INCLINED TENSILE-STRENGTH OF STEEL FIBERS IN A CEMENT-BASED COMPOSITE

An investigation of the behaviour of steel reinforcing fibres in a cement-based composite inclined to the direction of tensile load was carried out. Steel fibres with widely differing fibre parameters were tested and a new fibre characteristic, the inclined tensile strength (ITS), was identified. It was observed that the value of the ITS decreased with increasing inclination angle but the decrease varied according to the type of fibre. The ultimate tensile force sustained by the inclined fibres depended also on the magnitude of the strain. It indicated that for some types of fibre the properties of a randomly reinforced fibre composite after the first crack depended much more on the inclined fibres and their ITS than on the fibres aligned to the principal stress.