain-hardening response of FRC members can be expected if
both steel and polypropylene fibers are added in an equal volume
fraction of 1% to the concrete mix [40]. However, the improvement
of shear behavior of FRC members with both metallic and non-
metallic fibers has not been explored in detail. Hence, there is a
need of further study on the investigation of fiber content of both
types of fibers on the shear strength of large-scale RC flexural
members.
3. Research significance
In case of the conventional RC members, brittle shear failure is
usually avoided by providing transverse stirrups along their
lengths. The requirement of closely-spaced stirrups in the critical
regions of the RC members, many times, creates congestion making
the placement of concrete more difficult. Further, the preparation
of these stirrups requires extensive labor-intensive work. Though
the use of SFRC have shown to provide the required shear strength
of RC members, steel fibers may be expensive particularly when
there is a requirement for higher fiber content in the concrete.
Past studies have shown that the less-expensive polypropylene
fibers can be added along with steel fibers in the concrete mix to
improve the compressive, splitting tensile and flexural strengths
as well as ductility of concrete. However, it is important to study
the effect of relative fiber doses of both these types of fibers in
the concrete mix to get the desired performance of RC flexural
members. The present study provides an insight on fiber doses of
both steel and polypropylene fibers in the concrete mix that can
replace the conventional transverse shear stirrups in order to
achieve the improved lateral load-resisting capacity as well as
the desired failure mechanism of the RC members.
4. Experimental program
An experimental investigation has been conducted on seven
full-scale test specimens prepared using plain and fiber reinforced
concrete. Two types of fibers, namely steel and polypropylene,
with fiber volume fraction of 0.5% or 1.0% were used in the test
specimens. Three-point bending tests were conducted on the
full-scale beam specimens. In addition, standard tests were carried
out on concrete cubes, cylinders, and small-scale beams to investi-
gate the role of fiber type and fiber content on the compressive,
splitting tensile and flexural strengths of concrete. The details of
test specimens, mix design, materials, instrumentations, and test
set-up used in this study are discussed in the following sections.
4.1. Test specimens and reinforcement detailing
All test specimens used in this study were 2.0 m long with an
effective span of 1.8 m. The width and overall depth of specimens
152 D.R. Sahoo et al. / Construction and Building Materials 83 (2015) 150–158

were 150 mm and 200 mm, respectively. A clear concrete cover of Table 1
20 mm was used to the longitudinal reinforcement bars of the Details of fiber content in test specimens.

specimens. Both top and bottom longitudinal reinforcement bars Specimen Steel fiber (%) Polypropylene fiber (%)
consisted of three numbers of 16 mm diameter. Thus, the percent- RC 0.0 0.0
age of tension reinforcement used in all specimens was 2.45%. SFRC1 0.5 0.0
Fig. 1 shows the geometry and reinforcement detailing used in SFRC2 1.0 0.0
the specimens. Two types of detailing of shear stirrups were used PFRC 0.0 1.0
CFRC1 0.5 0.5
in the RC (control) and FRC specimens. As shown in Fig. 1(a), CFRC2 1.0 0.5
two-legged 8 mm diameter bars were used as transverse stirrups CFRC3 1.0 1.0
at a center-to-center spacing of 150 mm and 300 mm for each
one-half length of the RC specimen. Thus, the shear failure of RC
specimen would be occurred in the region with the larger spacing
of stirrups. All FRC specimens, however, consisted of shear stirrups
of 8 mm diameter at a spacing of 150 mm on centers for one-half
lengths only as shown in Fig. 1(b). The absence of shear stirrups
in the other half of the FRC specimens would facilitate to investi-
gate the contribution of fiber reinforcement to their shear
strengths. Each longitudinal bar was provided with anchorage
lengths of 100 mm on both ends. As stated earlier, seven specimens
were prepared and tested under monotonically increasing loading.
These specimens are, henceforth, referred as RC, SFRC1, SFRC2,
PFRC, CFRC1, CFRC2, and CFRC3. Table 1 summarizes the details
of fiber content and fiber type used in the respective specimens.

