Sources: ASTM International, West Conshohocken, Pa.; CP Staff
ASTM Committee C09 on Concrete and Concrete Aggregates aims to provide data enabling the engineering community to evaluate fiber performance through WK60666 New Practice for Direct Tension Testing of Fiber Reinforced Concrete, a proposed standard presently in the working phase.
“Tensile strength is the most basic and important property of concrete that fibers can improve,” says C09 member Luke Pinkerton. “Structural engineers need a reliable way to measure that value to be able to take advantage of fibers for design. Typically, tensile capacity of concrete is ignored when designed with reinforced concrete. Being able to measure tension accurately would give engineers the confidence to use the tensile strength rather than ignore it. Concrete with fiber reinforcement is stronger, less brittle, more durable, and resilient.”