Longterm Effects of Environmental Aggressiveness on Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete For Road Construction

Steel-fiber-reinforced concrete (SFRC) has found several interesting applications in the field of road pavement and structure maintenance operations (overlays and bridge decks, prestressed beams, expansion joints). One possible drawback, however, is fiber corrosion, especially across cracks, with resulting disconnections between adjacent slabs and deterioration of reinforced concrete. The present paper summarizes a five year study on the corrosion behaviour of steel fibers in concrete in three different environments (dry, humid and humid with cyclical wetting with a chloride solution). Tests were performed on the mechanical behaviour, carbonation depth, chloride penetration and the fiber conditions have been examined. The results showed that in the environments under study stainless steel fibers across cracks are not damaged, whereas in the case of wide cracks zinc fibers were practically destroyed, and the strength reduction of plain steel fibers was about 30%.