SBEIDCO – 1st International Conference on Sustainable Built Environment Infrastructures in Developing Countries

ENSET Oran (Algeria) - October 12-14, 2009

FIBER REINFORCED CONCRETE FOR SUSTAINABLE AND

INTELLIGENT INFRASTRUCTURE

N. Banthia 1

T. 2.

ABSTRACT

Civil infrastructure around the world is in a state of utter disrepair and significant efforts are needed on the part
of all stakeholders to render our failing infrastructure back to a serviceable and safe state. The root of the
problem is at the apparent lack of durability in our construction materials, inability on part of the owners to
provide timely maintenance, absence of advanced condition assessment tools and lack of long-lasting, cost
effective repair materials and technologies. This paper will present data to support the argument that fiber
reinforced concrete (FRC) is an ideal material for achieving these goals. The paper introduces a new class of bio-
inspired FRCs carrying natural cellulose fibers that are recyclable, bio-degradable and highly sustainable. The
paper also discusses fiber reinforced concrete materials carrying carbon fibers and carbon nano-tubes that possess
sensing abilities. These smart materials can help us develop intelligent infrastructure with elegantly integrated
sensing and health monitoring abilities.

KEYWORDS

fiber reinforced concrete, toughness, durability, sensing, smart materials.

1
Dept. of Civil Engineering, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; [email protected]

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1. INTRODUCTION

Compared to other building materials such as metals and polymers, concrete is significantly more
brittle and exhibits a poor tensile strength. Concrete carries flaws and micro-cracks both in the
material and at the interfaces even before an external load is applied. These defects and micro-cracks
emanate from excess water, bleeding, plastic settlement, thermal and shrinkage strains and stress
concentrations imposed by external restraints. Under an applied load, distributed micro-cracks
propagate, coalesce and align themselves to produce macro-cracks. When loads are further increased,
conditions of critical crack growth are attained at the tips of the macro-cracks and unstable and
catastrophic failure is precipitated. Under fatigue loads, concrete cracks easily, and cracks create easy
access routes for deleterious agents leading to early saturation, freeze-thaw damage, scaling,
discoloration and steel corrosion.
The micro and macro-fracturing processes described above can be favourably modified by adding
short, randomly distributed fibers of various suitable materials. Fibers not only suppress the formation of
cracks, but also abate their propagation and growth. The resulting material termed fiber reinforced
concrete (FRC) is rapidly becoming a well-accepted mainstream construction material. There are
currently 200,000 metric tons of fibers used for concrete reinforcement.

2. BIO-INSPIRED FRCS FOR LONGER SERVICE LIFE

The decreasing life span of concrete structures is becoming an issue of greater and greater importance
for societies. The primary problem is the corrosion of the steel in reinforced concrete structures.
Chloride penetration and carbonation are the primary reasons for such corrosion and any measures
aimed at mitigating the ingress of chlorides or CO2 into the body of concrete are expected to
significantly enhance the durability of concrete structures. These deleterious agents enter the body of
concrete through one of the three transport mechanisms: diffusion, capillary sorption and
permeability—of these, the permeability is considered as the dominant mechanism. Any measures
adopted to reduce permeability of concrete will therefore help in preserving durability. Results have
indicated that permeability, in turn, is highly dependent upon cracking in concrete and an increase in
the crack width will not only produce a highly permeable concrete (Figure 1) but also enhance the
possibility of rebar corrosion Bentur [1].

Figure 1. Effect of crack width on permeability, Bentur [1]

There is an increased interest these days in bio-inspired fiber reinforced cementitious composites.
These are based on bio-degradable and recyclable natural fibers (such as cellulose) and are both
environmentally friendly and sustainable. Current research at The University of British Columbia is

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focussing on such composites, and the preliminary indications are that such bio-inspired materials are
highly promising in building and regenerating a sustainable infrastructure.

Figure 2. The effect of crack width on corrosion potential; a potential below –280mV indicates
corrosion initiation, and below –400mV indicates active corrosion Bentur [1].

