The cracks allow ingress of deleterious substances into the concrete, which in turn could lead to structural failure. In recent years, fiber reinforced concrete has become popular as a preventive measure for plastic shrinkage cracking. Low volume fiber reinforcement has been recommended as a crack control solution, but there are no standard specifications for the application of fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) as a crack control method.
This research studied the effects of steel and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers on the shrinkage cracking of concrete and the effect of concrete strength on the performance of fibers. The investigations consisted of Ordinary Portland Cement concrete with two cement contents and three fiber volumes of 0.05%, 0.1% and 0.15%. Restrained shrinkage tests were conducted using uniaxially restrained specimens and unrestrained specimens were tested to determine the free shrinkage behavior with fibers.
Results indicated that in low dosages both steel and PVA fibers reduced plastic shrinkage cracking. However, reduction in free shrinkage of concrete was not as significant. It was also observed that the steel fibers increased the tensile capacity of the concrete while the PVA fibers did not show any substantial improvement. Keywords