COMPARISON OF METALLIC FIBERS AND STEEL BARS AS REINFORCEMENT IN IMPROVING ENERGY DISSIPATION CAPACITY OF CONCRETE

Abstract

Energy released by the earthquake gets injected into the structure as ground motion which has to be dissipated for safety reasons. To release the seismic energy, the structure should damage in such a way that, on one hand, collapse of structure should not occur and on the other hand, damage should be economically feasible to repair. Cracking of concrete and yielding of steel reinforcement mainly contribute in energy dissipation in RC structures. In case of reinforced fibrous concrete, friction between fibers and concrete matrix and fiber yielding also contribute importantly in energy dissipation. In this paper, results of an experimental study carried out to compare the ability of ordinary steel reinforcement and metallic fibers as reinforcement to dissipate energy are presented. Form this study; it is found that it is more convenient to use metallic fibers instead of increasing ratio of classical reinforcement if only improvement in energy dissipation capacity of RC is required.