Influence of the Chloride Attack on the Post-Cracking Behavior of Recycled Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete

Materials (Basel). 2021 Mar 8;14(5):1279. doi: 10.3390/ma14051279.

Abstract

The main purpose of the present work is to study the mechanical behavior and durability performance of recycled steel fiber reinforced concrete (RSFRC) under a chloride environment. To this end, the effect of chloride attack on the load-carrying capacity of pre-cracked RSFRC round panels is investigated by performing round panel tests supported on three points (RPT-3ps), considering the influence of the crack width and the fiber distribution/orientation profile. In addition, the influence of the adopted chloride exposure conditions on the post-cracking constitutive laws of the developed RSFRC is also assessed by performing numerical simulations for the prediction of the long-term performance of RSFRC under these aggressive conditions. The tensile stress-crack width relationship of RSFRC is derived by performing an inverse analysis with the RPT-3ps results. The obtained experimental and numerical results show a negligible effect of the chloride attack on the post-cracking behavior of RSFRC for the chloride exposure conditions and pre-crack width levels adopted in this study.

Keywords: RSFRC; chloride-induced corrosion; constitutive laws; post-cracking behavior; recycled steel fibers.