Fibre alignment in fresh concrete with coarse aggregates and its visualization in transparent model concrete

Steel fibres distributed in concrete can greatly improve the mechanical performance of concrete, especially flexural and tensile behavior, if their orientations align to the direction of principal tensile stress. The study attempts to find diversified characters of fibre alignment in fresh concrete with consideration of adding coarse aggregates. A transparent concrete model, consisting of Carbopol gel, glass beads and crystals, is designed for the observation of fibre orientation. It shows good transparency and visibility, and can consider the effect of coarse aggregates since the volume fraction and particle size distribution of crystals are the same as coarse aggregates in real concrete mixture. The rheological properties of the model can be adjusted by the dosage of Carbopol and glass beads. Using this concrete model, the distribution and orientation of fibres can be directly observed and analyzed, considering the effect of aggregate sizes, concrete rheology and vibration time. The results show that coarse aggregates could limit the distribution space of fibres and lead to the decrease of fibre orientation coefficient. Fibre dispersion coefficient also decreases with the increase of aggregate sizes.