Often encountered problems in prefabrication are complex and/or curved reinforcement fabric with narrow tolerances and reduced wall thicknesses, which make it difficult to install traditional reinforcement. This leads to increased difficulty in consolidating the concrete. Furthermore, in many applications, reinforcement is only needed for shrinkage control or during intermediate building steps and handling.

Steel fibre reinforced concrete can solve these problems as it is easy to place and to consolidate. Steel fibre reinforced concrete can reach sufficient bearing capacities for handling and even full ductility for the final state, depending on the fibre type and dosage rate. Major precast elements can be constructed with steel fibres as the sole reinforcement; for example waste-water pipes and tunnel linings. An example of steel fibres replacing rebar stirrups and working in combination with traditional reinforcement is precast girders.

In some countries national certification may be required to use steel fibres for given precast elements.

References