A B S T R A C TSteel fiber has become a proven material that can significantly alter the behavior of different types of concrete mixtures from brittle to more ductile ones. Rich literature is currently available on the mechanical properties of steel fiber-reinforced self-compacting concrete. However, the investigation of the impact resistance of this material to drop weight is still required to enrich the knowledge about its behavior under different loading conditions. An experimental work was conducted in this research to evaluate the performance of steel fiber-reinforced self-compacting concrete under repeated impact loading using the repeated blows test recommended by ACI 544-2R. The tests investigated the effect of drop weight and drop height in addition to fiber content. Straight microsteel fibers were incorporated in three volumetric contents of 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0% and were compared with a similar plain mixture. The test equipment was adjusted to conduct repeated impact loading from different dropheights and using different drop-weights. The adopted drop-heights were 450, 575 and 700 mm, while the adopted drop-weights were 4.5, 6.0 and 7.5 kg. The combination of the adopted drop-heights and weights composes four loading cases in addition to the standard loading case with a drop-weight and drop-height of 4.5 kg and 450 mm. The inclusion of micro steel fiber was found to significantly increase the impact resistance of selfcompacting concrete with percentage developments ranging from 150 to 860% compared to plain samples. The specimens tested under 4.5 kg and 450 mm drop weight and height exhibited the highest percentage improvement in impact resistance among the five loading cases. The results also showed that the impact ductility of fibrous specimens was up to 24% higher than that of plain specimens.

Ultra-high performance (UHP) concrete is a special type of fibrous cementitious composite that is characterized by high strength and superior ductility, toughness, and durability. This research aimed to investigate the resistance of ultra-high performance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) against repeated impacts. An adjusted repeated drop mass impact test was adopted to evaluate the impact performance of 72 UHPFRC disc specimens. The specimens were divided into six mixtures each of 12 discs. The only difference between the mixtures was the types of fibers used, while all other mixture components were the same. Three types of fibers were used: 6 mm micro-steel, 15 mm micro-steel, and polypropylene. All mixtures included 2.5% volumetric content of fibers, however with different combinations of the three fiber types. The test results showed that the mixtures with the 15 mm micro-steel fiber absorbed a higher number of impact blows until cracking compared to other mixtures. The mixture with pure 2.5% of 15 mm micro-steel fiber exhibited the highest impact resistance, with percentage increases over the other mixtures ranging from 25 to 140%. In addition, the Weibull distribution was used to investigate the cracking impact resistance of UHP at different levels of reliability.

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The self-compacting concrete (SCC) was invented to overcome the compaction problems in deep sections, owing to its perfect workability characteristics. Steel fibers when used with SCC would affect the required fluidity characteristics but improve its impact resistance. In this research, an experimental work was conducted to evaluate the impact response of micro-steel fiber-reinforced SCC, under flexural impact. A 5.47 kg free-falling mass was dropped repeatedly from 100 mm height on the top center of 270 mm-length beam specimens. Eight mixtures with two design grades of 30 and 50 MPa were prepared to distinguish the normal and high-strength SCCs. The distinguishing variable for each design grade was the fiber content, where four volumetric contents of 0%, 0.5%, 0.75%, and 1.0% were used. The test results showed that the impact resistance and ductility were significantly improved due to the incorporation of micro-steel fibers. The percentage improvements were noticeably higher at failure stage than at cracking stage. For the 30 MPa mixtures, the maximum percentage improvements at cracking and failure stages were 543% and 836%, respectively. Weibull’s linear correlations with R2 values of 0.84 to 0.97 were obtained at the failure stage, which meant that the impact failure number followed the Wiebull distribution.

Portland cement concrete is known to have good fire resistance; however, its strength would be degraded after exposure to the temperatures of fire. Repeated low-velocity impacts are a type of probable accidental load in many types of structures. Although there is a rich body of literature on the residual mechanical properties of concrete after high temperature exposure, the residual repeated impact performance of concrete has still not been well explored. For this purpose, an experimental study was conducted in this work to evaluate the effect of high temperatures on the repeated impact strength of normal strength concrete. Seven identical concrete patches with six disc specimens each were cast and tested using the ACI 544-2R repeated impact setup at ambient temperature and after exposure to 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 and 500 °C. Similarly, six cubes and six prisms from each patch were used to evaluate the residual compressive and flexural strengths at the same conditions. Additionally, the scattering of the impact strength results was examined using three methods of the Weibull distribution, and the results are presented in terms of reliability. The test results show that the cracking and failure impact numbers of specimens heated to 100 °C reduced slightly by only 2.4 and 3.5%, respectively, while heating to higher temperatures deteriorated the impact resistance much faster than the compressive and flexural strengths. The percentage reduction in impact resistance at 600 °C was generally higher than 96%. It was also found that the deduction trend of the impact strength with temperature is more related to that of the flexural strength than the compressive strength. The test results also show that, within the limits of the adopted concrete type and conducted tests, the strength reduction after high temperature exposure is related to the percentage weight loss.