4.2. Details of materials Fig. 2. (a) Steel and (b) polypropylene fibers used in this study.

Ordinary Portland Cement [41], crushed coarse aggregates, fine

aggregates [42], water, and super-plasticizer were used in the con-
crete for the preparation of test specimens. River sand of specific
gravity of 2.62 and fineness modulus of 2.64 was used as fine aggre-
gates. Crushed granite of specific gravity 2.82 was used as coarse
aggregates with the maximum size limited to 10 mm. Fig. 2 shows
the geometry of steel and polypropylene fibers used in this study.
Crimped steel fibers of 30 mm long and 0.75 mm diameter (aspect
ratio = 40) were used in the FRC specimens. The specified values of
tensile strength and modulus of elasticity of steel fibers were
1.05 GPa and 210 GPa, respectively. Polypropylene fibers were of
12.5 mm long and 0.5 mm diameter (aspect ratio = 25). The speci-
fied tensile strength and modulus of elasticity of polypropylene
fibers used in this study were 0.46 GPa and 5 GPa, respectively.
The specified material yield strength of all reinforcement bars
was 500 MPa. Standard 150 mm size cubes and cylinders of
100 mm diameter and 200 mm long were prepared to measure
the compressive and splitting tensile strengths of plain and fiber
reinforced concrete. In addition, small-scale prismatic beams of
500 mm long and 100 mm square cross-section were also prepared
to determine the flexural tensile strength of FRC.
4.3. Mix proportions and specimen preparation
Mix design for plain concrete was carried out for a characteristic
compressive strength (fck) of 25 MPa. The characteristic compres-
sive strength is the minimum statistical value of strength such that
not more 5% of test results is expected to exhibit the lower strength
than this characteristic value. The target mean strength of concrete

Fig. 1. Geometric dimensions and reinforcement detailing of (a) RC and (b) FRC specimens.
 D.R. Sahoo et al. / Construction and Building Materials 83 (2015) 150–158 153

Table 2 out in the FRC mix. Hence, the FRC had the same mix proportions
Details of concrete mix design used in this study. as used in both plain concrete. Concrete mixing was carried out
Composition Water Cement Sand Aggregate Super-plasticizer using a rotating drum-type concrete mixer of 60 L (0.06 cubic
Mass (kg/m )3
176.4 392.0 1011 899 5.88 meter) capacity. In order to achieve the proper mixing of concrete,
Ratio by mass 0.45 1.00 2.58 2.28 0.015 various steps involved in the concrete mixing were as follows:
of cement First, the fine and coarse aggregates were mixed together with half
of the total water content to achieve a saturated surface-dry condi-
tion. Then, the cement and the remaining water were added. Later,
super-plasticizer was added and mixed thoroughly. In the case of
(fm) was calculated as the algebraic sum of fck and 1.65 times the FRC, the fibers were gradually sprinkled into the mix to obtain a
standard deviation (s) as per Indian Standard IS-10262 [42] provi- homogeneous mixture of good workability. The formworks were
sions. Using a value of s as 4, the value of fm for the concrete was then filled with the concrete mix using several batches and com-
computed as 31.6 MPa. Table 2 summarizes the mix proportions pacted properly through a needle vibrator. Samples of concrete
used in the plain concrete. Water-to-cement (w/c) ratio used in from each batch were used to prepare the standard cubes, cylin-
both plain concrete and FRC was 0.45. A naphthalene sulphonate ders and small-scale prismatic beams. Fig. 3 shows the concrete
based super-plasticizer of 1.5% by volume was used in the concrete mix and the preparation of the test specimens during and after
mix to obtain the desired workability. Since the volume of fibers casting. In case of full-scale FRC specimens, one-half of the beams
used in the mixing was relatively small as compared to the volume were filled with plain concrete, whereas the other halves were
of aggregates, no reduction in the weight of aggregates was carried filled with FRC mixes. The top surfaces of specimens were levelled

Fig. 3. Preparation of specimens: (a) fresh concrete, (b) steel reinforcement caging, (c) FRC specimen with half portion filled with plain concrete, (d) fully-casted specimen.

Fig. 4. Test set-up used in this study.

