Abstract
Steel fiber reinforced concrete pipes (SFRCP) were introduced to the U.S. concrete pipe manufacturers for the first time as an alternative to conventional reinforced concrete pipes (RCP). Over 150 full-scale tests on SFRCPs of different sizes and fiber dosages were conducted to document their structural behavior. The load–deformation plots and crack pattern formations for both SFRCP and RCP were compared and are presented herein. Direct tension and ASTM C1609/C1609M-12 “Standard Test Method for Flexural Performance of Fiber-Reinforced Concrete (Using Beam With Third-Point Loading)” tests were performed on fiber-concrete mix designs to identify their material constitutive relations for different fiber dosages. A non-linear, three-dimensional finite element model of the pipe was developed and verified against experimental results. To obtain tension stiffening material law for SFRCP with different fiber volume fraction dosages, the verified FEM, coupled with an iterative process, was used to mimic the experimentally obtained load–deformation relationships. A performance-based ASTM C1765-13 “Standard Specification for Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete Culvert, Storm Drain, and Sewer Pipe” was developed for SFRCP for the first time in the U.S. as the result of this study. This article presents the philosophy of the new specification in detail and compares it with the ASTM specification for conventional RCP.