Development and application of a material law for steel-fibre-reinforced concrete with regard to its use for pre-stressed concrete reactor vessels Original Research Article

On the basis of the evaluation of many publications on the mechanical behaviour of steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) and on the results of experiments using an SFRC especially developed for pre-stressed concrete reactor vessels (PCRVs), a material law for SFRC including general multiaxial stress conditions has been developed. From fibre pull-out tests described in the literature and by use of the experimental results, relations describing the capable tensile stress in SFRC after cracking, as a function of crack width, have been derived. There is a significant increase in the biaxial compressive strength of SFRC compared with plain concrete. The improved behaviour under multiaxial stress conditions, with one of the principal stresses being tensile, is outlined in comparison with different formulations of failure envelopes of plain concrete. For the purpose of verifying the material law implemented in the computer program used, analyses have been carried out for experiments with SFRC beams. After some modification concerning the shear behaviour, load-displacement curves and realistic crack propagations which correspond well have been obtained. In the stand-tube area in the centre of a PCRV top cap the use of SFRC is advantageous because of the difficulties concerning the arrangement of reinforcement in the concrete between the tubes.