Fiber reinforced concrete for slabs without steel rebar reinforcement: Assessing the feasibility for 3D-printed individual houses

Abstract

Fiber concrete is a technique that has been investigated for several decades, mainly to reduce the cracking problem in certain special reinforced concrete structures. Fiber concrete has recently been investigated for other applications, for example, the complete replacement of steel reinforcement rebars. Several structures have been built without steel rebars by using only steel fiber, especially for the application of 3D-printer technology or ultra-high performance concrete. The present paper investigates the feasibility of using fiber concrete without rebar reinforcement for the slabs of 3D-printed individual houses. First, experiments for the material characterization of fiber concrete used were performed. Then, the experimental results were used to validate a numerical model. The behaviour of a fiber concrete slab was evaluated by using the numerical model validated. The results showed that the fiber concrete slabs without rebar reinforcement satisfied the limit states demanded for the individual houses (spans ranging 4–5 m). This result is encouraging for further application of this material in 3D-printer technology.

Keywords

• Steel fiber reinforced concrete
• Slab without rebar reinforcement
• Numerical modelling