Civil Engineering and Architecture Vol. 9(5A), pp. 128 - 137
DOI: 10.13189/cea.2021.091315
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Reinforced Concrete Slab with Added Steel Fibers for Engineering Application: Preliminary Experimental Investigations

Siti Junnaidah Baserah ^*, Nur Azwa Muhamad Bashar , Yee Hooi Min
School of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Cawangan Pulau Pinang, 13500, Permatang Pauh, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

ABSTRACT

The application of steel fiber as added materials in a plain concrete shows many potential benefits in improving structural properties namely tensile and flexural strength. The plain concrete with steel fibers added is said to be effective for both short and long terms duration based on its characteristics mainly size, shape, volume, and distribution. Such potentials have made it a material worthy to be further studied. This research was conducted to assess the strength of a plain concrete with the addition of steel fibers in the conventional concrete slab. Several testings were conducted to determine the strength characteristic (compressive and flexural) of the control sample; conventional reinforced concrete (RC) and reinforced concrete with steel fibers added (RCSF). In this study, the commercial steel fibers taken from Dramix which is categorised under 5D-Type was added during the concrete mixing processes according to the three different percentages of 0.5%, 0.75% and 1.0%. Obtained result shows that the concrete with steel fibers added (0.5%) had the highest compressive strength while both reinforced concrete and concrete with 0.75% addition of steel fibers showed almost similar flexural strength value. Deflection testing was conducted on both RC slab and RCSF slab via Three-point bending test. It is found that the RC slab showed a higher mid-span deflection rate. Furthermore, result from the physical observation and measurement for crack propagation evaluation shows that RC slab had a wider cracking gap compared to RCSF. In a nutshell, steel fibers in plain concrete gives several advantages and provide an alternative for the construction practitioner in minimizing the construction cost while maintaining the quality and reducing the cracking problem mainly due to the structural properties of concrete.

KEYWORDS
Steel Fibers (5D-Type), Reinforced Concrete Slab, Concrete Workability, Compressive Strength, Deflection, Cracking Pattern

Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Siti Junnaidah Baserah , Nur Azwa Muhamad Bashar , Yee Hooi Min , "Reinforced Concrete Slab with Added Steel Fibers for Engineering Application: Preliminary Experimental Investigations," Civil Engineering and Architecture, Vol. 9, No. 5A, pp. 128 - 137, 2021. DOI: 10.13189/cea.2021.091315.

(b). APA Format:
Siti Junnaidah Baserah , Nur Azwa Muhamad Bashar , Yee Hooi Min (2021). Reinforced Concrete Slab with Added Steel Fibers for Engineering Application: Preliminary Experimental Investigations. Civil Engineering and Architecture, 9(5A), 128 - 137. DOI: 10.13189/cea.2021.091315.