An experiment was conducted to evaluate the durability, toughness, and strength of Synthetic Fiber Reinforced Concrete after being immersed in five separate environments for one year at FAU SeaTech. The specimens were molded and reinforced with two-inch Polypropylene/Polyethylene Fibers in a concrete aggregate matrix and were cut into identical sizes. Some of these environments had accelerated parameters meant to increase degradation to simulate longevity and imitate harsh environments or seawater conditions. The environments consisted of: a high humidity locker (ideal conditions), submerged in the Intracoastal Waterway (FAU barge), seawater immersion, a wet and dry seawater immersion simulating a splash/tidal zone, and another in low pH seawater. The latter three were in an elevated temperature room (87-95°F) which produced more degradative properties. The specimens were monitored and the environments were controlled. The specimens were then evaluated using the IDT test method using force to initiate first-cracking and post-cracking behaviors. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

During its service life, a structure may be subjected to various environmental and loading conditions. However, in general, the properties determined under one set of conditions may not be used to determine the behaviour of the material under a different set of conditions. For example, it is well known that concrete is a strain rate sensitive material; therefore, its properties determined under conventional static loading cannot be used to predict the performance of concrete subjected to high strain rates. The problem is serious because these high strain rate loadings are associated with large amounts of energy imparted to the structure in a very short period of time, and concrete is a brittle material. Since the strain rate sensitivity of concrete prohibits the use of its statically determined properties in assessing its behaviour under dynamic conditions, high strain rate tests are required. Impact tests were carried out on about 500 concrete beams. An instrumented drop weight impact machine was used. The instrumentation included strain gauges mounted in the striking end of the hammer (called 'the tup'), and also in one of the support anvils. In addition, three accelerometers were mounted along the length of the beam in order to obtain the beam response, and also to enable the inertial correction to the observed tup load to be made. Two different concrete mixes, normal strength with a compressive strength of 42 MPa, and high strength with a compressive strength of 82 MPa, were tested. The effect of two types of fibres, high modulus steel, and low modulus fibrillated polypropylene, in enhancing concrete properties was investigated. In addition, tests were also conducted on beams with conventional reinforcement. Hammer drop heights ranging from 0.15m to 2.30m were used. Static tests were conducted on companion specimens for a direct comparison with the dynamic results. In general, it was found that concrete is a very stain rate sensitive material. Both the peak bending loads and the fracture energies were higher under dynamic conditions than under static conditions. Fibres, particularly the steel fibres, were found to significantly increase the ductility and the impact resistance of the composite. High strength concrete made with microsilica, in certain circumstances, was found to behave in a far more brittle manner than normal strength concrete. High speed photography (at 10,000 frames per second) was used to study the propagation of cracks under impact loading. In general, the crack velocities were found to be far lower than the theoretical crack velocities. The presence of reinforcement, either in the form of fibres, or of continuous bars was found to reduce the crack velocity. A model was proposed based on a time step integration technique to evaluate the response of a beam subjected to an external impact pulse. The model was capable of predicting not only the experimentally observed non-linear behaviour of concrete under impact loading, but also the more pronounced brittle behaviour of high strength concrete. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Civil Engineering, Department of / Graduate

Laboratory experiments were conducted to observe, document and evaluate the mechanical behavior of Fiber Reinforced Concrete after being submitted to five different environments for 8 months. The specimens were molded and reinforced with synthetic fibers with a composition similar to that used for dry-cast concrete. Four different types of fibers with different composition were used. The fibers were mixed with the concrete to create the samples and the samples were exposed to different environmental conditions. Some of these environments were meant to increase degradation of the interface fiber-concrete to simulate longevity and imitate harsh environments or marine conditions. The environments consisted of: a high humidity locker (laboratory conditions), submerged in the Intracoastal Waterway in a barge (SeaTech), a wet/dry cycle in seawater immersion simulating a splash/tidal zone, low pH wet/dry seawater immersion cycle and samples submerged in calcium hydroxide solution. The latter three were in an elevated temperature tank (87-95°F) to increase degradation process. The specimens were monitored weekly and the environments were controlled. Then, specimens were evaluated using different mechanical testing as the Indirect Tensile (IDT) test method, compressive strength according to ASTM standards. Results of testing were documented and observed in this study for further understanding of mechanical properties of Fiber Reinforced concrete. Forensic observation of fiber distribution after the IDT tests were also performed. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2019. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

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The following thesis presents the results of six full scale beams tests as part of a research program conducted at McGill University on the effect of steel fibres on the shear capacity of a beam with an aid ratio greater than 2.5. The test specimens had the following dimensions: 4400 mm long, 300 mm wide and 500 mm long. The beams had 4-25M bottom reinforcing bars and 2-20M top reinforcing bars. Two series were designed with different reinforcing details: the "BA" series contained transverse reinforcement spaced at 275 mm center to center while the "BB" series had no transverse reinforcement. The specimens were cast in three batches of two specimens from each series, with each batch containing concrete with respectively 0%, 0.5% and 1% fibres content by volume. The beams were simply supported and were tested with two equal point loads located at 500 mm from the centre of the beam. / This research project demonstrated a clear improvement of the shear capacity resulting from the use of steel fibres for the beams without transverse reinforcement. For the beams with transverse reinforcement, displacement ductility was highly increased. This suggests that fibres have the potential to reduce the congestion of the reinforcement if fibres are designed to replace partially closely spaced transverse reinforcement. Also, it was noted that a redistribution of stresses occurred resulting in the formation of more well-controlled cracks. Finally, the strength predictions using the method developed by Aoude (Aoude, 2007) agree very well with the experimental results.

