ABSTRACT
The development of fiber-reinforced concrete material has undergone a number of phases. In the 1960s, research by Romualdi and coworkers (Romualdi and Batson, 1963; Romualdi and Mandel, 1964) demonstrated the effectiveness of short steel fibers in reducing the brittleness of concrete. This development has continued with expansion to a variety of other fibers, such as glass, carbon, synthetics, natural fibers, and, in recent years, hybrids that combine either different fiber types or fiber lengths. The continuously enhanced knowledge of fiber-reinforcement effectiveness has resulted in structural design recommendations by RILEM TC 162-TDF (Vandewalle et al., 2003). This document focuses on fiber-reinforced
concrete (FRC) that possesses a tension-softening, quasi-brittle response (Figure 24.1). Apart from the gradual expanded use of the tension-softening branch of FRC in structural property enhancements, fibers in small quantities have been successfully used in controlling restrained drying shrinkage cracks. The subject of FRC is treated in detail in Chapter 22 of this book.
