Efficiency of Microstructural Reinforcement for Concrete in Tension

While fiber reinforcement in concrete has been used for more than 60+ years, the adoption of enhanced tensile properties using secondary reinforcement to focus on serviceability and efficiency are still under development. The key role of various fiber reinforcement systems is to improve the design efficiency in concrete. A better understanding of such alternative reinforcement strategies in the development hybrid reinforcing systems such as Ultra-High-Performance Concrete (UHPC), Textile reinforced concrete (TRC), and hybrid applications are needed. Our research activity focuses on an overview of test developments with closed loop control tension, flexure, high-speed, impact, fatigue, full-structural scale, and creep tests. Models based on non-linear fracture, strain energy dissipation using R-Curves, and plasticity- based moment-curvature section properties are used. Design tools are provided to reduce the volume of the section and rebars while improving the durability.