Biaxial mechanical behaviour of polypropylene fibres reinforced self-compacting concrete

Abstract This study intends to assess the biaxial performance of polypropylene fibres (PPF) reinforced self-compacting concrete (SCC) under various stress levels. For this purpose, PPF were added at five contents: 0%, 0.5%, 1%, 1.5% and 2%, and the three zones of failure were measured including compression-compression, tension-tension and compression-tension. Therefore, lateral compressive and tensile stresses were applied at four different levels. Finally, new models were developed to predict the structural performance of PPF reinforced SCC under different stress conditions and for various PPF contents. According to the results, in both SCC and PPF reinforced SCC under biaxial compression, cracks were stopped when the minimum principal stress ( f 2 ) was applied. Therefore, f 2 could avoid the tensile stress creation resulting from the maximum principal stress ( f 1 ). Therefore, in a biaxial and uniaxial stress state, failure occurred in shear and tensile modes, respectively. In addition, PPF had a substantial influence on the angle of cracking (ranging from 15° to 45°).