154 D.R. Sahoo et al. / Construction and Building Materials 83 (2015) 150–158

and finished properly in order to get a smooth surface for the load Table 3
application. Mechanical properties of concrete mixes.

Concrete mix type Compressive Splitting Flexural

strength tensile tensile
4.4. Test setup and instrumentation
(MPa) strength strength
(MPa) (MPa)
Full-scale beams were tested under three-point bending loading
fcm fcs ftm fts fbm fbs
where the monotonically increasing concentrated load at their
mid-spans. Fig. 4 shows the set-up used in the testing of full-scale Plain 36.2 1.1 2.5 0.3 11.9 0.8
SFRC1 36.4 0.7 2.7 0.4 14.5 0.9
specimens in the present study. Both ends of the specimens were SFRC2 28.1 0.9 2.3 0.2 8.8 1.1
supported by smooth pins with an edge distance of 100 mm. A PFRC 37.6 2.9 2.4 0.3 10.1 1.2
hydraulic jack of 1000 kN capacity was used to apply the mono- CFRC1 38.2 0.8 2.8 0.2 12.0 0.6
tonic loading. A load cell and a linear variable displacement trans- CFRC2 37.6 0.9 3.2 0.3 15.0 0.8
CFRC3 35.3 1.8 3.5 0.4 15.0 0.9
former (LVDT) were used to measure the applied load and the
displacement at mid-span, respectively. Several resistive strain Note: fcm and fcs = mean and standard deviation values of compressive strengths; ftm
gages (120 Ohm resistance) were placed on the longitudinal and fts = Mean and standard deviation values of tensile strengths; fbm and fbs = Mean
and standard deviation values of flexural tensile strengths.
reinforcement bars to measure the state of strain at different load
magnitudes. All these sensors were connected to an automatic data
ductile mode of failure under compressive loading as compared to
acquisition system to record the real-time data during the testing
the plain concrete cubes. Due to the bridging effect of the fibers,
process. A gradually increasing monotonic load was applied on
the FRC cubes did not crush completely, but held their integrity
the full-scalebeam specimens at a rate 10 kN/min until the peak
up to the end of the test.
load-carrying capacity of specimens was reached and thereafter,
a displacement-controlled loading at a rate of 10 mm/min was
applied to the specimens. Test specimens were loaded until their 5.2. Splitting tensile strength
failure with a significant reduction in their load-carrying
capacities. Tensile strength of both plain concrete and FRC was determined
by testing standard cylinders as per Indian Standard IS-5816 [44]
provisions. Fig. 5(b) shows the test set-up used for the determina-
5. Mechanical properties of FRC tion of splitting tensile strength concrete. A gradually increased uni-
axial compression loading was applied at a rate of 1.8 MPa/min to
In order to evaluate the mechanical properties of plain and fiber the cylinder specimens. The splitting tensile strength was computed
reinforced concrete, testing of small-scale specimens such as, stan- as 2P/pDL, where, P is the failure load, D and L are the diameter and
dard cubes, cylinders and prismatic beams was carried out. The height of the cylinders. Six cylinders for each mix were tested after
main parameters investigated were cube compressive strength, 28-days of curing. Table 3 summarizes the mean and standard
splitting tensile strength, and flexural tensile strength of concrete. deviation values of splitting tensile strengths of plain concrete
A universal testing machine of 2000 kN capacity was used for this and FRC. Except the concrete mix SFRC2 with 1% steel fibers, all
purpose. The results of material tests are discussed in the following FRC mixes had the nearly equal or higher splitting tensile strengths
sections. as compared to the plain concrete mix. A maximum increase of 40%
in the spitting tensile strength was noted for CFRC3 with 1% of steel
5.1. Compressive strength and polypropylene fibers as compared to the plain concrete. The
ratio of splitting tensile strength to the compressive strength for
Uniaxial compression tests were carried on standard cubes of the plain concrete and CFRC3 was computed as 7.8% and 9.9%,
150 mm size as per Indian Standard IS-516 [43] provisions. As respectively. The addition of 0.5% of steel and polypropylene fibers
shown in Fig. 5(a), monotonically increasing loading was applied to the concrete mix resulted in a marginal increase in the splitting
to the standard cube specimens at a rate of 14 MPa/min. A mini- tensile strength. SFRC2 concrete mix exhibited the smallest value
mum of six concrete cubes were tested at 28-days of curing for of splitting tensile strength of 2.3 MPa among all other concrete
each type of concrete mix. Table 3 summarizes the mean and stan- mixes. This may be due to improper mixing of steel fibers in the con-
dard deviation values of compressive strength of plain and fiber crete, which also resulted in the reduction of cube compressive
reinforced concrete. Except SFRC2 with 1% of steel fibers, all con- strength (Table 3). PFRC mix with 1% polypropylene fibers also
crete mixes achieved the target compressive strength of exhibited the smaller splitting tensile strength as compared to the
31.6 MPa. Both plain concrete and SFRC1 mixes exhibited nearly plain concrete mix. While plain concrete cylinders failed suddenly
similar compressive strength. A reduction in the cube compressive due to the formation of a single vertical crack, the failure of all
strength was noted when steel fibers of 1% was added to the con- FRC cylinders was more gradual due to redistribution stresses
crete as noticed in SFRC2 and CFRC3 mixes. All FRC cubes exhibited across the failure plane.

