Effect of hybrid-fiber- reinforcement on the

shear behavior of high-strength-concrete

beams
The shear behavior of concrete beams is highly affected by the
implementation of better performance concrete. Hybrid fibers addition to
concrete mixture has proven to improve the performance compared to just
using single type of fiber. Thus, in this current study, the shear behavior of
hybrid-fiber-reinforced-high-strength-concrete beams was investigated
experimentally. In addition, the effect of the span-to-depth ratio and the
transverse reinforcement ratio were examined. Results showed that, when
.45% of the cement weight is replaced with polypropylene fiber and 7% of the
cement weight is replaced with steel fibers, the shear strength of the beam
was enhanced by 18% in comparison to the control beam. The Formation and
progression of cracks were also better controlled. The behavior of hybrid-
polypropylene-steel-fibers-high-strength-concrete beams was observed to be
comparable to that of conventional concrete ones as the shear strength
increased with the decrease in span to depth ratio or the increase in transverse
reinforcing ratio. A non-linear numerical model was developed and validated
using the experimental results. The shear capacities of beams were calculated
using ACI, which was compared to experimental and numerical results. The
ACI’s calculations were conservative when compared with the experimental or
numerical results. The coefficient of variance between the ACI and
experimental shear capacity results was 4.8%, while it was 9.2% between the
ACI and numerical shear capacity results.

1 Introduction

The reinforced concrete (RC) evolution have been an ongoing process with so
many advancements (Ahmad et al., 2022; Ahmed et al., 2022; Ali et al., 2022;
Ashraf et al., 2022; Ghareeb et al., 2022; Huang et al., 2022; Khan et al., 2022; Li
et al., 2022; Mohammed et al., 2022; Shen et al., 2022; Zou et al., 2023a; Zou et
al., 2023b). High-strength concrete (HSC), especially that with fiber-RC (FRC) is
a versatile form of a concrete mixture with superior performance compared to
that of normal RC without fiber reinforcement (Deifalla, 2021a; Deifalla et al.,
2021). Higher cement demand during the production of HSC resulted in the
consumption of resources and environmental issues (Juenger et al., 2019; Naqi
and Jang, 2019). Researchers turned to add single or hybrid fibers to the
concrete mixture as an alternative to cement to limit environmental
destruction. Additionally for the significance of these fibers in enhancing
concrete’s behavior in resisting tensile stresses and minimizing the formation
and propagation of cracks. The findings of earlier studies demonstrated that
utilizing hybrid fibers enhanced concrete strength and durability as well as
minimized cracks compared to using a single type of fiber (Hoang and Fehling,
2017; Li et al., 2018; Zhang et al., 2018; Ali et al., 2020; Sivakumar et al., 2020;
Zhong et al., 2020; Tawfik et al., 2022). Tawfik et al. (2022) observed that using
hybrid fibers rather than only one kind of fiber increased the strength of the
composite in terms of compressive, flexural, and tensile stresses by 50%, 46%,
and 53%, respectively. This improvement in strength is caused by the
incorporation of hybrid fibers with various characteristics, which stop the
development of multiscale crack formation at various levels of stress. When
incorporated into cementitious materials, fibers with such a greater young’s
modulus enhance the compressive behavior of concrete by suppressing the
growth of macro-cracks at high-stress levels. Additionally, fibers with a
minimal young’s modulus massively increase concrete compressive behavior
by restricting the forming of micro-cracks at small levels of stress.

Prior studies proved that the shear behavior of RC beams significantly

enriched due to the steel fibers inclusion. Yavaş et al. (2019) concluded that
the use of different volume content (1.5%, 1%, and .5%) of steel fibers, various
lengths (6 mm, 13 mm, 30 mm, and 60 mm) of steel fibers, and several shapes
(straight, double hooked, and hooked) of steel fibers. These additions
enhanced the shear strength of ultrahigh strength FRC (UHSFRC) beams more
than the control beam. Furthermore, using 1.5% straight steel fiber as a partial
substitute for cement and with a length of 13 mm had the best impact on
shear strength and cracking pattern for UHSFRC beams. Similar findings were
produced by Lim and Hong (2017), who found that adding steel fiber with a
volume content of 1.5% into UHSFRC beams resulted in a significant increase
in shear strength. Shear reinforcement additionally improved the ductility of
concrete beams. According to earlier research, steel fibers can be used instead
of the transverse reinforcement in concrete beams while sustaining ductility
and shear strength, or even perform a little bit better. Tahenni et al. (2016)
explored that high-strength concrete beams without transverse reinforcing
and having steel fibers with volume content up to 3% displayed slightly better
shear behavior than high-strength concrete beams with transverse reinforcing
and without steel fibers. The FRC beams showed improved shear strength and
relatively minimal diagonal cracks, especially for steel fiber volume content
from 1% to 3%. Also, Torres and Lantsoght (2019) revealed that the minimum
transverse reinforcement required by ACI318 can be replaced by steel fibers in
the amount of 1.2%, whereas the minimum transverse reinforcement required
by Eurocode two can be replaced by steel fibers in the amount of .6%.

Even though the use of polypropylene fibers in concrete did not provide that
resistance to shear stresses as steel fibers, it was demonstrated that it would
be possible to slightly improve the behavior of the concrete beams in terms of
cracking load, crack bridging, and shear capacity. Yang et al. (2021) showed
that the inclusion of polypropylene fiber could further enhance the shear
strength of concrete beams by up to 17% when compared to reinforced-
concrete beams without fibers. Additionally, the presence of polypropylene
fiber improved the initial crack shear load, prevented crack progression,
maximized the number of cracks, and decreased crack width, thereby helping
to increase beam ductility and improve strength properties. Ortiz Navas et al.
(2018) demonstrated that the shear strength of FRC beams with or without
stirrups increased noticeably when 10 kg/m3 of polypropylene fibers were
added, compared to the control specimens. The failure modes of fiber
concrete beams with stirrups and those without stirrups were comparable.

