The Effect of Micro-reinforcement Steel Fibers Addition on the Size of the Shrinkage of Concrete and Corrosion Process of the Main Reinforcement Bars

Steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) is used for concrete repair and rehabilitation. Randomly distributed steel fibers allow to obtain the composite better than plain concrete. The steel fibers increase the consistency of concrete, which may affect the reduction of shrinkage and improve the protective properties of concrete as a coating for reinforcing steel. This article presents a study which main objective was to determine the effect of the micro-reinforcement steel fibers addition on the process of corrosion of the main reinforcement bars. Completed studies included measurement of shrinkage and the main reinforcement corrosion measurement. The results were used to conduct a comparative analysis. Experiments were carried out on the concrete and the fiber reinforced concrete specimens. Corrosion tests were used for non-destructive electrochemical method for measuring galvanostatic pulse. Based on the measurements it can be concluded that the addition of 1% steel fibers to the concrete reduced the progress of corrosion of the main reinforcement bars by ∼ 33%. The addition of 1% of the micro reinforcement steel fibers to the concrete reduced the shrinkage progress in the concrete specimens.