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Fibre distribution and tensile response anisotropy in sprayed fibre reinforced concrete

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Abstract

Sprayed steel fibre reinforced concrete (SSFRC) is a material that tends to present anisotropy, due to the action of the spraying process inducing preferential fibre orientation. Despite numerous applications worldwide since the 1980s, no study has been found of the assessment of fibre distribution and its influence on the residual tensile strength of SSFRC. This work addresess this issue from a quantitative standpoint through an experimental programme with specimens extracted in various orientations within a SSFRC panel. The fibre content and 3D orientation were quantified using the inductive method and correlated with an indirect tensile behaviour for the same specimen with the Barcelona test. The results confirm the high level of anisotropy of SSFRC. The fibre orientation number parallel to the spraying direction is three times bigger than that found in the perpendicular direction. Similar differences were observed between the residual tensile response measured in those directions. Comparison of test results suggest that the preferential fibre orientation creates weaker planes that favours the increase of crack opening at lower load levels.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for the economic support received through Research Project IPT F-00339 FIBHAC. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Estructuras y Transporte, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de la República (UdelaR), J. Herrera y Reissig 565, 11300, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Luis Segura-Castillo

  2. Department of Civil & Building Engineering, Loughborough University, LE11 3TU, Loughborough, UK

    Sergio H. P. Cavalaro, Chris Goodier & Simon Austin

  3. Department of Construction Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, UPC, Jordi Girona 1-3, 08034, Barcelona, Spain

    Antonio Aguado

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  1. Luis Segura-Castillo
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  2. Sergio H. P. Cavalaro
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  3. Chris Goodier
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  4. Antonio Aguado
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  5. Simon Austin
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Correspondence to Luis Segura-Castillo.

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Segura-Castillo, L., Cavalaro, S.H.P., Goodier, C. et al. Fibre distribution and tensile response anisotropy in sprayed fibre reinforced concrete. Mater Struct 51, 29 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-018-1156-5

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