Flexural performance of steel fibre reinforced concrete with manufactured and recycled tyre steel fibres

: Cleaned and sorted fibres recycled from end-of-life tyres called “Recycled Tyre Steel Fibres” (RTSF) can be used as concrete reinforcement, but understanding their performance requires extensive testing work. This paper investigates the flexural performance of various SFRC mixes using RTSF and two types of Manufactured Steel Fibres (MSF). The post-cracking flexural strengths of these mixes are obtained using 3-point notched prism tests. A simplified equation is proposed to determine the relationship between the post-cracking flexural tensile strength and required SFRC ground-supported slabs thicknesses. It is found that the required slab thicknesses largely depend on f, a single coefficient obtained from the post-cracking flexural strengths of SFRC. In all SFRC mixes, the lowest required slab thickness is obtained when using hybrid fibre reinforcement containing 10 kg/m3 of RTSF. It is concluded that hybrid fibres using RTSF can be a competitive and environmentally-friendly alternative for industrial concrete flooring applications.