3. PERMEABILITY OF BIO-INSPIRED FRCS

The influence of an externally applied stress on the permeability of concrete remains poorly
understood. Banthia and co-workers [2]&[3], developed a novel technique of measuring the
permeability of concrete under an applied stress and investigated the benefits of fiber reinforcement.
The permeability cell was mounted directly in a 200 kN hydraulic Universal Testing Machine (UTM)
such that a uniform compressive stress could be applied directly on the concrete specimen housed in
the cell. The water collected was related to the coefficient of water permeability (Kw) by applying
Darcy’s law:

Kw 
QL
Ah
(1)

specimen wall (m), A = Permeation area (m2) and h = Pressure head (m).
Kw = Coefficient of water permeability (m/s), Q = Rate of Water Flow (m3/s), L = Thickness of

Their data are plotted in Figure 3. Notice that under conditions of no-stress, fibers reduce the
permeability of concrete, and the reduction appears to be proportional to the fiber volume fraction.
Data further indicates that stress has a significant influence on the permeability of concrete. When
stress was first increased to 0.3fu, both plain and FRC showed a decrease in the permeability.
However, when the stress was increased to 0.5fu, plain and FRC showed very different trends. At
0.5fu, the permeability of plain concrete increased substantially over that of the unstressed specimen,
but for FRC, while there was an increase in the permeability over 0.3fu, the permeability still stayed
below that of the unstressed specimen.

The above observations can be related to cracking. At 0.3fu, it is conceivable that in both plain and
FRC, there is no discernible cracking that can affect the flow of water. However, at 0.3fu, the stress-
strain response for both plain and FRC would become non-linear indicating the presence of cracking.
As given by the Poiseuille Law, Edvardsen [4], the flow of water through cracks is proportional to the
cube of the crack width. In the case of FRC, one can expect the fibers to suppress cracking and hence
maintain the rate of flow similar to an unstressed specimen. When combined with the phenomenon of
‘pore compression’, this implies that the permeability of FRC under stress can in fact be lower than
that of an unstressed specimen.

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-1 0
N ormalized Permeability C oefficient x 10
2.5
0.0% Fiber
2 0.1% Fiber
0.3% Fiber
1.5 0.5% Fiber

(m/s)
1

0.5

0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Stress Level ( f u )

Figure 3. Normalized permeability coefficients

Bhargava and Banthia [3] extended the permeability data described above towards service life
prediction. Most service life prediction models for concrete involve the use of diffusion coefficients
Tutti [5]. Unfortunately, studies relating different transport coefficients are rare. In particular,
experimental data relating permeability and diffusion coefficient is lacking, and only a theoretical
correlation can be established between these two coefficients via a correlation constant, as follows:

Empirical equations for the permeability coefficient were proposed by Hedegaard et al. [6] and for
diffusion coefficient were proposed by Hansen et al. [7] as follows:

  c  0.31 f  
K w  exp  4.3   4.0 
   
(2)
w

 c  0.3 f 
  7.0 
D  1.7 x10  w  (3)

where,

Kw= water permeability coefficient (m/s)

D= Chloride ion diffusion coefficient, in cm2/s
c= cement content of concrete, in kg/m3
w= water content of concrete, in kg/m3
f= fly-ash content of concrete, in kg/m3

By substituting the values of c, w and f for the concrete mixture used in the permeability tests in Eqs.
(2) and (3), one obtains Kw=1.07x10-10 (m/s) and D = 7.89x10-13 (m2/s).

Further, the permeability K (m2) of a single straight pore with effective pore radius reff embedded in a
medium of cross-sectional area A can be related to effective pore radius by assuming Hagen-
Poiseuille’s law to be valid for small pores.