Fig. 5. Test set-up for (a) Compression testing, (b) split tensile test, (c) flexural test.
 D.R. Sahoo et al. / Construction and Building Materials 83 (2015) 150–158
5.3. Flexural tensile strength
Flexural tensile strength of plain concrete and FRC was deter-
mined by conducting four-point bending tests on prismatic beams
of 100 mm square cross-section and 500 mm long as per ASTM
C78/C78M [45] provisions. Three beams were tested for each con-
crete mix under monotonically increasing loading at a rate of
1.0 MPa/min. Fig. 5(c) shows the test set-up used for flexural tests.
The flexural tensile strength was computed as PL/Bd2, where P is
the failure load, L is the effective length of beam, B and d are the
width and depth of the beam. The mean and standard deviation
values of flexural strengths of both plain and FRC mixes are
reported in Table 3. Similar to splitting tensile tests, both CFRC2
and CFRC3 beams exhibited an increase of 26% in the flexural ten-
sile strength as compared to the plain concrete. As noted earlier,
SFRC2 beam exhibited the smallest value of flexural strength of
8.8 MPa. As expected, PFRC beams also exhibited a relatively smal-
ler flexural strength of 10.1 MPa as compared to the plain concrete.
This may be due to improper bond strength in the presence of
polypropylene fibers in the concrete.
6. Testing of full-scale beams
Large-scale test specimens of RC and FRC were tested under
monotonically increasing loading. As shown in Fig. 4, concentrated
load was applied at the mid span of the test specimens. The main
parameters investigated were load–displacement response, ulti-
mate resistance, ductility, strain in the main reinforcing bars, crack
propagation, and failure mechanism. All these parameters are dis-
cussed in detail in the following sections for each specimen:
6.1. Load–displacement response
Fig. 6 shows the load resisted by the test specimens and the
corresponding mid-span displacements. The load–displacement
response of CFRC2 specimen was exactly similar to that of the RC
specimen. A sudden drop in the post-peak regime of load–displace-
ment curve indicate the shear failure of both specimens. This
showed that the load carrying capacity of the RC beam remain
unchanged by replacing the shear stirrups in RC specimen with 1%
of steel fibers and 0.5% of polypropylene fibers in concrete. Both
SFRC specimens exhibited similar load–displacement response with
the SFRC2 specimen exhibiting a relatively mild falling branch after
reaching its peak resistance. PFRC specimen exhibited a sudden drop
in the load–displacement response at much lower peak load as com-
pared to all other specimens. CFRC1 specimen exhibited a relatively
higher initial stiffness among all other specimens though the peak
resistance was nearly same as that of the RC specimen. The load–dis-
placement response of CFRC1 specimen was nearly linear up to a
mid-span displacement of 10 mm, whereas the RC and SFRC
Fig. 6. Load–deflection response of test specimens.
155
