Editors: Corina-Maria Aldea and Mahmut Ekenel

This CD contains 8 papers from sessions sponsored by ACI technical committees 544, 549, and 130 at the Fall 2012 ACI Convention in Toronto and two technical sessions at the Fall 2013 ACI Convention in Phoenix. The topics of the papers cover sustainability aspects of using fiber reinforced concrete ranging from durability and interface mechanisms of natural fiber reinforced concrete (FRC), evaluation of eco-mechanical performance of FRC, reducing carbon dioxide emissions of concrete, as well as applications of fiber reinforcement for self-consolidating concrete, bridge link slabs, extruded prefabricated elements, slab systems and fabric-reinforced cementitious matrix systems for strengthening unreinforced masonry walls.

Note: The individual papers are also available. Please click on the following link to view the papers available, or call 248.848.3800 to order. SP-299

A major limitation of the durability of bridge decks is the area around an expansion joint which allows drainage of de-icing salts to the underlying substructure. Fiber-reinforced concrete link slabs are proposed as a more durable alternative to traditional expansion joints. This study was developed to evaluate the possibility of using more common fiber-reinforced concrete (FRC) mixtures rather than the highly designed ultra-high performance fiber-reinforced concrete (HPFRC) with fibers that has often been recommended for link slabs. In this study, the matrix proportioning and the type and volume of polymeric and steel fibers have been investigated to determine their effects on compressive, tensile and flexural strength, fracture behavior and residual strength. A standard mixture design was first optimized for workability with one steel fiber type and one polymeric fiber type. With the optimal mixture design, a selection of six fiber types were then tested for the selected mechanical properties. Although the FRCs tested did not reach the performance of the HPFRC, significant increases in performance were observed with the common fibers that could be useful in the design of a FRC link slab with the most promising results obtained with hooked-end steel macro-fibers.

PrimeComposite, a steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) containing proprietary additives to control hygral shrinkage, provides significant reductions in CO2 emissions per square meter and improved performance over traditional slab on grade systems. This paper describes the development of the PrimeComposite system including the structural design approach, which is based upon full-scale mechanical testing results presented here. A typical PrimeComposite slabs on grade is 10 cm thick with single-casting (jointless) areas of up to 6500 m2. At this thickness, rack system loads of 140 kN (back-to-back leg loads) are safely supported.

This research investigated as a sustainable production technique, the application of calender extrusion in the production of cement fiberboards. Use of the technique was successful for the production of non-structural building elements. The properties of the produced composites are discussed in this paper. Glass, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), and polypropylene (PP) fibers were used. The research involved an experiment to examine the mechanical properties and microstructure of the composites. The experimental results showed that calender extrusion may be a promising method for sustainable production of thin and wide cement composites. Various forms of cement composites can be produced with this method as well. Results indicate that the mechanical properties of cement composites produced with this method are dependent on the processing direction. Processed composites have adequate screw head pull-through and freeze-thaw resistance. Higher MOR values were obtained for water cured specimens compared to air cured ones.

Masonry as a building technology meets many of the attributes of sustainable construction, thus an economical alternative to demolish-rebuild existing deficient masonry structures is to retrofit them with novel strengthening systems. Current retrofit techniques used to improve flexural capacity of un-reinforced masonry (URM) walls include both internal and external reinforcement with common materials, namely: steel bars, plates, and most recently fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs). However, significant margins exist to advance these rehabilitation systems by addressing economic, technological, and environmental issues. This paper investigates the effectiveness of strengthening URM walls using carbon fabric-reinforced cementitious matrix (FRCM) as a technique to enhance pseudo-ductility and flexural capacity. The paper reports on the results obtained by testing a total of 18 masonry walls made of clay bricks and concrete blocks strengthened with two different FRCM schemes (one and four fabrics) subjected to uniformly distributed out-of-plane loading were tested. Experimental data from other research programs using FRP system are also presented to show that when normalized flexural capacity is related to a calibrated reinforcement ratio, the two technologies provide similar enhancements.