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reff4
K (4)
8A
where reff is the effective pore radius defined as the radius of the effective pores which take part in
the transport. Also, the diffusion coefficient can be related to the area fraction of effective pores as,

reff2
D  Do a eff  Do (5)
A
where a eff = is the area fraction of effective pores
Do = is the diffusion coefficient in a bulk fluid

Assuming that the effective pore radius in Eqs. (4) and (5) is the same, a general relationship between
permeability K (m2) and diffusion coefficients D (m2/s) emerges,

K
2
reff
D (6)
8 Do
Further, it is to be noted that an interconnected pore system is necessary for a continuous network of
flow paths to be available for various transporting media. In saturated conditions, the steady state
flow coefficient can be related to the water permeability coefficient as the two processes occur
simultaneously,

Kw 

K (7)
g

Using Eqs. (6) and (7), the water permeability coefficient K w (m/s) and the diffusion coefficient
D (m2/s) can be related as,
g
Kw 
2
reff
8 Do
D (8)

Where Kw as before is the water permeability coefficient (m/s),

D is the diffusion coefficient (m2/s),

 is the viscosity of water (Ns/m2),

reff is the effective pore radius,

 is the density of water (kg/m3) and,

g is the gravity (m/s2)

This equation corresponds to Katz-Thompson Equation, Garboczi [8], and is based on the assumption
that the effective radius affecting the permeability and the diffusion coefficient is the same. Equation
(8) can be further modified to consider the effect of stress and the fibers on concrete. Since the
permeability coefficient is proportional to the fourth power of effective pore radius Eq. (4) and since
the normalized permeability coefficient is related to the water permeability coefficient of unstressed
plain concrete through the previously defined factors F and S, describing, respectively, the influence
of fiber reinforcement and stress Bhargava & Banthia [3], the effective pore radius can be modified
to:
*
rnormalized  F 0.25 S 0.25 reff (9)

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where, r* normalized is the effective pore radius corresponding to normalized permeability values and
reff in this case is the effective pore radius of plain concrete under zero stress condition.

Substituting Eq. (9) into Eq. (8), we get a modified equation which relates normalized water
permeability to diffusion coefficient as,

K normalized  CF 0.5 S 0.5 D (10)

2
reff g
8 Do
where C = is a constant proportional to second power of the effective pore radius of plain

concrete under zero stress condition.

For plain concrete and zero stress condition F=S=1 and for this case:
K normalized  K w plain  unstressed  CxD (11)

Substituting the empirical values of the water permeability coefficient Kw=1.07x10-10 m/s and the
chloride ion diffusion coefficient D = 7.89x10-13 m2/s, as obtained previously, the value of constant C
for the concrete in question can be calculated:
C = 135.62 m-1 (12)
The constant C computed above takes into consideration the effective pore radius of plain concrete
under zero stress condition and properties of the chloride ion diffusion coefficient. The calculated
chloride ion diffusion coefficients are given in Table 1.

The Durability Factor, D, for a given concrete under a given stress level can be defined as the ratio of
its expected service life to that of companion plain concrete under zero stress. Using Tuutti’s model
[5], ingress of chlorides is estimated by a one-dimensional diffusion process using the Fick’s Second
Law of diffusion. For non-steady state condition, the chloride concentration C at a location x and at a
time t is given by Crank [9].

Table 1. Computed values of chloride ion diffusion coefficient

Fiber Applied Normalized Chloride
Volume Stress water ion
Fraction Level permeability F S diffusion
Vf coefficient coefficient
Knormalizedx10-10 Dx10-13
(m/s) (m2/s)
0.0fu 1.66 1 1 12.24
0.0% 0.3fu 103 1 0.62 9.64
0.5fu 2.30 1 1.38 14.43
0.0fu 0.95 0.57 1 9.27
0.1% 0.3fu 0.53 0.57 0.57 6.85
0.5fu 0.71 0.57 0.76 7.95
0.0fu 0.60 0.36 1 7.37
0.3% 0.3fu 0.32 0.36 0.53 5.40
0.5fu 0.45 0.36 0.75 6.38
0.0fu 0.30 0.18 1 5.21
0.5% 0.3fu 0.10 0.18 0.33 3.02
0.5fu 0.18 0.18 0.62 3.97

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C   C 
 D 
t x  x 
(13)

Here, the diffusion coefficient D may be a constant or a function of other variables such as chloride
concentration, location, time, temperature, etc.

