By taking advantage of the appropriate use of cement and polymer based materials and advanced computational tools, a pre-fabricated affordable house was built in a modular system. Modular system refers to the complete structure that is built-up by assembling pre-fabricated sandwich panels composed of steel fibre reinforced self-compacting concrete (SFRSCC) outer layers that are connected by innovative glass fibre reinforced…

Using prestressed near surface mounted fibre reinforced polymers (NSM-FRP) is nowadays regaining the attention from the scientific community for the strengthening of existing reinforced concrete (RC) structures. The application of prestressed internal FRP bars and externally bonded prestressed FRPs has already been deeply investigated and revealed considerable benefits when compared to the corresponding passive solutions. A certain amount of prestress…

Corrosion of the steel reinforced concrete elements is one of the common pathologies that limits the long-term performance of urban infrastructures. This problem causes the loss of structural serviceability by decreasing the concrete-steel bond strength and reducing the cross section of the reinforcements. The present study introduces a new system for developing free-corrosion resistance prefabricated manhole covers for applications in…

A new technique was developed for producing thin panels of a cement based material reinforced with relatively high content of steel fibres originated from the industry of tyre recycling. Flexural tests with notched and un-notched specimens were carried out to characterize the mechanical properties of this Fibre Reinforced Cement Composite (FRCC) and the results are presented and discussed. The values…

Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymers (CFRP) applied according to the Near Surface Mounted (NSM) technique are known as capable of increasing the ultimate flexural resistance of Reinforced Concrete (RC) elements, but for Serviceability Limit States (SLS) the load increment it provides is, in general, relatively limited. Recently, researchers are giving attention towards the possibility of applying prestressed NSM-CFRPs to increase significantly…

The present paper describes the construction process of a full-scale innovative GFRPconcrete hybrid footbridge, and summarizes the main tests performed. This footbridge is 11m long, 2m wide, simply supported, and composed of two pultruded I-shaped GFRP girders (0.2m x 0.4m) and a 0.04m thick deck in steel fiber reinforced self-compacting concrete (SFRSCC). To evaluate the static and dynamic behavior of…

Recent research is evidencing that adding steel fibres recycled from wasted tires can improve the post-cracking behaviour of cement based materials, enhancing the ductility, energy dissipation and impact resistance of elements made by this type of composites. As a consequence, Recycled Steel Fibre Reinforced Concrete (RSFRC) appears as a promising candidate for both structural and non-structural applications. To contribute for…

For conventional concrete without steel fibers, although still an aspect under discussion, there are some commonly used durability indicators. However, for steel fiber reinforced self-compacting concrete (SFRSCC) literature is sparse and the aspects of durability, particularly corrosion resistance, still deserve deeper research, mainly the corrosion of the fibers, since its influence on the appearance and on the serviceability limit states…

The benefits of adding fibres to concrete lie, mostly, in improving the post-cracking behaviour, since its ability to transfer stresses across cracked sections is substantially increased. The post-cracking strength is dependent not only on the fibre geometry, mechanical performance and fibre/matrix interface properties, but also on the fibre orientation and distribution. Previous works have shown that in self-compacting concrete matrices,…

In an ongoing research project, discrete steel fibers are being used in a self-compacting concrete (SFRSCC) to replace completely steel stirrups for pre-fabricated beams reinforced longitudinally with pre-stressed glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) and steel bars. To take the advantages of the non-corrodible character and high tensile strength of GFRP bars, the minimum SFRSCC cover needs to be determined in…