Fig. 7. Normalized shear stress vs. displacement response.
specimens exhibited linear load–displacement response up to a
mid-span displacement of 7.5 mm. CFRC3 specimen exhibited much
higher load resisting capacity as compared to the RC specimen.
Appreciable post-yield ductile response was noted in the load–dis-
placement of the CFRC3 specimen. In addition, the reduction in the
load-resisting capacity of the CFRC3 specimen in the post-peak
load–displacement response was more gradual as compared to
other beam specimens. The specimen exhibited linear load–dis-
placement response up to a mid-span displacement of 13 mm,
whereas the degradation in the load-resisting capacity of the
CFRC3 specimen was noted at the mid-span displacement of
26 mm. The maximum mid-span displacement of the CFRC3 speci-
men was 30 mm, whereas the corresponding displacement for the
PFRC was 8 mm only. Further, the FRC specimens with a minimum
of 1% of steel fibers and 0.5% of polypropylene fibers in the concrete
mix but without any shear stirrups exhibited the same value of
deformability as the RC beam with shear stirrups at a spacing of
300 mm on centers.
Fig. 7 shows the normalized shear stress vs. mid-span displace-
ment of test specimen. The normalized shear stress (s) of test
specimen was computed using the following equation:
qffiffiffiffi
s ¼ V=ðbd f 0c Þ, where, V = Shear force, b = width of specimen,
0
d = depth of specimen, f c = cylinder compressive strength of con-
crete. Cylinder compressive strength of plain concrete and FRC
was computed as 80% of the corresponding cube compressive
strengths. The normalization was carried out in order to eliminate
the variation in the compressive strengths. The maximum value of
normalized shear stress for the RC and CFRC2 specimens was about
0.40 MPa. The PFRC specimen exhibited a maximum shear stress of
0.28 MPa indicating a reduction of 30% in shear stress as compared
to the RC specimen. The SFRC2 specimen showed an increase of
10% in the maximum shear stress as compared to that of the
SFRC1 specimen. The CFRC3 specimen exhibited a maximum shear
stress of 0.49 MPa indicating that the shear stress was enhanced by
22.5% as compared to that of the RC specimen if 1% of steel and
polypropylene fibers were added to the concrete mix.
6.2. Ultimate shear resistance
The shear strength of test specimens was computed as the half
of the maximum load resisted by the corresponding specimens
during the tests. As summarized in Table 4, both SFRC specimens
had marginally smaller shear strengths as compared to that of
the RC specimen even though the shear stirrups were completely
removed in the SFRC specimens. Further, though the compressive
and splitting tensile strengths of SFRC2 mix were smaller than
the plain concrete, the shear strength of SFRC2 specimen was mar-
ginally smaller (5%) than that of the RC specimen. This indicates
that the fiber bridging properties steel fibers helped in the shear
156 D.R. Sahoo et al. / Construction and Building Materials 83 (2015) 150–158