For a simple case with known geometry and boundary conditions where the diffusion coefficient D
can be assumed to be a constant, solution to Eq. (13) is given by Newman [10]:
  x 
C ( x, t )  C s 1  erf  
  2 Dt 
(14)

2 z t 2
erf ( z )  e
 0
dt (15)

where,
erf is a standard error function,
x is effective concrete cover depth,
C s is the concentration of the chloride ions at the outside surface of the concrete and is assumed to be
constant with time. That is, C  C s for x = 0 and for any t
C i is the concentration at the depth of the reinforcement; assumed to be zero at t =0.
C t is the threshold concentration required to initiate steel reinforcement corrosion. The initiation
period is accomplished when C i  C t and,
t = time
Equation (14) can be solved by using a normal standard distribution Bertolini et al. [11]:

erf ( z )  2 N ( z 2 )  1 (16)

t2
N (z 2)   e 2 dt
1 z 2

2 
(17)

The initiation time can thus be calculated by assuming a constant diffusion coefficient for concrete, a
known surface chloride content (dictated by the environment), the thickness of the concrete cover and
critical chloride ion content at which onset of corrosion is expected.

Solving the above equation for Ct = threshold concentration of chloride ions = 0.50 % (based on the
mass of cement), C s =chloride ions concentration at the surface of concrete = 0.70 % (based on the
mass of cement), x = 25 mm, and diffusion coefficients, D, from Table 1:

t  ti 
x2
(18)
0.2678 D
Notice that a lower value of 0.50% threshold concentration of chloride ions was chosen due to the
presence of fly-ash in concrete which is known to increase the rate of corrosion. The above equation
predicts that service life of any concrete is proportional to x2, and holds an inverse relationship with
the chloride ion diffusion coefficient. Therefore doubling the concrete cover increases service life of
concrete by a factor of 4, whereas a 10-fold reduction in diffusion coefficient will result in a 10-fold
increase in the predicted service life. Substituting the values of diffusion coefficient from Table 1 into
Eq. 18 for different concrete types and stress conditions, the Durability Factors were computed and
are plotted in Fig. 4. Notice in Figure 16 that as per the model, fiber reinforcement can be effective in
enhancing the durability of concrete under both stressed and unstressed conditions.

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4.5
4

Durability Factor, D
3.5 0.0% Fiber
3 0.1% Fiber
2.5 0.3% Fiber
2 0.5% Fiber

1.5
1
0.5
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6
Stress Level (f u )

Figure 4. Durability factors: notice durability enhancements with fibre reinforcement

4. SMART FRCS FOR INTELLIGENT INFRASTRUCTURE

Cement-based sensors, also described as smart (self-monitoring) structural materials, have recently
been developed for use in structural health monitoring (SHM) systems. These sensors are rather
inexpensive, durable, very easy to manufacture and install, and best of all they possess mechanical
properties similar to concrete, enabling them to perform in the same manner as the host structure.
They do not alter the properties or appearance of concrete structures; hence, if integrated into the host
structure, they can be regarded almost as an aggregate. Cement-based sensors are designed to function
based on the principle of piezoresistivity. Materials in which the electrical resistance changes in
response to changes in the applied strain are referred to as piezoresistive materials. In the past, the
piezoresistive effect has been formulated in terms of stress rather than strain. In fact, the piezo prefix
comes from the Greek word peizin, which means “to press” [12]. Since in piezoresistivity there is no
stored energy component that depends on strain and thus no opportunity for actuation, it can only be
used for passive sensing of stress/strain. The concept of piezoresistivity is often mistakenly referred to
as piezoelectricity although these terms have completely different definitions. Piezoelectricity is
referred to the coupling between internal dielectric polarization and strain. Piezoelectrics can be used
for both sensing and actuation [12].

The most common material used as the conductive phase in cement-based sensors is carbon fiber
(CF). The addition of even a small amount of carbon fibers to cement paste significantly reduces the
resistivity of the material. The inclusion of conductive carbon fibers also enhances various
mechanical properties of cement composites [13]. Extensive research has been conducted to obtain
the optimum volume fraction of carbon fibers, electrode type and resistivity measurement procedure
for cement-based sensors [14-19]. The effect of curing time, temperature, moisture and chloride on
the performance of these sensors has also been investigated [16, 17, 20-24].

