An experimental study on the use of fiber-reinforced concrete in bridge approach slabs

Fiber-reinforced concrete is well known for crack control by bridging cracks in the concrete. Short, discontinuous fibers are added into plain concrete to provide post-cracking ductility to the fiber-reinforced concrete. Although fiber-reinforced concrete has been used in various civil engineering applications, the practical application of fiber-reinforced concrete in bridge approach slabs is rarely found. In this paper, steel fibers, serving as macro-fibers, and polyvinyl alcohol fibers, serving as micro-fibers, were added to the approach slab concrete for crack control purpose. This paper describes flexural tests of four fiber-reinforced concrete beams and loading test of a full scale fiber-reinforced concrete approach slab. Results from the flexural beam test show that the addition of fibers greatly improves the fracture toughness of the concrete. Results from the loading test show that the overall performance of the slab is comparable to conventional reinforced concrete approach slabs, and the surface cracks on the slab due to negative moment can be adequately controlled by the addition of steel and polyvinyl alcohol fibers into concrete, even without top reinforcement mat.