Few decades ago, there were no guidelines for torsion design of reinforced concrete (RC) beams. Hence, many existing beams in older buildings have a lack of adequate torsional strength since they were not properly designed for torsion. One way to regain/rehabilitate adequate torsional strength is through application of externally bonded carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP). To date, American Concrete Institute (ACI) code, as well as other building codes, do not have recommendations or provisions for strengthening RC beams for torsion using fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites due to the inexistence of conclusive experimental and analytical data. Of the very limited works on this behavior, the majority of the focus has been devoted to experimental works. Realistic spandrel beams in a building that lack torsional strength were modelled in this research, and strengthened to examine various behaviors such as load capacity, deflection, torque, twist, crack propagation, ductility, and failure modes. For this purpose, six RC beams were tested: four reference beams and two strengthened beams were used to observe additional capacity through the use of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets. To strengthen the beams, one layer of sheets was completely wrapped around them. Results show an additional torsional capacity of 63% and 178% relative to their respective reference beams. Through strengthening, modes of failure of the beams changed from brittle torsion-dominated failure to shear-flexure failure in both beams. The study also included crack pattern and ductility of test beams. Cracks became smaller in width and more evenly distributed across the torsion-loaded area, and torsional ductility was enhanced by 266% and 165% respectively. Flexural ductility was also greatly enhanced by more than five folds. Finally, using ACI 318-14, ACI 440.2R-02, and available formulae in the literature, the beams were analyzed and the respective values were compared.

In order to study the mechanical performance of dry-cast synthetic fiber reinforced concrete (SynFRC), samples of varying geometry, fiber content, and environmental exposure were developed and tested using the modified indirect tensile test. The samples created consisted of three different thicknesses (with two different geometries), and six different fiber contents that differed in either type, or quantity, of fibers. Throughout the duration of this research, procedures for inflicting detrimental materials into the concrete samples were employed at a number of different environments by implementing accelerated rates of deterioration using geometric adjustments, increased temperature exposure, wetting/drying cycles, and preparation techniques. The SynFRC samples studied were immersed in a wide range of environments including: the exposure of samples to high humidity and calcium hydroxide environments, which served at the control group, while the sea water, low pH, and barge conditioning environments were used to depict the real world environments similar to what would be experienced in the Florida ecosystem. As a result of this conditioning regime, the concrete was able to imitate the real-world effects that the environments would have inflicted if exposed for long durations after an exposure period of only 20-24 months. Having adequately conditioned the samples in their respective environments, they were then tested (and forensically investigated) using the modified indirect tensile testing method to gather data regarding each sample’s toughness and load handling capability. By analyzing the results from each sample, the toughness was calculated by taking the area under the force displacement curve. From these toughness readings it was found that possible degradation occurred between the fiber-matrix interface of some of the concrete samples conditioned in the Barge environment. From these specimens that were immersed in the barge environment, a handful of them exhibited multiple episodes of strain softening characteristics within their force displacement curves. In regard to the fibers used within the samples, the PVA fibers tended to pull off more while the Tuff Strand SF fibers had the highest tendency to break (despite some of the fibers showing similar pull off and breaking failure characteristics). When it comes to the overall thickness of the sample, there was clear correlation between the increase in size and the increase in sample toughness, however the degree to which it correlates varies from sample to sample. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

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Shear strength of fiber reinforced concrete beams was studied in this research project. Three types of fibers were examined: hooked-end steel fiber, crimped-steel fiber, and crimped-monofilament polypropylene fibers. The experimental program included five beam specimens. Two of the beams were control specimens in which one was reinforced with minimum shear reinforcement according to ACI 318, while the other one did not have any shear reinforcement. Each one of the other three specimens was reinforced with one of the above mentioned fibers by 1% volumetric ratio. In addition to the beam specimens, three prisms were also made for each type fiber to determine their toughness. The aim of this research was to investigate the following questions for medium-high concrete strength 1) to evaluate the effectiveness of each type of fibers on the shear strength, 2) to investigate the shear strength, toughness, crack patterns and near ultimate load crack width of each beam, and 3) to determine if using 1% volumetric ratio of fibers as shear reinforcement in beams would provide adequate strength and stiffness properties comparable to reinforcing steel used as minimum shear reinforcement. The results showed that all three types of fibers increased the shear capacity of the beam specimens more than the beam reinforced with minimum shear reinforcement. Moreover, some of the fibers used could shift the type of failure from a pure shear failure to a combined flexural-shear or pure flexural failure.