Studies have been carried out to confirm the sensing ability of carbon fiber cement-based sensors
under various loading conditions, all of which confirmed that CFRC sensors are piezoresistive and
can be used to monitor stress/strain in concrete structures [13, 16, 18, 25-28].

In a recent study [29], cement-based sensors were developed by incorporating carbon fibers either
alone or in combination with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) in a cement paste matrix. The
response of these sensors to applied compressive stress was investigated. Changes in the electrical
resistivity of cement-based sensors under monotonic and cyclic compressive loading was monitored.
Agilent 4263B LCR meter at 100 kHz AC frequency was used for resistance measurements. Here the
findings of this investigation are briefly described.

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The properties of the carbon fibers and MWCNTs are shown in Tables 2a and 2b, respectively.

Table 2. Properties of Carbon Fibers

Volume
Length Diameter Specific Tensile Strength Modulus of
Resistivity
(mm) (μm) Gravity (MPa) Elasticity (GPa)
(Ω-m)
6 11 2.12 2620 634 2.3 x 10-6

Table 2b. Properties of Multi-Walled Nano-Tubes (MWNT)

Outer Inside Electrical
Length Specific Surface Specific
Diameter Diameter Purity Conductivity
(μm) Area (m2/g) Gravity
(nm) (nm) (s/cm)
10-20 3-5 > 95 wt% 10-30 233 ≈1.5 > 10-2

The experimental setup, specimen configuration and measurement interface are displayed in Figure 5.
Cylindrical specimens with 50.8 mm diameter, 100 mm length and 60 mm inner-electrode spacing
were used. These specimens contained either “15% Vf CF” or “15% Vf CF + 1% Vf MWCNT”. 10
mm strain gauges were attached to either side of the samples to compare the results. Two LVDTs, one
on either side, were used to measure the displacement.

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 5. (a) Experimental setup; (b) specimen setup; (c) LabVIEW interface

The electrical resistivity (ρ) of a material with a uniform cross section is measured as its resistance
per unit length:
R
A
(19)

where,
ρ = electrical resistivity in ohm meters (Ω·m)
R = electrical resistance of a uniform specimen in ohms (Ω)
A = cross-sectional area of the specimen in square meters (m2)
ℓ = length of the specimen (or distance between measurement electrodes) in meters (m)

In order to evaluate the sensing ability of the developed sensors, load and strain values were compared

t  0
against the fractional change in resistivity. Fractional change in resistivity (FCR) is given by:

FCR 
0
(20)

Where,

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 t : Electrical resistivity at time t during the tests;

 0 : Electrical resistivity at the beginning of the test (prior to loading)

One of the main characteristics of a strain sensor is its sensitivity to strain, determined quantitatively
by its gauge factor:
R / R0  /  0 FCR
 
  
Gauge Factor = (21)

R (or  ): Change in strain gauge resistance (or resistivity);

Where,

R0 (or  0 ): Unstrained resistance (or resistivity) of strain gauge;

 : Strain
FCR: Fractional Change in Resistivity;

Under monotonic compressive loading, the resistivity values decreased as expected with an increase
in compressive load but as the load approached values close to about 110kN, the sensor material
became inelastic due to the abundance of micro-cracks causing a slight increase in resistivity (from
about 200 Ω-cm to almost 400 Ω-cm). As the load inched a little above 110kN and macro-cracks started
to appear, the increase in resistivity became considerable and eventually when the specimen failed, the
resistivity values soar almost ten-fold to about 3500 Ω-cm (Figure 6).

Figure 6. Response of 15% CF cement-based sensors to compressive failure

Figure 7 displays the response of the 15% CF sensors to cyclic loading with 5kN, 10kN, 20kN, 30kN
and 60kN amplitudes at a rate of 0.002 cycles per second. Notice that the electrical resistivity of the
sensors varied distinctly in response to the cyclic compressive loading: decreasing reversibly with the
increasing branch of each compressive loading cycle and increasing reversibly with the decreasing or
unloading branch of each cycle. This reversible variation is between 400 (ρ0) and 200 Ω-cm, leading to
FCR values of 0.5 and less depending on the loading amplitude.

