Trade Journals for the Concrete Industry

Using steel fibre reinforced concretes unlocks a great deal of potential in terms of cost reduction, shortened construction times and environmentally friendly construction methods. Some typical examples of applications are: composite steel flooring, load-bearing floor slabs and walls, industrial floors, sprayed concrete, segments in tunnel construction and underwater concrete base plates. Some questions concerning quality monitoring remain unanswered in respect of producing steel fibre reinforced concrete in a uniform manner under construction site conditions. The practices that have become established up to the present time provide information about the quantity of fibres, but involve great effort. However, it is not possible to generate a reliable and verifiable analysis of fibre direction and distribution by these means. In a joint research project, the University of Applied Sciences, Kaiserslautern and the Fraunhofer-Institute for industrial Mathematics (ITWM) have furnished evidence that computer tomography (CT), combined with modern image processing and analytical software, lends itself well to detecting fibre orientation and distribution in concrete reinforced with fibres. In comparison with methods employed up to now, computer tomography opens up the possibility of examining and analysing fibre orientation and distribution in the overall volume of a test specimen for concretes with fibres and strands of all types.