Few studies have focused on the impact of applying hybrid fibers rather than a
single type on the shear behavior of concrete beams since, as was earlier
mentioned, hybrid fibers provide improved mechanical properties and can
control cracks at various stress levels. Shaaban et al. (2021) evaluated the
effect of various shapes of silica fume, polyvinyl alcohol, polypropylene, or
hybrid fibers on the shear behavior of reinforced concrete beams
experimentally and numerically. When comparing the control beam which
contains transverse reinforcement and no fibers, introducing hybrid fibers,
increased shear strength and ductility. Hybrid fibers with .75% polyvinyl
alcohol and .75% polypropylene and transverse reinforcement produced
greater shear capacity and ductility when compared to beams without
transverse reinforcement and containing hybrid fibers with 1.5% polyvinyl
alcohol and .375% polypropylene. Depending upon these findings, it was
suggested that hybrid fibers with .75% polyvinyl alcohol and .75%
polypropylene, as well as stirrup reinforcement (7.5 Ø 6/m), be employed to
accomplish high shear strength for hybrid FRC beams. The finite element
predictions for the tested beams exhibited a strong agreement with the
experimental observations regarding the shear capacity, maximum deflection,
and failure pattern. Ismail and Hassan. (2021) explored the shear performance
of FRC using various fiber kinds. Polyvinyl alcohol fiber lengths of 8 and 12
mm, polypropylene fibers length of 19 mm, and steel fibers length of 13 mm
were the four different kinds of fiber employed. According to the findings, all
FRC beams outperformed the control beam on basis of cracking behavior,
shear strength, ductility, and energy absorption. The FRC beam containing
polyvinyl alcohol fibers with 8 mm length showed higher shear strength and
ductility than the FRC beam containing polyvinyl alcohol fibers with 12 mm
length. Polypropylene FRC beams performed the least, whereas steel FRC
beams performed the best in terms of first crack load, maximum strength,
ductility, and ability to absorb energy. According to Alrefaei et al. (2018),
inserting hybrid polypropylene-steel fibers up to a volume of 2% was
significant in improving the shear capacity by approximately eight times
compared to the concrete beams without fibers. Furthermore, the beams’
ductility, multi-cracking behavior, and concrete strain capability were all
significantly enhanced. It is demonstrated that, regardless of the hybridized
ratio, a hybrid fiber volume content of 1% is a sufficient minimum transverse
reinforcement for concrete beams having compression strength varying
between 40 and 65 MPa.
The majority of previous work focused on the physical and mechanical
characteristics of using single or hybrid fibers in cementitious materials
(Tahenni et al., 2016; Lim and Hong, 2017; Alrefaei et al., 2018; Ortiz Navas et
al., 2018; Zhang et al., 2018; Ayub et al., 2019; Koniki and Prasad, 2019; Torres
and Lantsoght, 2019; Xu et al., 2019; Yavaş et al., 2019; Ali et al., 2020; Ismail
and Hassan, 2021; Shaaban et al., 2021; Yang et al., 2021), and there have been
fewer studies on the shear behavior of FRC elements that used a single type of
fiber, whereas there is a lack of research into the effect of hybrid fibers on the
shear behavior of high-strength concrete elements although the use of hybrid
fibers had been shown to significantly improve the properties of concrete over
the use of a single type of fiber (Alrefaei et al., 2018; Navas et al., 2018; Khan
et al., 2020). Additionally, the previous studies that used hybrid fibers varied in
terms of the type, proportion, characteristics, and shape of the fibers (Kumar
et al., 2017; Fadil et al., 2018; Smarzewski, 2018; Wang et al., 2019; Zhang et al.,
2019; Shi et al., 2020; Tran et al., 2020). As a result, prospective studies in this
area are required to produce meaningful results. From this viewpoint, the
current research was conducted to study experimentally and numerically the
shear behavior of HFRHSC beams. The main parameters were concrete type,
span to depth ratio, and transverse reinforcement ratio.

2 Experimental program

2.1 Materials and mix proportions

HSC was produced using cement, pure water, fine aggregate, coarse
aggregate, silica fume, superplasticizer, and hybrid polypropylene-steel fibers.
The cement used was ordinary Portland cement. The coarse aggregate was
formed of crushed dolomite with a particle size of 10 mm and an apparent
specific gravity of 2.6, while the fine aggregate was a siliceous natural with a
fineness modulus of 3.35. Silica fume was added to the concrete mixture to fill
the voids and thus improve the strength, while a superplasticizer was added to
improve the workability of the concrete. The forms of the fibers are shown in
Figure 1 and Table 1 displays the steel and polyethylene fiber characteristics as
reported by the suppliers. The binder component was dry-mixed for about 3
min in a mechanical mixer before adding the full quantity of water and
superplasticizer to the concrete mixture. Polypropylene and steel fibers were
added to the mixture after the wet mixing process and mixed for around 5
min. The transverse reinforcement showed a tensile yield strength of 240 MPa
and ultimate strength of 385 MPa, compared to the longitudinal
reinforcement’s tensile yield strength of 520 MPa and ultimate strength of 690
MPa. The mix quantities, which are based on Tawfik et al. (2022) are shown in
Table 2. For the best mechanical characteristics in terms of compressive,
tensile, flexural strength, and cracking control, the concrete mixture contains
.45% of polypropylene fiber and 7% of steel fiber as a replacement ratio for
the cement weight.