Conference Proceedings
15th Australasian Tunnelling Conference 2014
Conference Proceedings
15th Australasian Tunnelling Conference 2014
Age-dependent Changes in Post-cracking Performance of Fibre-reinforced Concrete for TunnelSegments
Toughness testing of fibre reinforced concrete (FRC) at 28 days age is typically undertaken as part of quality control for the many applications where fibres are used in concrete, including shotcrete, tunnel segments, and cast-in-place tunnel linings. The performance achieved at 28 days is usually assumed to be retained with increasing age. However, as the average strength grade of concrete used in most tunnelling applications, including tunnel segments, has steadily increased over the last 20 years, this assumption is becoming increasingly unviable. This is because for some types of fibre the mode of post-crack fibre behaviour depends on the strength of the concrete and can change from a desirable high-energy pull-out mode to a low-energy rupture mode as the strength and age of concrete increases. This paper describes a series of trials performed over two years in which the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) C1609/C1609M beam tests were used to assess the performance of FRC reinforced with two widely used brands of steel and macro-synthetic fibre. The hooked-end steel fibres used for half the beams exhibited a dramatic fall in performance beyond 56 days age as the mode of failure changed from pull-out to rupture. The other fibre did not exhibit a fall in performance with age. This phenomenon highlights the need to quantify performance of FRC at much later ages when long-term performance is required, for example, to resist seismic events or changes in ground stress due to nearby excavations. As an alternative, a reduction factor may be applied to the performance of FRC mixes for which evidence of satisfactory long-term performance is notavailable.CITATION:Bernard, E S, 2014. Age-dependent changes in post-cracking performance of fibre-reinforced concrete for tunnelsegments, in Proceedings 15th Australasian Tunnelling Conference 2014, pp 229-236 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).
Contributor(s):
E S Bernard
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- Published: 2014
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- Unique ID: P201411026