Pullout behavior of steel fibers from cement-based composites

A comprehensive experimental program on pullout tests of steel fibers from cement based matrices is described. A specially designed single fiber pullout apparatus was used to provide a quantitative determination of interfacial properties that are relevant to toughening brittle materials through fiber reinforcement. The parameters investigated included a specially designed high strength cement based matrix called Densified Small Particles system (DSP), a conventional mortar matrix, fiber embeddment length, and the fiber volume fraction. The mediums from which the fiber was pulled included a control mortar mix without fibers, a mortar mix with 3, and 6 percent fibers by volume. The results indicate that: (1) The dense DSP matrix has significantly improved interfacial properties as compared to the conventional mortar matrix. (2) Increasing the fiber embeddment length and the fiber volume fraction in the cement matrix increase the peak pullout load and the pullout work. (3) The major bond mechanism in both systems is frictional sliding.