Compression Fatigue of Fiber Reinforced Concrete

The effect of repeated loads on the fatigue strength of fiber reinforced concrete was investigated to test the hypothesis that fiber concrete would exhibit compression fatigue behavior superior to that of unreinforced concretes. This hypothesis is based on the findings that short steel wires when added to concrete are crack arresting; and that the fatigue mechanism of concrete is believed to be a crack propagating mechanism. Over 100 cylindrical specimens of fiber reinforced and unreinforced concrete were tested in uniaxial compression. The results showed that the crack arrest mechanism associated with fiber concrete was not particularly effective in improving the fatigue strength of the material and that the fiber concrete exhibited the same compression fatigue characteristics as unreinforced concretes. It was observed, however, that the fiber concrete failed gradually, not exhibiting the explosive failure so often found with unreinforced concrete.