The effect of steel fiber on the maximum crack width of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) members under normal service conditions was studied through tests on a series of 19 flexural beams, and the applicability of the crack spacing reduction coefficient of steel fiber in SFRC beams from Modified Rilem model that using for calculating maximum crack width was discussed, of which the reduction coefficient value was used to determine the influence of steel fibers on the crack width. Results show that the maximum crack width of the RC beam under bending conditions clearly decreased with the addition of fibers, and the reduction coefficient value of the crack width of the SFRC beam is greater when compared with that specified in the Modified Rilem model. The effect of steel fiber on reducing crack width was overrated, while the reduction coefficient proposed in the Modified Rilem model was used to calculate the maximum crack width. The probability of the reduction coefficient was analyzed based on experimental data collected from the relevant literature, and the reduction coefficients for different steel fiber types with various guarantee rates were obtained. Finally, the suggestion for the value of the reduction coefficient in the Modified Rilem model was proposed to be 1.19, which could be referred to for the code revision.
Huang et al. (Thu,) studied this question.