Table 4
Ultimate resistance and ductility response of specimens.

Specimen Shear strength (kN) Ductility

RC 53.9 1.6
SFRC1 52.3 1.5
SFRC2 51.0 1.5
PFRC 38.4 1.2
CFRC1 57.2 1.3
CFRC2 54.8 1.6
CFRC3 64.0 2.2

resisting mechanism. The PFRC specimen exhibited a reduction of

30% in the shear resisting capacity as compared to the RC speci-
men. This reduction in the shear resistance was consistent with
the results of mechanical properties where the PFRC mixes exhib-
ited smaller compressive, splitting tensile and flexural tensile
strengths as compared to the plain concrete (Table 3). All CFRC
specimens exhibited the higher shear resistance capacity as com-
pared to the RC specimen. The CFRC3 specimen with steel and
polypropylene fibers of 1% in the concrete mix exhibited an
increase in about 20% of shear resisting capacity as compared to
the RC specimen. It is interesting to note that the replacing the
shear stirrups by 0.5% of steel and polypropylene fibers in the con-
crete mix can result in the same shear strength of the RC beam.

6.3. Displacement ductility

Displacement ductility of a specimen was computed as the ratio

of the displacement at failure to the displacement where the speci-
men ceased to exhibit its linear behavior. The displacement ductil-
ity of the RC specimen with shear stirrups throughout the length
was computed as 1.6 (Table 4). Both SFRC specimens had the dis-
placement ductility was marginally smaller than that of the RC
specimen. The PFRC specimen exhibited a reduced displacement
ductility, which was 75% of the value noted for the RC specimen.
Similar observation was also noted for the CFRC1 specimen with
0.5% of steel and polypropylene fibers. However, the addition of a
minimum of 1% of steel fibers and 0.5% of polypropylene fibers in
the concrete exhibited the nearly equal or higher displacement
ductility as compared to the RC specimen. The CFRC3 specimen
exhibited the maximum displacement ductility of 2.2 indicating
an increase of 37.5% in the displacement ductility as compared to
the RC specimen.
6.4. Crack propagation
Fig. 8 shows the propagation of cracks in test specimens. The
first flexural crack in the RC specimen was noticed at the mid-span
at a load of 60 kN. With the increasing in the load magnitude, a
number of flexural-shear cracks were noticed near the mid-span
of the RC specimen. Major shear cracks emanating from thesupport
to the loading point were noticed at 100 kN load level. The crack
propagation and the failure mechanism of the SFRC specimens
was nearly similar to the RC specimen. The first crack in the
PFRC specimen was noticed at a load of 40 kN load level.
Additional flexural cracks were noticed near the mid-span regions
till 70 kN load level. As compared to the RC and PFRC specimens, all
other FRC specimens exhibited a large number of flexural cracks
near the mid-span. First flexural cracks were noticed at load levels
of 40 kN and 30 kN for the SFRC1 and SFRC2 specimens, respec-
tively. Relatively, a large number of cracks were noticed in the
SFRC2 specimen as compared to the SFRC1 specimen indicating
that the increase in the steel fiber content in concrete helped in
the redistribution of stresses in the SFRC specimens because of
the better fiber bridging action. Both SFRC specimens exhibited
Fig. 8. Crack propagation in test specimens.
multiple shear cracks at about100 kN load level prior to their fail-
ures. CFRC specimens exhibited the first flexural cracks at the mid-
spans at 40 kN load level. CFRC3 specimens exhibited a number of
minor cracks prior to failure as compared to other two CFRC speci-
mens. The least numbers of cracks were noticed in the CFRC2
specimen in which the volume fraction of steel and polypropylene
fibers in the concrete was 1% and 0.5%, respectively. Further, two
major shear cracks were noticed in the CFRC1 and CFRC3 speci-
mens prior to failure in which both steel and polypropylene fibers
were added to the concrete in same proportion indicating better
redistribution of stresses due to uniform distribution of fibers.
Further, except the CFRC3 specimen, the maximum strain in the
longitudinal reinforcement bars of specimens was less than the
yielding strain limit indicating negligible flexural behavior of test
specimens prior to their failure.
6.5. Failure mechanisms
Fig. 9 shows the state of test specimens at their failure stage.
Though the shear (diagonal) cracks were noticed at an orientation
of 45°, the RC specimen exhibited failure-shear crack at the failure
stage as shown in figure. Only one major crack was noticed at the
failure stage of the RC specimen. The PFRC specimen exhibited a
single shear crack in the span without any shear stirrups. The shear
plane passed through the tensile reinforcement bars at shown in
the figure. The major crack formed at the failure stage of the
SFRC1 specimen was nearly similar to the PFRC specimen.
Further, an additional shear crack of smaller crack width was also
noticed in addition to the major shear crack in the SFRCs specimen.
The additional crack was formed very close to the major crack indi-
cating the multiple cracks at the failure stage due to the addition of
 D.R. Sahoo et al. / Construction and Building Materials 83 (2015) 150–158
