More Durable & Thinner Steel Fibre Concrete Pavements

Steel fibre reinforced concrete has been widely used for pavement construction. The conventional pavement design methodology and that of adopted by the Australian pavement design guidelines are generally based on elastic theory. The addition of steel fibres to concrete enhances the post crack tensile strength and provides significant ductility. Consequently, the use of elastic theory for designing steel fibre reinforced concrete pavement will be overly conservative and non-economical. Steel fibre reinforced concrete pavement can be designed using plastic analysis method such as yield line theory.

This paper outlines the design methodology of steel fibre reinforced concrete pavement and how to specify steel fibres in order to guarantee a minimum level of quality and performance. It also provides a review on the durability of steel fibre reinforced concrete. The conditions of steel fibre reinforced concrete pavements constructed some 20 years ago in Australia are also presented herein.