Influence of Steel Fibres on the Behaviour of RPC Circular Columns Under Different Loading Conditions

An experimental program was conducted to investigate the effect of inclusion of steel fibres on the behaviour of Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC) columns. Three different types of steel fibre were used: micro straight steel fibre (MF), macro deformed steel fibre (DF) and waste steel fibre (WF) recovered from discarded tyres. In addition, a hybridization of steel fibres was made up to produce waste-industrial hybridization (WHF) (MF, DF and WF). Twenty reinforced RPC column specimens were prepared and tested under axial concentric, eccentric and flexural loading. Results of testing demonstrated that the ultimate axial load and the corresponding axial deformation increased effectively by the addition of steel fibres, especially at the presence of MF. For the flexural loading, the inclusion of WF and WHF increased the energy absorption of specimens by 470% and 453%, respectively, in comparison with the corresponding reference specimens. Axial load-bending moment (P-M) interaction diagrams were carried out. Results of testing show that WF is a promising material for enhancing the behaviour of RPC under different loading conditions.