Instantaneous Crack Width Calculation for Steel Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Flexural Members

A rational and simple method is presented in this paper to determine instantaneous crack widths of steel fiber-reinforced concrete members subjected to flexure. By adding fibers to concrete, the postcracking stiffness of a concrete structure can increase significantly. The model builds upon previous work conducted by the authors by considering the beneficial effect of the fibers across a crack to the tension stiffening relationship of steel fiber-reinforced concrete. The model reported herein is shown to give reliable predictions of reported experimental values.