In order to further evaluate the behavior of the sensors, the results from only the 30kN amplitude
segment are discussed separately. Figures 8 and 9 display the load, strain and FCR variations as well
as the correlation between FCR and strain for 15% CF and 15% CF + 1% MWCNT specimens,
respectively.

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Figure 7. Response of 15% CF sensors to cyclic compressive loading

(a) (b)
Strain (e)
0
0 0.0002 0.0004 0.0006 0.0008 0.001 0.0012

-0.04

-0.08
Fractional Change
in Resistivity

-0.12
2
y = 109258x - 361.94x - 0.0061
2
R = 0.9734
-0.16

-0.2

-0.24

-0.28

(c)
Figure 8. 15% CF sensors under cyclic compressive loading with 30kN amplitude: (a) FCR
response to compressive cyclic loading; (b) FCR and electrical strain variation; (c) FCR/Strain
correlation for one loading cycle.

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(a) (b)
Strain (e)
0
0 0.0001 0.0002 0.0003 0.0004 0.0005 0.0006 0.0007 0.0008 0.0009

-0.04

-0.08
Fractional Change

y = 327751x2 - 514.68x + 2E-06

in Resistivity

R2 = 0.9528
-0.12

-0.16

-0.2

-0.24

(c)
Figure 9. 15% CF +1% MWCNT sensors under cyclic compressive loading with 30kN
amplitude: (a) FCR response to compressive cyclic loading; (b) FCR and electrical strain
variation; (c) FCR/Strain correlation for one loading cycle.

During each loading cycle, the resistivity values decreased with an increase in the compressive load,
resulting in negative FCR values, and then increased to the initial value when the unloading took
place.

In order to calculate the gauge factor of the cement-based sensors, FCR and strain values for a single
cycle of loading are plotted against each other in Figures 8c and 9c. The following relationships are
obtained:
 15% CF: FCR  185558 2  459.23  0.118

 15% CF + 1% MWCNT: FCR  331009 2  538.83  0.0174

Using the bilinear response and Equation 21, two unique gauge factors are obtained:
 15% CF: 290 and 145 for strain values below and above 0.0007, respectively, which are well
above that of the conventional strain gauges attached to the specimens. This means that these
sensors are much more sensitive and therefore they can provide strain data with a better
resolution than conventional strain gauges.

 15% CF + 1% MWCNT: 410 and 110 for strain values below and above 0.0004, respectively,
which are not only well above that of the conventional strain gauges, but also higher than the
gauge factor obtained from 15% CF sensors. This improvement is significant and justifies
using CNTs in combination with carbon fibers in cement-based sensors.

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The stress/strain and stress/FCR correlations for five cycles of compressive loading are compared in
Figure 10 and the relationship between stress/FCR, although not as linear as that of the stress/strain,
appears to have a sensible correspondence.

(a) (b)
Figure 10. Stress/strain and stress/FCR relationships for (a) 15% CF sensors after four cycles of
compressive loading; (b) 15% CF + 1% MWCNT sensors after five cycles of compressive loading

5. CONCLUSIONS

With the current durability concerns for our concrete infrastructure, the use of sustainable, bio-
inspired fiber reinforced concrete for both new construction and repair appears highly promising.
Fibers control shrinkage cracking, abate micro-cracks from coalescing and enhance ductility,
toughness, impact resistance and fatigue endurance. With their high resistance to crack nucleation and
growth, fibers reduce the permeability of concrete and prevent the ingress of deleterious agents
thereby delaying both material degradation and steel corrosion.

Some fiber reinforced cementitious composites when reinforced with conducting media such as
carbon fibers and carbon nano-tubes can act as smart materials and sensors, enabling effective
structural health monitoring

6. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author would like to thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for
its financial support and the numerous students—both undergraduate and graduate—who have
contributed generously towards the development of data, concepts and ideas presented here.

7. REFERENCES

[1] Bentur, A., et al. 2005. Comprehensive Approach for the Design of Concrete for Durability and
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