The understanding of the performance and cracking behaviour of steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) has developed greatly in recent times. Many of these studies, however, are limited to SFRC without conventional reinforcement. This paper reports on the tensile behaviour of SFRC members co-reinforced with conventional reinforcing bars (SFR-RC). A physical description of the behaviour of the specimens is presented and an analytical model is derived. The model adopts the load-sharing concept between the tensile stresses resisted by the steel fibres and the steel reinforcing bar as well as the bond between the concrete and reinforcing bar to the tension stiffening effect of these members. The model is founded upon a previously reported tension chord model and allows for explicit identification of the three components to the tension stiffening effect. An experimental programme is reported here and the model is shown to correlate well with the experimental data and test data reported elsewhere.

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One of the main areas where it is generally accepted that fibers play a significant contribution in construction practice is in the control of cracking. The primary objective of the fibers is to traverse cracks after they nucleate. The fibers provide some post‐cracking resistance to the otherwise brittle concrete. Much of the research contained in the literature on the cracking behavior of fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) members has focused on instantaneous load scenarios, without much consideration for the long‐term behavior (i.e., for members which are subjected to a sustained service moment). This is mirrored in design standards where limited guidance is provided to engineers to predict and assess the long‐term serviceability performance of FRC members. This paper presents a simplified model, which may be suitable for design, that can reliably predict the cracking behavior, over time, of FRC members subjected to a sustained in‐service flexural load. Predictions of the proposed model are compared to both instantaneous and long‐term data available in the literature. Satisfactory correlation is observed.

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