Modeling split tensile strength of high strength self compacting concrete incorporating randomly oriented steel fibers and SiO2 nanoparticles

In the present study, split tensile strength of self compacting concrete with SiO2 nanoparticles and different amount of randomly oriented steel fibers has been investigated. Steel fibers were added to the concrete specimens containing SiO2 nanoparticles with the average particle size of 80 nm and split tensile strength of the specimens was measured. The obtained results show that randomly oriented steel fibers up to 12 wt.% can improve the concrete strength. A model based on the rule of mixtures has been presented to predict the split tensile strength of the specimens to compare the effect of nanoparticles on split tensile strength of the specimens. The obtained results from the proposed model are in good agreement with those obtained from the experiment. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.