Fig. 9. Failure mechanism of test specimens.
steel fibers. As compared to the SFRC1 specimen, the SFRC2 speci-
men exhibited two major cracks of nearly equal crack width. Both
cracks were nearly parallel to each other and separated by a large
distance in the region without ant shear stirrups of the SFRC2
specimen. In addition, few more shear cracks of smaller crack
width were also noticed. These cracks were oriented at an angle
of inclination of 45° approximately. Thus, as the fiber content of
steel fibers was increased, the number of shear cracks was also
increased indicating better fiber bridging action. Except the
CFRC2 specimen, both CFRC1 and CFRC3 specimens exhibited mul-
tiple major cracks at the failure stage. The CFRC3 specimen exhib-
ited a large number of cracks at the failure stage as compared to all
other specimens. Further, the crack width of all major cracks was
very small indicating that the addition of 1% of steel and
polypropylene fibers to the concrete significantly reduced the brit-
tle failure in the absence of shear stirrups.
As summarized in the Table 3, there was no significant difference
in the compressive strengths of concrete with and without any addi-
tion of fibers. A significant variation in the splitting and flexural ten-
sile was noticed with the addition of different types of fibers. At the
material level, fiber reinforced concrete exhibited better post-peak
157
strength-retention (residual strength) capacity in the compression
and splitting-tensile tests. However, as shown in Fig. 6, no significant
difference in the residual strength behavior has been noted in the
structural level testing except the CFRC3 specimen. This may be
due to the different modes of failure noticed in the large-scale test
specimens. For example, both PFRC and SFRC1 failed due to the
development of web shear (diagonal tension) cracks, whereas the
remaining all specimens failed due to the formation of shear-com-
pression or shear-flexure cracks. As noted in Table 3, both PFRC
and SFRC1 concrete mixes had nearly same tensile and compressive
strengths. The enhanced shear strength and ductility of the CFRC3
specimen may be attributed due to the improved tensile strength
of concrete as noted in the material level testing.
7. Summary and conclusions
Seven geometrically-similar full-scale beam specimens were
tested under gradually increasing monotonic loading to investigate
the influence of type and volume of fibers on their shear behavior.
Crimped steel fibers and polypropylene fibers of either 0.5% or 1.0%
volume fraction were added to the concrete mix of the test speci-
mens. Shear stirrups were completely eliminated in the half-span
of the fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) specimens. All specimens
were tested under three-point monotonically increasing loading.
The major conclusions of this study are as follows:
(1) SFRC1 specimen with steel fibers of 0.5% volume fraction
exhibited the same peak shear resistance as the RC specimen
in the absence of the shear stirrups. However, the SFRC1
specimen exhibited the smaller deformability prior to the fail-
ure. Where the RC specimen failed to the formation of single
diagonal crack prior to the failure, multiple shear cracks were
noticed at the failure stage of SFRC specimen. Further, as the
volume fraction of steel fibers was increased to 1.0%, the num-
ber of shear cracks was also increased at the failure stage.
(2) In the absence of shear stirrups, the peak shear resistance of
PFRC specimen was only 70% of the corresponding value for
the RC specimen. In addition, the maximum mid-span dis-
placement of the PFRC specimen was 50% of corresponding
value for the RC specimen indicating that the addition of
1% of polypropylene fibers reduced shear resistance and
deformability in the absence of shear stirrups.
(3) CFRC specimens with both steel and polypropylene fibers of
minimum volume fraction of 0.5% in the concrete reached
the same shear strength as RC specimen in the absence of
shear stirrups. However, the shear resistance and deforma-
bility values were improved by 20% and 40%, respectively,
when the polypropylene fibers of 1% of volume fraction were
added to the concrete in addition to the steel fiber of 1% fiber
content. Further, multiple cracks of smaller crack width
were noticed at the failure stage of the CFRC specimens indi-
cating the better fiber bridging action of combined metallic
and nonmetallic fibers.
(4) The CFRC specimen with steel and polypropylene fibers of
1% of volume fraction exhibited significant post-yield ductile
behavior prior to its failure. Moreover, in order to achieve
the better shear resistance and deformability with better
stress redistribution at the failure stage, both steel and
polypropylene fibers should be added to concrete mix in
equal proportions.
Acknowledgements
Authors are thankful to the Ministry of Human Resources
Department, Government of India for the financial support for this
158 D.R. Sahoo et al. / Construction and Building Materials 83 (2015) 150–158
research. The help and support extended by the staff of the
Structural Engineering Laboratory, Department of Civil
Engineering, IIT Delhi is highly acknowledged.
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