A new design method for steel fibre reinforced concrete pipes

The use of structural fibres as the main reinforcement of concrete pipes is known by both the industrial and scientific community as an attractive alternative to the traditional steel bars in a specific range of diameters. However, in spite of the evidence of its viability and even of the existence of standard regulations oriented to these elements, for several reasons their use has not been consolidated yet. In this sense, the lack of design methodologies or tables with a suggested values for the minimum amount of fibres for each internal diameter, thickness and strength class slows down the step forward of the use of FRC in this field. For this reason, a new comprehensive methodology for the design of fibre reinforced concrete pipes is presented in this paper. This design procedure is based on the use of a numerical model which simulates the mechanical response of fibre reinforced concrete pipes subjected to crushing test. This model has been previously contrasted with results obtained in different experimental campaigns carried out with pipes with diameter lower than 600 mm. However, for this work, a new experimental campaign which involves the manufacture and testing of fibre reinforced concrete pipes with diameter of 1000 mm has been carried out so as to validate the MAP and to extend this methodology to larger diameters, for which the use of FRC is a competitive solution.