Experimental study on the flexural behaviour of fibre reinforced concretes strengthened with steel and macro-synthetic fibres

Fibres are widely used to improve the flexural toughness and ductility of concrete, and they may even eliminate the need for conventional reinforcement. Steel fibres are more commonly used in structural applications while synthetic fibres are more often used to reduce crack opening due to shrinkage. Macro-synthetic fibres have been developed with the aim of creating an alternative to steel fibres in structural appli-cations but their use is still limited. The present paper describes the results of an experimental investigation on the performances of concrete specimens reinforced with either steel or macro-synthetic fibres under three point bending. Test results were used to calculate the parameters of stress-crack opening relations via inverse analysis.